Geopolitics Expert, Technology Futurist, Sci-Fi Novelist
Jamie Metzl
Speaking Fee: $20,000 to $30,000
Travels From:
Jamie Metzl At A Glance:
Jamie Metzl is a leading futurist who specializes in making revolutionary science understandable to the general public. He speaks regularly at some of the world’s most prestigious venues including SXSW, Google Zeitgeist, and Singularity University, and is a regular guest on CNN, Bloomberg, BBC, CBS, and other national and international media.
Jamie Metzl is a technology futurist and geopolitical expert, novelist, entrepreneur, media commentator, and Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council. In February 2019, he was appointed to the World Health Organization expert advisory committee on developing global standards for the governance and oversight of human genome editing. Jamie previously served in the U.S. National Security Council, State Department, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as a Human Rights Officer for the United Nations in Cambodia. He is a former Partner of a New York-based global investment firm, serves on the Advisory Council to Walmart’s Future of Retail Policy Lab, is a faculty member for Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine conference, was Chief Strategy Officer for a biotechnology company, and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District in Kansas City in 2004. Jamie has served as an election monitor in Afghanistan and the Philippines, advised the government of North Korea on the establishment of Special Economic Zones, and is the Honorary Ambassador to North America of the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy.
Jamie appears regularly on national and international media discussing Asian economic and political issues and his syndicated columns and other writing on Asian affairs, genetics, virtual reality, and other topics are featured regularly in publications around the world. He is the author of a history of the Cambodian genocide, the historical novel The Depths of the Sea, and the genetics thrillers Genesis Code and Eternal Sonata. His non-fiction book Hacking Darwin: Genetic Revolution and the Future of Humanity will be published by Sourcebooks in Spring 2019.
A founder and Co-Chair of the national security organization Partnership for a Secure America, Jamie is a board member of the International Center for Transitional Justice and the American University in Mongolia, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Brandeis International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations is a former White House Fellow and Aspen Institute Crown Fellow. Jamie holds a Ph.D. in Asian history from Oxford, a JD from Harvard Law School, and is a magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University.
Jamie speaks frequently to corporate, nonprofit, and academic audiences around the world.
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Beyond the Blue Zones: What the Revolutionary Science of Human Life Extension Means for You
Most everybody knows we should exercise, eat well, build meaningful communities, and reduce stress to live healthy longer. But the revolutionary new science of human life extension is creating enticing new possibilities for using technology to extend our lives far beyond what nature intended. While the quest for immortality has been the stuff of fairy tales, the new science of life extension will soon be pushing the limits of aging and unlocking human potential in ways our ancestors never could have imagined. Technology futurist Jamie Metzl explores the latest breakthroughs in the science of human life extension that promise to gain is more of life‘s most precious commodity: time. Jamie explains what individuals, companies, and governments must do now to prepare for this revolutionary future that will fundamentally reorganize our societies and global economics.
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Human Resource Management in a Genetic Age
The overlapping genetics and AI revolutions are transforming our healthcare, the way we make babies, and how long we live. This revolution will be the greatest opportunity of our era, and also the greatest challenge – and it will have massive business implications that will increasingly define organizational success and failure in the 21st century.
Corporations have struggled for decades to build open and inclusive workplaces comfortable to people of all races, nationalities, genders, ages, and sexual orientations. In the fast-arriving genetic age, companies will need to figure out such issues as how to deal with predictive health information, whether to cover egg freezing, embryo selection, and embryonic gene editing for employees, and how to help employees prepare for longer than expected lives. While this may seem like science fiction, this future is already here. The genetics revolution will alter our perception of workforce capabilities and potentials and challenge even the most forward-thinking of corporations. It will upend traditional notions of equity, diversity, and inclusion. It will change much of everything.
But are you ready?
