Take a monolithic problem like climate change and consider its solutions. Many would say the only answer is to get all of us to alter our lifestyles so we can cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. But a “techno-optimist” like Microsoft’s Craig Mundie would urge us to approach the problem from a different, more novel angle: Instead of hinging Earth’s health on changing all of society, what about engineering a method of reflecting heat out of the atmosphere? At our Techonomy 2013 conference in November, Mundie spoke with us about how creative traits like “risk tolerance” and “novelty seeking” will help us confront big challenges like climate change. “If you give us a big problem, we’ll invent a big answer,” he says. “We’re [not] bound to live within the constraints of the capabilities we only know today.”
Microsoft’s Craig Mundie on Why He’s a Techno-Optimist
Take a monolithic problem like climate change and consider its solutions. Many would say the only answer is to get all of us to alter our lifestyles so we can cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. But a "techno-optimist" like Microsoft's Craig Mundie would urge us to approach the problem from a different, more novel angle: Instead of hinging Earth's health on changing all of society, what about engineering a method of reflecting heat out of the atmosphere? At our Techonomy 2013 conference in November, Mundie spoke with us about how creative traits like "risk tolerance" and "novelty seeking" will help us confront big challenges like climate change. "If you give us a big problem, we'll invent a big answer," he says. "We're [not] bound to live within the constraints of the capabilities we only know today."
