OODAcon 2022:  Digital Self-Sovereignty, Blockchain, and AI

A Fireside Chat with Futurist and Author Karl Schroeder

Fireside Chat Description:  You are big data. Every day the technology you own, use, and otherwise interact with (often unintentionally) collects rich data about every element of your daily life. This session provides a quick overview of how this data is collected, stored, and mined but then shifts direction to look at what technologies might empower users to better collect, access, and authorize the use of their own data through blockchain, digital autonomous corporations, and smart contracts.

Biography

Karl Schroeder is an award-winning science fiction author and futurist who recently embarked on a unique two-part project. The first part is his new novel, Stealing Worlds, a ‘pre-apocalyptic’ near-future thriller that proposes a crazy solution to the global environmental crisis. The second part is the Deodands Project, a real-world attempt to implement that solution.  Schroeder was born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada in 1962. Brandon is situated in the center of the continent, its closest metropolis being Winnipeg—but Brandon has a university with a renowned music school. Karl grew up in an atmosphere of summer festivals, in particular, an annual film festival of (often pirated) classics that holds some of his fondest memories of small-town summer nights.

In 1998 he sold his first solo novel, Ventus, to editor David Hartwell at Tor Books. Ventus was released in 2000, and Karl has since published ten more books with Tor. Since David Hartwell’s passing, he is edited by Beth Meacham.  Karl married Janice Beitel in April 2001 at a ceremony in a tropical bird sanctuary on the shore of the Indian Ocean, Kalbarri Western Australia. Their daughter was born in 2003.

Around this time he began getting invitations to government-run foresight conferences in and around Ottawa, the nation’s capital. Karl met some of the world’s most prominent futurists and participated in foresight work as a writer, facilitator, and later, analyst. When in 2009 OCAD University offered a Master’s degree in Strategic Foresight and Innovation, he jumped at the chance to go back to school and finished the program in 2011. He now does foresight consulting and public speaking as well as writing.  Karl made his reputation writing far-future adventures, but being a parent in the era of climate change has forced him to reconsider his obligations. Starting with Stealing Worlds, he has refocused on near-future fiction, using what he’s learned as a futurist to paint as accurate a picture of our prospects and perils while remaining (he hopes) entertaining.  (KarlSchroeder.com)

Twitter: @KarlSchroeder;   Karl Schroeder | LinkedIn

By Karl Schroeder:

• Schroeder’s Stealing Worlds was OODA CEO Matt Devost’s “favorite science fiction book of 2019.  It blends together so many current and emerging technologies in such a realistic manner that it doesn’t feel like reading fiction. The predictions all seem plausible, and the world and characters are very well developed and compelling. A must-read for 2019 and I’ve already put this one on my re-read list – a distinction that is shared with only a handful of books.”  Matt listed Stealing Worlds in his  OODA Loop – Top 10 Security, Technology, and Business Books of 2019.
• Ventus
• Sun of Suns (Virga, Book 1)

Further OODA Loop Resources:

• The OODA Loop 2022 Research Primer on Digital Self-Sovereignty, Digital Rights and Digital Identity:  Digital Self-Sovereignty, Digital Rights, and Digital Identity is an area of research concerned with the security of personal data and the individual’s right to ownership of their personal data. Our fundamental strategic insight is that “personal data ownership” will be the crucial design element of a future systems architecture designed to solve issues like misinformation (through realigning bad incentive systems on social media platforms) and the potential for cryptocurrency regulation (based on the individual’s ownership of their financial ‘dataset’). We are primarily concerned with the design of value creation mechanisms for personal data  – and the role of blockchain, digital autonomous corporations, and smart contracts to enable a transition to a networked system of digital self-sovereignty premised on the individual’s rights to ownership of their personal data.  This post is a chronological primer on the evolution of the digital sovereignty idea and framing of the concept from early OODAcast conversations, the OODA Almanac 2022, and external research resources which have assisted us in further forming a working hypothesis for our research.
• Signals from Mainstream Information Outlets on Digital Self-Sovereignty, Digital Rights and Digital Identity:  We continue our research on  Digital Self-Sovereignty, Digital Rights, and Digital Identity, which is an area of research concerned with the security of personal data, transactional or otherwise, and the individual’s right to ownership of their personal data. In the last few months, a signal-to-noise ratio has emerged on this topic, where previously there was none (short of a few thought leaders and think tanks dedicated to the topic).  What are some of the faulty assumptions, interesting insights, and irrational exuberance which have taken hold in the “framing and naming” of this nascent topic?
• For more OODA Loop News Briefs and original research and analysis about Digital Self-Sovereignty, click here.
• For more OODA Loop News Briefs and original research and analysis about Digital Rights, click here.
• For more OODA Loop News Briefs and original research and analysis about Digital Identity, click here.

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