Patterns of Technological Transformation
Michell Zappa
Book a demo →from €2,250 for your whole company
Book a demo →from €2,250 for your whole company
Born in Stockholm, raised in São Paulo – and having lived and worked around the world – Michell is global by default. Technology futurist, information designer and founder of Envisioning, a technology foresight institute. His work explores the causes and consequences of accelerating change and the effects technology has on society at large. He has given keynote presentations in more than 20 cities worldwide and worked with T-Mobile, LEGO, JWT, as well as the Swiss Army, the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, and the Government of Canada. His freely available information design work has been cited by Wired, Taschen, the Guardian, and Fast Company and been used by hundreds of organisations worldwide.
All sessions by Michell →Finding certainty in uncertainty. Technology often seems unpredictable, but an understanding of the underlying patterns affecting its development allows us to predict more likely future scenarios. For example how accelerating change leads to unintended consequences beyond those originally designed for.
Knowing these patterns helps us paint a clearer picture of the emerging future. In this session Michell takes you on a journey through the patterns of technological transformation.
During the expert session, Michell Zappa engages the audience through a Q&A session, live demonstrations, and interactive exercises using the Mentimeter app. He discusses the exponential growth of information technology and its profound impact on society, including unintended consequences and the balance between virtual and reality.
The audience is asked to imagine potential impacts of ubiquitous augmented reality glasses. Michell emphasizes the importance of considering externalities when designing technologies and combining existing solutions to create novel ones.
He also shares his concerns about immersive technologies, the role of science fiction in innovation, and the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) system for determining technology maturity.
Recognizing the exponential growth of information technology and its profound impact on society is essential for staying informed and prepared for the future.
Considering the positive, negative, and chaotic consequences of emerging technologies, such as augmented reality glasses, helps us find a balance between innovation and real-world implications.
Harnessing the power of combinatorial evolution by combining existing tools in new ways can lead to groundbreaking advancements and better technological solutions.
In this expert session, Michell Zappa delves into the profound impact of information technology's exponential growth on society. He elucidates on Gordon Moore's observation in the late 1960s that processing power and storage increase at a faster rate than their cost decreases, leading to transformative changes across diverse sectors.
Michell uses relatable examples such as YouTube, cars, and elevators to illustrate unintended consequences, both positive and negative, of technology's influence on our lives and environment.
Michell underscores the significance of acknowledging these externalities while designing and scaling new technologies. He then challenges participants with an exercise, asking them to ponder potential outcomes if augmented reality glasses became ubiquitous, focusing on aspects of life that could be affected.
Throughout the session, Michell reiterates the importance of recognizing the disparity between our expectations of a linear world and technology's exponential change. He also expresses concerns about the balance between virtual and reality in technology.
Michell raises questions regarding issues like bullying, privacy, distractions, and creativity within virtual spaces.
Michell discusses the challenges of creating less intrusive devices and cites Google Glass as an example of a failed attempt. He explores how immersive technologies could impact our lives, causing potential cyberbullying or the loss of youth in virtual worlds. Michell encourages finding a balance between these emerging technologies and reality.
Additionally, Michell introduces combinatorial evolution, where solutions to new problems arise by combining existing tools creatively. Using the example of a smartphone, he explains that it is made up of various underlying technologies. This concept, Michell emphasizes, is applicable across all technology sectors.
Furthermore, Michell discusses the relationship between science fiction and science fact. He believes imagination plays a vital role in innovation and every technology originates as an idea but not every idea becomes a technology.
He quotes Arthur C. Clarke's famous statement that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
The session concludes with Michell sharing the concept of estimating technology maturity or readiness levels (TRL). TRL helps organizations determine a technology's development stage, enabling the creation of systems based on existing technologies.
Michell explains that some technologies progress rapidly, while others take longer and encourages continuous tracking for potential investments.
From the survey every participant gets when the session ends, in their own words.
Great talk. Thanks 😊
That technology is often not as good for humanity as it's presented. New ideas (like smart glasses) don't seem to help to a mentally better health.
Great speaker and lecture.
Great speaker and lecture
In a normal Teams meeting, yes, and in Zoom or Google Meet just as well. Not in Teams Town Hall or Teams Live Event: those are broadcast formats where the audience cannot be seen or heard, and this session depends on people joining in. If that is the only option you have, tell us and we will host it on our own platform instead.
No prior knowledge is assumed. It is built for a general working audience, and people who already know the subject get the research and the practical side rather than an introduction. What the hour itself covers: Finding certainty in uncertainty. Technology often seems unpredictable, but an understanding of the underlying patterns affecting its development allows us to predict more likely future scenarios.
Michell Zappa is one of the experts we auditioned ourselves, and we produce every session so we see how each one lands. Participants rate this session 4.0 out of 5, across 90 responses, and rate Michell personally 4.3 out of 5.
It is interactive, and the block higher up on this page says exactly how for this session. Nobody has to speak up who does not want to: the chat and the polls carry most of it, and the questions can come in anonymously.
It runs 45 min / 15 min: the talk, then live questions. All you do is pick a date. We brief Michell, produce the session, host and moderate it, run the Q&A, and send you the report within an hour of the end.
A team, a department, an employee network or every single employee at once, with no cap and no per-seat price. It runs inside your own Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet, or on a branded page we build. No integration, no login, no company device or e-mail.
The session is delivered in English. You can add high accuracy live subtitles in 8, 16 or 24 languages, so everyone follows in their own. That is a paid option, priced by the number of languages you need.
No, and that is by design. There is nothing to install, nothing to integrate and no connection to your systems, so there is nothing for IT to validate: we join your own Teams, Zoom or Meet as a guest speaker, or we host a page and your people open a link. No software, no accounts, and no data of yours that we can reach. It is why hundreds of companies, among them some of the largest technology and financial firms in the world, were able to start within a day.
We never receive or hold personal data about your employees. Because the session runs in your own environment, attendance and identity stay with you, and what we report back is aggregated: numbers, ratings and survey answers, not people. That is also why IT approval usually takes minutes rather than weeks.
You keep the recording and can share it internally. You also get attendance over time, participant ratings for the content and the speaker, the survey answers, and the topics your people asked for next.
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