Tech, Innovation & Society - The Creative Process: Technology, AI, Software, Future, Economy, Science, Engineering & Robotics Interviews

Yolanda Kakabadse’s work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990. In 1993, she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was the Executive President until 2006 and remains as Chair of the Advisory Board. From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit). From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2010-17, and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period. Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held from 1998 until 2000. She is a Member of the Board of Arabesque, and Chairs the Independent Science and Technology Panel of Fundacion Renova in Brazil. Yolanda is also a Member of the Board of Sistema B and the B Team.· World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org· WWF International: worldwildlife.org· Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano: www.ffla.net/en/· Sistema B: sistemab.org· B Team: bteam.org · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

“This is a very important question because cities are really living labs of everything that we're doing in terms of energy policy, and it’s extremely important that whatever we are putting forward in terms of policy, if it is not embraced by the citizens in cities on the local level, the best policies will not serve any purpose if they not really taken up by citizens.
Of all of the Sustainable Development Goals, I think quality education is really the basis, I would call it really the foundation for practically all the Sustainable Development Goals. If you ensure quality education, all the rest will be easier.I think we could do much more from much earlier on in a structured manner to raise awareness, bring it into school programs, how important it is to care for the planet. How it can be done by every single one of us in the way we consume not just energy, but our choices, of what we buy in the supermarket. There's much more that can be done.”Paula Pinho is Director of Just Transition at the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy. She was responsible for Energy Strategy and Policy coordination and then for Renewables and Energy System Integration Policy and Decarbonisation and Sustainability of Energy Sources. She was Acting Director for Energy Policy where she has overseen notably the work of international energy relations, financial instruments and inter-institutional relations.Paula has also been Member of Cabinet of EU Commissioners, including Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger both in his quality of Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society and during his mandate as EU Commissioner for Energy. She was then responsible for energy security and infrastructure and the overall coordination of the international dimension of energy policy.As a member of the Cabinet, she has been involved in the trilateral gas talks between the EU, Russia and Ukraine. While Head of Unit responsible for Energy Strategy and Policy Coordination, Paula has coordinated the preparation and adoption of the “Clean Energy for all Europeans” package. Paula represented the Commission in the negotiations of the Commission Proposal for a Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and was responsible notably for the overall coordination of the assessment of the national Energy and Climate Plans. Paula speaks fluently Portuguese, German, English and French, as well as Spanish and Italian.· https://energy.ec.europa.eu/index_en · https://energy.ec.europa.eu · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Paula Pinho is Director of Just Transition at the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy. She was responsible for Energy Strategy and Policy coordination and then for Renewables and Energy System Integration Policy and Decarbonisation and Sustainability of Energy Sources. She was Acting Director for Energy Policy where she has overseen notably the work of international energy relations, financial instruments and inter-institutional relations.Paula has also been Member of Cabinet of EU Commissioners, including Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger both in his quality of Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society and during his mandate as EU Commissioner for Energy. She was then responsible for energy security and infrastructure and the overall coordination of the international dimension of energy policy.As a member of the Cabinet, she has been involved in the trilateral gas talks between the EU, Russia and Ukraine. While Head of Unit responsible for Energy Strategy and Policy Coordination, Paula has coordinated the preparation and adoption of the “Clean Energy for all Europeans” package. Paula represented the Commission in the negotiations of the Commission Proposal for a Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and was responsible notably for the overall coordination of the assessment of the national Energy and Climate Plans. Paula speaks fluently Portuguese, German, English and French, as well as Spanish and Italian. · https://energy.ec.europa.eu/index_en · https://energy.ec.europa.eu · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Earl K. Miller is the Picower Professor of Neuroscience in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Miller studies the neural basis of executive control, the ability to carry out goal-directed behavior using complex mental processes and cognitive abilities. This work has established a foundation upon which to construct more detailed, mechanistic accounts of cognition and its dysfunction in diseases such as autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder. He’s the recipient of a variety of awards and his paper with Jonathan Cohen which presented a new framework for understanding the prefrontal cortex, ranks fifth all-time in citations in neuroscience.· ekmillerlab.mit.edu  · www.creativeprocess.info

“There are a lot of distractions in cities. So it's always good to maybe take some time out, be in a quieter place with no distractions so you can let your thoughts run. And that leads into the creative process because new ideas, new thoughts and where they come from. They come from following the garden path of associations in your mind. One thought leads to another, leads to another until your mind is in a new place it's never been before. Or you put two thoughts together that were never together before, but now they are because you managed to somehow follow this garden path of thoughts from one thought to the other. That's where creativity comes from, that's where your ideas come from, seeing things in a new way, seeing things that were never together before. And if you have constant distractions that interferes with that process.”Earl K. Miller is the Picower Professor of Neuroscience in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Miller studies the neural basis of executive control, the ability to carry out goal-directed behavior using complex mental processes and cognitive abilities. This work has established a foundation upon which to construct more detailed, mechanistic accounts of cognition and its dysfunction in diseases such as autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder. He’s the recipient of a variety of awards and his paper with Jonathan Cohen which presented a new framework for understanding the prefrontal cortex, ranks fifth all-time in citations in neuroscience.· ekmillerlab.mit.edu  · www.creativeprocess.info

