An Evening with Tim O'Reilly
Event Information
Description
Tuesday, November 14, 2017, 8pm
An Evening with Tim O'Reilly
discussing her upcoming book,
WTF? What’s the Future and Why It’s Up To Us
Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. the company that for the past three decades has published the books and organized the conferences where Internet entrepreneurs have learned the tools of their trade. His Safari online learning platform provides subscription based learning products to millions of software developers worldwide. O’Reilly has a history of convening conversations that reshape the computer industry. If you’ve heard the term “open source software,” “Web 2.0,” “big data,” or “the maker movement,” you’ve experienced his ability to see and frame the future. O’Reilly graduated from Harvard College in 1975 with a degree in Classics. He began working as a technical writer, and soon began writing and publishing his own books on technology topics. On Twitter: @timoreilly
“For anyone who wants to know how to prepare for the future – and how we might shape that future in ways that broadly benefit society, not just technological or entrepreneurial elites—WTF? is an indispensable guide.” — Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age
“Tim has been an astute observer of both the successes and the excesses of Silicon Valley. This provocative book distills the lessons he has learned about the power of technology to shape our economy and our lives.” — Hal Varian, Google chief economist
“No one is better at understanding the future than Tim O’Reilly. He has an intuitive feel and a deep knowledge of technology. This book makes sense of the astonishing transformations that are happening around us and is an indispensable guidebook to tomorrow.” — Walter Isaacson, President & CEO, The Aspen Institute
Tim O’Reilly is one of the most prescient observers of emerging technology. Inc Magazine dubbed him “the Oracle of Silicon Valley” and Wired, “the trend spotter.” In his new book -- both probing and prophetic -- WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us, he explores the burning questions posed by technology and the future.
O’Reilly shares some of the techniques his pioneering company has used to make sense of and predict innovation waves. He then applies those same techniques to provide a framework for thinking about how technologies such as on-demand services, networks and platforms, and artificial intelligence are changing the nature of business, education, government, financial markets, and the economy as a whole. Finally, he examines the choices we have to make a society moving forward in this brave new world.
In this powerful combination of memoir, business strategy guide, and analysis of how technology affects jobs and the economy, O’Reilly draws on lessons from networked platforms including Amazon, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber and Lyft to show how our economy and financial markets have also become increasingly managed by algorithms. O’Reilly believes that a world ruled by machines that are hostile to humanity is not a distant possibility. Complex systems evolve from much simpler forebears, and the design of the systems we are building today is already shaping the future. He makes the case that income inequality, declining upward mobility, and job losses due to technology are the result of design choices we have made in the algorithms that manage our markets. Just as Google constantly updates its algorithms in pursuit of relevant search and ad results, and as Facebook wrestles with how to rethink its algorithms for user engagement in response to fake news, he believes we must rewrite those algorithms if we wish to create a more human-centered future.
The digital revolution has transformed the world, upending centuries-old companies and business models. Now, it is restructuring every business, every job, and every sector of society. Yet the biggest changes are still ahead.
TICKETS
$50 Reserved Section Seat + book
$95 Reception (6:30-7:30pm)* + Reserved Seat + book
$20 General Admission Seat
$30 Reserved Section Seat