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From Precision to Predictive: Genetic Revolution to Healthcare and Beyond
The transition from today’s system of generalized medicine based on population averages to the new model of precision healthcare based on each person’s individual biology is already well underway. But the use of the precision medicine tools of genome sequencing, big data analytics, and targeted gene therapies to treat cancer and other diseases are paving the way for a system of predictive healthcare where parents will know and begin responding to their children’s future risk of developing hereditary disorders like early onset Alzheimer’s and coronary heart disease starting before their children have even been born. In addition to predicting these types of health outcomes, genetic analysis will also enable us to predict and ultimately influence the genetic components of broader human traits like the IQ, athletic ability, and personality style of our future children. The genetics revolution will fundamentally transform our healthcare, the way we make babies, and the nature of the babies we make, but health professionals, the business community, and society at large are not at all ready. In this provocative and mind-expanding talk, Jamie Metzl elucidates how genetic and other technologies are transforming healthcare, explores where things are headed and what is at stake, and lays out key principles for how health industry professionals and the business community can prepare for a revolution that is coming far sooner than most people recognize.
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R/Evolution at the Intersection of AI and Genomics
After decades of slow progress during the long “AI Winter,” the field of artificial intelligence is now blossoming in an “AI Spring” fundamentally transforming the way we live, work, and innovate. But the AI revolution won’t just change what we do, it will ultimately transform who we are. Most people already appreciate that genome sequencing and other genetic technologies with alter the way we treat cancer and other diseases. But the healthcare applications of genomics are just a station along the way in this profound revolution at the intersection of AI and Genomics. The ultimate destination is nothing less than the transformation of our evolutionary trajectory as a species. While the idea of creating humans with exceptional traits like higher IQ, disease resistance, or the ability to live longer and healthier lives may seem the stuff of science fiction, this future is far closer than most people understand or appreciate. In this mind-blowing and highly entertaining talk, futurist Jamie Metzl explains in clear, colorful, and concise language the coming revolution at the intersection of AI and genomics with its incredible promise and frightening danger, and explores what every person, company, and country can and must do to prepare.
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What You Need to Know About the Future
Converging political, geopolitical, and technological revolutions are making now the greatest moment of global change at least since 1945 and possibly ever. With nationalism rising around the world, the post-war international order in rapid decline, China significantly expanding its global influence, and the AI, genetics, blockchain, and other revolutions shaking the foundations of the world we’ve known, the pressure is mounting for individuals, companies, and countries to either understand and quickly adapt to these converging super-trends or pay a massive competitive price. In this talk spanning the wide range of factors transforming our world at lightning speed, geopolitical expert and technology futurist Jamie paints a vivid picture of where we are heading and outlines key principles for how individuals, companies, and countries can best position themselves to ride the rising tidal wave of revolutionary change.
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Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity
After four billion years of evolution through the Darwinian principles of random mutation and natural selection, our species is about to take control of our evolution. The genetic revolution will allow us to eliminate genetic diseases which have plagued our ancestors for millennia, live longer healthier lives, and transform how we make babies and ultimately the nature of the babies we make. The genetics revolution will be the greatest opportunity of our era, and also the greatest challenge — and it will have massive business implications that will increasingly define organizational success and failure in the 21st century.
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Hacking immortality: The Science and Science Fiction of Human Life Extension
In this exciting talk, Jamie Metzl explores the latest technological breakthroughs in the science of human life extension and their implications on the personal and societal levels. While the quest for immortality has been the stuff of fairy tales, the new science of life extension is very real and will soon be pushing the limits of aging and unlocking human potential. A rare combination of science expert and science fiction writer, Jamie brings the science to life and explains what people can and should be doing now to prepare for this revolutionary future that will fundamentally reorganize modern societies and have monumental implications for businesses and other organizations.
