GeoTech Center

Automation has the potential to displace millions of jobs, while creating new ones. Drastic shifts in the labor market should offer both hope and caution; they will impact each nation’s economy significantly, and alter the demand for skills in employees, but may also stir social structures and affect citizens’ trust in their respective governments, public institutions, and the private sector. How should global leaders react?

To properly cope with climate-related dangers, the military must be able to future-proof its installations to defend themselves against twenty-first-century threats, specifically by capitalizing on the use of smart technologies.

Carol Dumaine’s latest in a blog post series on “Reimagining a Just Society” recalls the tragic condo collapse in Florida last June and asks whether the commons elements of a typical condominium association suggest any parallels for understanding “global commons” or public goods in an age of pandemics, climate change and AI.

On June 29, 2021, the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei unveiled “Zuchongzhi,” the fastest quantum computer in the world, which at fifty-six qubits is just a nose ahead of Google’s Sycamore quantum computer. But are we calling the race too soon? Will the United States and its allies catch up?

On this episode of Fast Thinking, David Bray and Inkoo Kang of the GeoTech Center discuss the future of space governance, China and Russia’s independent missions, and the inevitable commercialization of space travel.

On this episode of Fast Thinking, Atlantic Council experts Jen Ellis and Trent Teyema discuss the Van Buren v. US Supreme Court case.

On April 10, 2020, H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence for the United Arab Emirates, shared his perspectives in an event titled “Technology and pandemics: Challenges and opportunities” as part of a live video discussion moderated by Mr. Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council.

On April 16, 2020, Dr. David Brin and Dr. Kathryn Newcomer shared perspectives on what technologies, investments, and policy actions could help rebuild from COVID-19 on a global scale as part of a live video discussion.

A GeoTech Hour considering how the choices made about tech design impact social issues and innovation at a national and transnational scale.

“It is time for the government to ensure the translation of cutting-edge scientific knowledge into solutions for local and regional problems prioritized by communities across America.” Read Nonresident Senior Fellow, Melissa Flagg, on her latest essay for Issues magazine.

Nonresident Senior Fellow Melissa Flagg on re-energizing the United States’ domestic innovation capacity and solidifying its position as the global leader in technology.

Innovation comes in many forms. And while it’s easy to think of ingenuity in government as an upgrade to an aircraft or a new customer service, it could also look like an AI-powered light sculpture. This is exactly the case for The Smithsonian, which is on the verge of launching its “FUTURES” exhibit, the organization’s first major building-wide exploration of the future. In this episode, co-hosts Tim Irvine and Stephanie Wander are joined by Rachel Goslins, director of the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building.

On a radically transformed planet, different conceptual maps are necessary for understanding what today’s priorities must be. These maps, or mental models, inform the framing that policy and decision makers use to weigh their options. Limitations in our conceptual frames can drastically limit the scope of considered futures.

In retrospect, the COVID-19 pandemic may mark a paradigm shift in global society if governments and their citizens worldwide today embrace its lessons, including many still emerging. One of these lessons concerns the dangers of ignoring knowledge we already had about interconnections between global public health, economic and national security, and ecological degradation.

Dr. Tiffany Vora continues her insights on vaccine hesitancy by laying out a human-centered health campaign approach that multiple sectors, from public health to social media companies, can consider.