Hackers: the new Navy SEALs, sages, and manufacturers of the 21st Century
September 28, 2012 by Terence LEE
Ayesha (left) and Parag Khanna talk about the future. Photo: KH Yeo
Hacking is a dirty word among the mainstream public; the result of media attention latching onto hackers who deface websites, steal passwords from email accounts, and erase family photos from a reporter’s laptop.
But an alternate meaning exists, and it could gain widespread currency in the very near future. Hacking, broadly defined, is not just breaking things. It’s finding ways, often involving the clever use of technology, to make something better. That includes hacking parenthood, our homes, our food, and our lives.
In the 21st Century, hackers are poised to become the world’s most prominent problem-solvers. It’s already starting to happen: Hackers are employed to counter and neutralize their black hat counterparts, while Facebook acitively promotes a ‘hacker culture’ within its edifices.
“It’s the hacker community that we should really encourage,” says Ayesha Khanna, founder and director of the Hybrid Reality Institute, a research and advisory group ‘focused on human-technology co-evolution, geotechnology and innovation’. Read more
Ayesha Khanna is Founder and Director of the Hybrid Reality Institute, a research and advisory group focused on human-technology co-evolution, geotechnology and innovation. She is a Partner at K2S Advisors which provides strategic and financial advisory services in smart and sustainable cities, technology and infrastructure. She is also a Faculty Advisor at Singularity University and directs the Future Cities group at the London School of Economics. A technology and innovation strategy expert, Ayesha has over ten years of experience advising clients and cities on scenario analysis, product development, digital branding and customer experience. Her clients have included Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, American International Group, and Deutsche Bank. Ayesha is frequently interviewed in the media and was featured by the New York Times. She is a regular speaker at industry, marketing, and academic conferences related to emerging technology trends and intelligent cities. Ayesha is the author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (TED Books, 2012) and Straight Through Processing (Reed Elsevier, 2007), and was series editor of The Complete Technology Guides for Financial Services published by Reed Elsevier. She has written for diverse publications such as BusinessWeek, TIME, Newsweek, Forbes, Strategy+Business, and Foreign Policy. She also blogs on human technology co-evolution at Big Think. She is currently working on a book titled The Generative City. Ayesha is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation, a Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, on the Board of Advisors of Humanity+, and co-curator of TEDxGotham. In 2010, she co-chaired the Innovation Advisory Board for the New York City congressional campaign of Reshma Saujani. Ayesha has a BA (honors) in Economics from Harvard University, an MS in Operations Research from Columbia University and is completing her PhD in Information Systems and Innovation at the London School of Economics.
Parag Khanna is a leading geo-strategist, world traveler, and author. He is Director of the Hybrid Reality Institute, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS, Senior Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Senior Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. He is author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012), the international bestseller The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008) and How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011). In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” Parag is regularly featured in media around the world such as the New York Times, TIME, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal, and appears regularly on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, PBS, and NPR. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Born in India, Parag grew up in the United Arab Emirates, New York, and Germany. He has traveled to more than 100 countries and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
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