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Think Like a Sci-Fi Writer: How to unlock your and your organization’s hidden potential in an era of revolutionary change
The future is coming at us faster than ever before. As the pace of technological change in fields like artificial intelligence, genomics, and robotics increases exponentially, the sands of national and international politics are shifting under our feet more than at any time since the end of WWII. But while this moment of radical change creates great peril for organizations that stick too rigidly to traditional ways of thinking and operating, it provides unparalleled opportunities for those who challenge themselves to think differently, creatively imagine future scenarios, and set out on a journey to succeed in a radically new environment. Organizations must, in other words, begin thinking like science fiction writers. In this wide-ranging and highly focused talk, Jamie clearly explains the converging mega-trends reshaping our world, describes how science fiction writers draw on evidence from the present to build a world of tomorrow, and outlines a specific road map for how organizations can use the powerful tool of thinking more like science fiction writers to better prepare for the future and unlock hidden organizational potential.
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What You Need to Know About Asia in One Hour and One Slide
Asia’s rapid rise is reversing a current of westernized globalization that has flown for five hundred years. Understanding how Asia is transforming itself and the world is no longer just a matter of curiosity for outsiders, it is essential to making smart decisions. In this wide-ranging talk spanning thousands of years and multiple cultures, Asia expert Metzl draws on history, culture, science, technology, and politics to explain the background, drivers, and implications of Asia’s rise.
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Global Geopolitics in an Age of Trump
The “America First” foreign policy of the Trump administration is hastening the demise of the post-War international system that was already in a state of crisis. But how will global peace, security, and stability be maintained in a world that has become dependent on American internationalism? In this talk spanning five hundred years of history, Jamie Metzl explores how our world today is structured in response to the destruction of the two World Wars and what it will mean to return to a world defined by strong states in a balance of power system. As the post-War era draws to a close, the ghosts of history are returning with a vengeance — with the world order, the global economic system, and the military balance hanging in the balance. The coming world disorder will create enormous challenges for companies and other organizations but even greater opportunities those who understand and prepare for what is coming.
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Rising China and the Shifting Geopolitics of Asia
Fast-rising China is not just changing Asia, it is fundamentally transforming the global order. China’s economic growth, military expansion, behavior in the South and East China Seas, growing presence around the world, and increasingly emboldened foreign policy present a growing challenge to the US-led global system created in the aftermath of the Second World War. With America less able to serve as guarantor of the international system, and Europe incapable of realizing a coordinated foreign policy strategy and unwilling to invest sufficiently in military readiness, efforts to address major crises, promote a single set of rules governing the global economy, and support human rights around the world are faltering. But with China’s investment and manufacturing-based growth strategy losing steam, China itself will need to find a new model if it is to avoid stagnation. Living in a post-American world will have enormous consequences and touch every aspect of our lives. Jamie explores the key drivers of our fundamentally transforming world, what it will mean for global politics, economics, and culture, and how businesses and other organizations can best prepare.
San Jose State thinks a great deal these days about how to approach healthcare studies with our students, how that interacts with technology and the humanities, and the complexity of programs we need to create that will allow us to think differently about our place in an ever-changing world, as well as how we can have a positive impact. At our event, Jamie was exceptionally engaged with the students, and in both sessions before the lecture, everyone one came up with him afterward to talk further with him. He offered thoughtful insights into these issues in an engaging, entertaining way that I know is going to generate a great deal of discussion and debate among our students and staff. He reminded us that the future is already here and we should engage with it actively and in the spirit of our values.— Dr. Mary A. Papazian, President, San Jose State University
Jamie was the closing keynote at our global CEO conference. He had an uncanny way tying together all of the themes from the previous sessions, into a masterful and thought-provoking closing. No canned script, no death by PowerPoint, but an engaging, entertaining and intelligent talk worthy of our audience. Jamie’s keynote had the energy and enthusiasm of a rock star, and left our audience wanting more. I would most certainly book Jamie again for another YPO event!— Stephen Forte, President, Silicon Valley YPO
We invited Jamie to give a keynote address to 500 doctors at a major medical convention. His brilliant talk simply blew people’s minds and made them think differently about where medicine is heading and what that means for all of us. With tremendous thoughtfulness, energy, creativity, and skill, Jamie helped participants imagine how they might ride the wave of exponential change toward greater success rather than be crushed by it. The positive response was overwhelming. Jamie is a superstar.— Joshua Abram, Co-Founder and CEO, TMRW Life Sciences
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