PopTech

Happiness and Money

presented by Elizabeth Dunn

Much of eco­nom­ics and pub­lic pol­i­cy rests on the assump­tion that increas­ing the wealth of indi­vid­u­als and nations pro­vides a route to increas­ing their well­be­ing. So why does mon­ey fail us?

Holding To Account

presented by Anil Dash

I’m glad those social net­works pro­vide those ser­vices. I think it’s impor­tant for the dia­logue to hap­pen that way. But it can’t be the only way for us to have pub­lic dis­course. Online, we only have these spaces that are owned by pri­vate com­pa­nies. We don’t have pub­lic parks.

Making Conservation Proactive

presented by Shah Selbe

We’re liv­ing in this amaz­ing time. The speed of inno­va­tion has cre­at­ed tech­nolo­gies that have lit­er­al­ly reimag­ined indus­try after indus­try. Technology has improved almost every tool that we use on a dai­ly basis, and it’s time to start bring­ing this tech­nol­o­gy to use for good.

Social Contagion

presented by Sinan Aral

The rea­son that I am inter­est­ed in behav­ioral con­ta­gions is that I firm­ly believe that if we can under­stand how behav­iors spread in a social net­work and thus in a pop­u­la­tion from per­son to per­son to per­son to per­son, that we could poten­tial­ly pro­mote behav­iors like…condom use, or tolerance.

Maria Popova with John Maeda at PopTech 2014

presented by John Maeda, Maria Popova

I think read­ing and writ­ing are real­ly two forms of the same act, which is a dis­course with one’s own mind, and ide­al­ly a dis­course with anoth­er mind. As a read­er it’s the author’s, and as a writer it’s the read­er’s, you know. But the two sort of feed into each oth­er, and for me writ­ing is just and record of my own becoming.

Studying Harm

presented by Fiery Cushman

One of the most recent par­a­digms that we’ve used to try to get this under exper­i­men­tal con­trol is to ask peo­ple to act out pre­tend harm­ful actions. So for instance, we’ll give them a dis­abled hand­gun. We’ll show them that it’s fake. That it could­n’t pos­si­bly harm a fly. We put it in their hands and then we ask them to shoot us in the head.

Our Faces

presented by Sharrona Pearl

The French philoso­pher Immanuel Levinas has taught us that it is through our inter­ac­tions with the face of some­body else, it is through encoun­ter­ing the face of anoth­er, that our respon­si­bil­i­ties to some­one else arise. You can­not look at some­body else, tru­ly look at them, and then walk away with­out hav­ing some kind of sense of a rela­tion­ship towards that per­son. But what if the oth­er has no face? What then? Or what if the face of the oth­er is actu­al­ly the face of anoth­er per­son entirely?

Data and Oil

presented by Jer Thorp

I come here today because I’m excit­ed about data but also because I’m ter­ri­fied. I’m ter­ri­fied that we are hav­ing progress with­out cul­ture in the world of data. And as we’ve seen with these failed indus­tries before, progress with­out cul­ture does not work.

1,862 Fewer Years in Prison

presented by Raj Jayadev

We make the fam­i­ly an essen­tial and effec­tive part of the defense team, so they could change the out­come of cas­es and trans­form the land­scape of pow­er in the court system.

Slow Rebellion

presented by Erin McKean

If we think that the rebel­lion changes the world, does it real­ly mat­ter what the time scale is? It does­n’t have to be an overnight over­throw. It can be the steady remak­ing of the world through pure force of con­vic­tion, like water wear­ing away stone. We have slow food, we have slow fash­ion, why can’t we have slow rebellion?