Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Ph.D., and Amber Case are lecturers at the fourth conference "Growing through Knowledge"
12.9.2011
In order to emphasize the importance of knowledge as the main driver and backbone of development of an individual and the society, for the fourth time in a row Hrvatski Telekom organizes the conference "Growing through Knowledge". This year, once again, a number of guests will have the opportunity to listen to two world’s eminent speakers, experts, and visionaries with advanced ideas of today. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Ph.D., a world renowned philosopher, risk manager, and former trader, and Amber Case, a cyber anthropologist, will present their lectures.
What makes the T-HT conference even more interesting are the intriguing content and current topics that will make us think. What is Black Swan, why is something we do not know more relevant than what we know, have our mobile phones, computers, and cars turned us into cyborgs, and has the privacy disappeared are only some of the questions that the speakers will answer and offer their thoughts. The conference will be held in Zagreb on Tuesday, 4 October. Numerous guests from the Croatian economic, intellectual, and political life, as well as the students and employees of HT will participate in the conference.
"The future that we want to have needs to be created. When we allow tomorrow to happen to us spontaneously and without any particular consideration, then we must not be surprised if, as a society and individuals, we find that we live in a community that is less than desirable. While individuals or entire nations enjoy excessive wealth, at the same time literally billions of others cannot achieve even the basic minimum necessary for survival. Such extreme and numerous examples of less drastic but still unacceptable unequal distributions we see all around us every day. If we were to draw all over again what the world should be like, we certainly would not represent it like this. Models of development and patterns of behaviour that have brought us to such absurdities have revealed all their weaknesses and we need to find some new ways to achieve a future that will truly be better. As individuals, companies, organizations and countries, we have a duty to actively search for those ways because the extraordinarily fast technological development is unstoppably changing our way of life; the adjustment of individuals and societies to those changes is becoming more challenging and, therefore, we often do not have the time to even stop and contemplate whether we are doing everything the best we can. That is why we are organizing these conferences and inviting everyone who is not afraid to think and contemplate. We grow through knowledge, and in between conferences we are enriched through new intellectual exchanges, and we act more confidently and bravely, which is why I am personally looking forward to this year’s conference as well" said Ivica Mudrinić, President of the Management Board of HT.
From year to year, the T-HT conference "Growing through Knowledge" has been hosting a number of philosophers, experts, and scientists who through their work and thinking contribute to progress and social well-being. The first conference "Growing through Knowledge" was held in 2008, celebrating the anniversary of the initial public offering of company shares, which officially started on 5 October 2007.
About speakers:
Dr. Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the author of The Black Swan, a philosopher, risk manager and former trader. He has devoted his life to studying problems of luck, risk, coincidence, human error, probability and the philosophy of knowledge.
Dr. Taleb has transfused his interests into three successful careers: a man of letters, a businessman and university professor. His world-wide bestseller The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, which was published in 32 languages and printed in more than 3 million copies was proclaimed one of the 12 most influential books since World War II by Time Magazine.
Taleb’s latest book is called The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms and he is also the author of Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets. He is currently a distinguished professor at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute.
Amber Case is a cyborg anthropologist who examines the way how humans and technology interact and jointly develop. Her research focuses on the application of anthropological theories to mobile computing and social software solutions. Amber Case studies the symbiotic interaction between humans and machines and believes that our values and culture are shaped by ways of life largely influenced by high technology. She has specialized in user experiences, ubiquitous computing and mobile geolocation. Case has been a speaker at the TED Conference, and Fast Company magazine has pronounced her the most influential woman in technology research. She is the author of the Dictionary of Cyborg Anthropology, which, amongst other things, deals with the relation between technology and humans and the way how technology is changing our lives.