“We are getting further and further away from the way of life that people had 150, 200 let alone 500 years ago. And it's odd that in some ways, certainly for the middle class, it could be that people had a more satisfactory lifestyle in the 19th century than we have today with all the love the luxuries and comforts we have which they do not have. Of course, there is less poverty, that's a good thing, but we need a revolution of sorts, a mental revolution, a revolution in our expectations of life. I am mostly concerned with analyzing the structure of the change. Lots of people have written books both optimistic and pessimistic about the Internet. It's a wonderful thing, it gives an opportunity to broaden our experience. I think in many ways the Internet is the only hope if you want to eliminate racism and want to raise the bar across the world, but at the same time, the inequalities are completely ridiculous. They've reached a point of insanity, and we have a moral issue. Is one person ever worth twice as much as another person? Can you justify one human being owning 10 times as much as another person? I don't think you can. I don't think that the president of the biggest cooperation in the world is worth 10 times the poorest person in the world, but that's not what we have. Sometimes he may be “worth” a million times more, a hundred thousand times more. That’s crazy.”Merlin Donald was born and raised in Montreal and received his Master’s in Psychology from the University of Ottawa, and his doctorate in Neuropsychology from McGill University in 1968. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, the World Academy of Arts & Science, and the Royal Society of Canada, he is the author of two influential books: Origins of the Modern Mind  and A Mind So Rare His early work on human cognitive evolution was unique in its incorporation of both technology and culture into a theory grounded in brain function and brain evolution. He is currently working on an issue that concerns us all: the potentially radical effect of high technology on human cognitive evolution. · www.queensu.ca/psychology/merlin-donald · www.creativeprocess.info

Merlin Donald was born and raised in Montreal and received his Master’s in Psychology from the University of Ottawa, and his doctorate in Neuropsychology from McGill University in 1968. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, the World Academy of Arts & Science, and the Royal Society of Canada, he is the author of two influential books: Origins of the Modern Mind  and A Mind So Rare His early work on human cognitive evolution was unique in its incorporation of both technology and culture into a theory grounded in brain function and brain evolution. He is currently working on an issue that concerns us all: the potentially radical effect of high technology on human cognitive evolution. · www.queensu.ca/psychology/merlin-donald · www.creativeprocess.info

“I like the idea that your actions in the world can be motivated by both idealism and realism about how to achieve those ideals. I like the idea that morality is not simple. There is this idea that there are the heroes and there's the villains and you can easily tell who's who, and that's not so true as it used to be in comics and that's meaningful. One thing that is interesting about the Marvel story is there’s basically nobody who's just a bad guy to be a bad guy. Everyone has their reasons. Almost everyone is capable of redemption in some way, even the worst of the worst are capable of tremendous heroism and tremendous idealism and genuinely wanting to heal the world make it a better place.I think communicating what those ideals are and how they can change and need to change as time passes is really special, and I think that addressing those through stories, through things where there’s not necessarily a one-to-one meaning, where this is not a parable, where this is not something where character X stands for concept Y in always exactly the same way. That’s important that things can shift, that things can be different, that a better world is possible and that you can make it so, that your abilities may be things that you work very hard for for a very long time or they may come to you. Your body may be transformed in ways that are wonderful or horrible, and you can make something of it.”Douglas Wolk is the author of the NYTimes bestseller All of the Marvels, and the Eisner Award–winning Reading Comics and the host of the podcast Voice of Latveria. A National Arts Journalism Program fellow, Wolk has written about comic books, graphic novels, pop music, and technology for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Believer, Slate, and Pitchfork. He has lectured and moderated panels at Comic-Con International, the Experience Music Project Pop Conference, the Center for Cartoon Studies and other events. · douglaswolk.com · www.creativeprocess.info

Douglas Wolk is the author of the NYTimes bestseller All of the Marvels, and the Eisner Award–winning Reading Comics and the host of the podcast Voice of Latveria. A National Arts Journalism Program fellow, Wolk has written about comic books, graphic novels, pop music, and technology for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Believer, Slate, and Pitchfork. He has lectured and moderated panels at Comic-Con International, the Experience Music Project Pop Conference, the Center for Cartoon Studies and other events. · douglaswolk.com · www.creativeprocess.info

Jeffrey D. Sachs is University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Chair of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission, Co-Chair of the UN Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, and Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development at Sunway University. Sachs has been Special Advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. Sachs was twice named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders, and has received 38 honorary doctorates. He received the Legion of Honor from France in 2021 and the Order of the Cross from Estonia in 2019. Jeffrey Sachs hosts “The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs” podcast featuring renowned authors of scintillating, inspiring and remarkably important books about history, social justice, and the challenges of building a decent world. Previous conversations feature Mariana Mazzucato, author of “Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism,” and Robert Lustig, author of “Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine” among others. To learn more, visit · www.bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org/· www.jeffsachs.org· sdgacademy.org/· www.unsdsn.org/· www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info