Challenging Assumptions

Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, Steven Levitt is one half of the successful Freakonomics concept which seeks to apply economic thinking to a wide variety of subjects. Co-authored with Stephen Dubner, his latest book suggests that we should Think Like a Freak.

Futurist Anne Lise Kjaer is Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador, and founder of trend management consultancy Kjaer Global. She frequently lectures in future thinking and trends mapping, helping companies and governments think about how things could be better. Kjaer’s latest publication is The Trend Management Toolkit: A Practical Guide to The Future.

Director of the Oxford Martin School, Ian Goldin is Professor of Globalisation and Development at Oxford University. In his latest book The Butterfly Defect, he argues that as well as bringing benefits, globalisation poses significant risks of all kinds and offers practical solutions to mitigate these risks.

Ian Goldin suggests a radical way to get rid of misinformation. He wants  ‘fact-checker’ apps installed  into all smartphones so whenever anyone said something false it would go ‘baa’ like a sheep.  In text, a red pop-up window would appear on your screen, detailing where that wrong information came from. Ian’s aim is to ensure that we benefit from the age of the networked ‘internet of things’: we would also have an internet of facts.