• Week 8: The tech antitrust paradox

    Last week, many of you raised a diverse set of technologies that might disrupt including VR, 3D printing, gene drives, drone swarms and meatless meat.  The question, of course, is not just how technology can disrupt, but whether firms and institutions … Continued

  • Week 7: Anticipating disruption

    There are, of course, many reasons to engage in technological foresight including firms seeking competitive intelligence, countries looking to improve their international competitiveness or research agencies looking to invest in the most promising technologies of the future.  One of the … Continued

  • Week 6: Bad policy

    Political debates and the media play important roles not just in driving high-level goals and shaping discourse in different areas but in having an impact on policy design and implementation. While this might help in legitimating policy, public attention can … Continued

  • Week 5: Market failures

    One of the dangers of using words like ‘market failure’ and ‘moral hazard’ is that terms can be bandied about in a quite flippant or fuzzy manner.  Having started to some research into concerns that negative emissions may lead to ‘moral … Continued

  • Week 4: Patents

    Since Christos just covered patents in TP2 and we touched on it in Lecture 1 of TP1 (and will be briefly returning to the subject next week), I thought this seemed like a worthy topic for discussion, particularly if we … Continued

  • Week 3: Transitions

    Transitions can be difficult.  The speed, scale and scope of the transformation being proposed for trajectories consistent with 1.5 °C in the recent IPCC Special Report (or even for a 2 °C target) are daunting, almost unimaginable.  In large part, … Continued