The Future of You: Can Your Identity Survive 21st-Century Techonology?

Description

'Who am I?' is one of the most fundamental questions we ask of ourselves throughout our lives. But in the twenty-first century, this is becoming increasingly difficult to answer as technology forces us to negotiate different versions of ourselves distributed across a digital world. Now, Facebook gets a say in verifying who we are, science can alter our biology and reinvent us over time, and advances in AI are revolutionizing how we interact with the world around us. Understanding and defining who you are has become confusing and chaotic and in some ways is already out of our control. In an age of digital disruption, creativity and innovation, Follows argues that we need to find a way to embrace a new era of personal identity, while ensuring we preserve our autonomy from state authorities, technology platforms and emergent social systems. From surveillance and identity hacking to social media and our legacies beyond the grave, The Future of You is a fascinating and urgent exploration of what personal identity will mean for all of us in the coming decades.

Tracey Follows is a professional futurist and works with clients on long-term strategies, including Telefonica, Google, Sky, Farfetch, Conde Nast and Virgin. She writes and speaks on Futures, appearing in a global list of 50 female futurists in Forbes. She has spoken at UN HQ, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office and at events such as Think With Google. She has appeared on BBC Business Matters, is a go-to futurist for many national press titles and is a contributor columnist in Forbes. She was an Adage 'Woman to Watch' 2017, Women in Marketing Award Winner for Outstanding Contribution to Marketing 2016, and Inaugural Creative Strategy Jury President at Cannes Lions 2019. In 2018, she was listed by Business Cloud as a Trailblazing Woman in Tech. She is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, World Futures Studies Federation and a Fellow of the RSA.

'This fascinating book explores the way that emerging technologies such as AI might affect the nature of personal identity and personhood. It paints an intriguing, thought-provoking, and occasionally disturbing picture.' Michael Wooldridge, author of The Road to Conscious