The Actionable Futurist® Podcast is a show all about the near-term future with practical and actionable advice from a range of global experts to help you stay ahead of the curve featuring interviews from global brands.
As a Futurist I get to explore new inventions and track the progress of all kinds of technologies. But how did we get so smart to be able to dream all of these things up? Until I interviewed Byron about his new book Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think: How Humans Learned to See the Future — and Shape it I hadn’t given this any thought.
It is a fascinating read and looks at what makes the human mind so unique and also explores the three leaps in our history that made us who we are—and will change how you think about our future.
Clearly, we humans are radically different from the other creatures on this planet. But why?
Byron argues that we owe our special status to our ability to imagine the future and recall the past, escaping the perpetual present that all other living creatures are trapped in.
Envisioning human history as the development of a societal superorganism he names Agora, Reese shows us how this escape enabled us to share knowledge on an unprecedented scale, to predict—and eventually master—the future.
Thoughtful, witty, and compulsively readable, Reese unravels our history as an intelligent species in three acts:
Act I: Ancient humans undergo “the awakening,” developing the cognitive ability to mentally time-travel using language
Act II: In 17th century France, probability theory is born—a science for seeing into the future that we used to build the modern world
Act III: Beginning with the invention of the computer chip, humanity creates machines to gaze into the future with even more precision, overcoming the limits of our brain
The book is a fresh new look at the history and destiny of humanity, you will come away from Stories, Dice, and Rocks that Think with a new understanding of what they are—not just another animal, but a creature with a mastery of time itself.
We also discussed:
- What is a Futurist?
- Why Byron wrote the book
- The structure of the book into 3 acts
- Pascal's 1654 moment on reasoning & Probability
- Human brain capacity in 1654 vs now
- The 21 told stories
- The power of storytelling
- Are we being overloaded with stories?
- What about ”fake news” and untrue stories?
- Act 3: The rocks that think
- What will the next 50 years look like?
- Where will AI help us innovate?
- The half-life of a job
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Actionable advice for predicting your future
More on Byron
Byron's website
Byron on Twitter
Buy the book
Your Host: Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill
For more on Andrew – what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com
Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches …
“He is one of the most detailed and knowledgeable presenters we’ve come across in the business and tech podcast scene in the UK. Our clients are always impressed when speaking with him” – Hotwire Global
“Everyone is over the moon with how the interview panned out, and love the content” – The Hoffman Agency
“Andrew is a fantastic interviewer and if you haven’t listened to one of his podcasts, may I suggest you start with this one?” – Richard Hopkins
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Every episode answers the question, “what’s the future of … ?” with voices and opinions that need to be heard.
The show is hosted from London by leading Futurist speaker, Andrew Grill and is currently in its fourth season, running since 2019.
If you would like to sponsor, appear on the show or suggest a guest, or invite Andrew as a guest on your show, then please use the contact form and select ‘podcast enquiry’.
More detailed statistics on the show can be found in this Podcast 1-sheet.
As a Futurist I get to explore new inventions and track the progress of all kinds of technologies. But how did we get so smart to be able to dream all of these things up? Until I interviewed Byron about his new book Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think: How Humans Learned to See the Future — and Shape it I hadn’t given this any thought.
It is a fascinating read and looks at what makes the human mind so unique and also explores the three leaps in our history that made us who we are—and will change how you think about our future.
Clearly, we humans are radically different from the other creatures on this planet. But why?
Byron argues that we owe our special status to our ability to imagine the future and recall the past, escaping the perpetual present that all other living creatures are trapped in.
Envisioning human history as the development of a societal superorganism he names Agora, Reese shows us how this escape enabled us to share knowledge on an unprecedented scale, to predict—and eventually master—the future.
Thoughtful, witty, and compulsively readable, Reese unravels our history as an intelligent species in three acts:
Act I: Ancient humans undergo “the awakening,” developing the cognitive ability to mentally time-travel using language
Act II: In 17th century France, probability theory is born—a science for seeing into the future that we used to build the modern world
Act III: Beginning with the invention of the computer chip, humanity creates machines to gaze into the future with even more precision, overcoming the limits of our brain
The book is a fresh new look at the history and destiny of humanity, you will come away from Stories, Dice, and Rocks that Think with a new understanding of what they are—not just another animal, but a creature with a mastery of time itself.
We also discussed:
- What is a Futurist?
- Why Byron wrote the book
- The structure of the book into 3 acts
- Pascal's 1654 moment on reasoning & Probability
- Human brain capacity in 1654 vs now
- The 21 told stories
- The power of storytelling
- Are we being overloaded with stories?
- What about ”fake news” and untrue stories?
- Act 3: The rocks that think
- What will the next 50 years look like?
- Where will AI help us innovate?
- The half-life of a job
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Actionable advice for predicting your future
More on Byron
Byron's website
Byron on Twitter
Buy the book
Your Host: Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill
For more on Andrew – what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com
Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches …
