The Syndicate

Where Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists Talk Early Stage Tech Startups

Sustainability to Save Ourselves From Climate Change, Automation and Nuclear War | Mark Diesendorf

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Mark Diesendorf teaches, researches and consults in the interdisciplinary fields of sustainability & energy, energy policy, urban transport, ecological economics, and practical sustainability Prior to joining the Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW Australia, he’s been a Principal Researcher and lecturer at various higher institutions.

Mark’s work with organisations including AusAID, Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Hydrocool Pty Ltd, Minister for Minerals & Energy (Western Australia), StateRail (NSW), Sustainable Energy Development Authority of New South Wales, Sustainable Energy Authority of Victoria, WWF Australia, and various municipal and local governments in Australia and China.

He has been at various times secretary of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science (Canberra), co-founder and vice-president of the Sustainable Energy Industries Council of Australia, co-founder and president of the original Australasian Wind Energy Association, president of the Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics (ANZSEE) and vice-president of Appropriate Technology for Community and Environment (APACE). Mark is co-editor of the interdisciplinary book Human Ecology, Human Economy: Ideas for an Ecologically Sustainable Future and the author of Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy and Climate Action: A Campaign Manual for Greenhouse Solutions and Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change.

Listen and Learn:

  • What the truth of climate change looks like now
  • Why we’re probably headed for at least a 6-8 deg F increase in global temperatures
  • How we can design a better world from the ground up
  • Why governments are so incompetent when it comes to handling climate change
  • The reason renewables have already won and where we’ll be 10 years
  • Why AI and automation will displace a ton of jobs and necessitate a totally new economic and societal system
  • How nuclear power makes our world less stable and more dangerous
  • Where Mark sees the most innovative climate solutions being enacted
  • Why we’ll still need hydrogen fuel in a green world
  • What systems design teaches us about sustainability and economics
  • Why the world is as risky as it has ever been with respect to nuclear war

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Blockchain, Isolationism, Space Exploration and the Future of Nations | David Orban of Singularity University

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David Orban is an entrepreneur, author, keynote speaker and the Founder and Managing Partner of Network Society Ventures, a seed stage global investment firm focused on innovative startups at the intersection of exponential technologies and decentralized networks.

An early adopter of blockchain and an active Bitcoin investor since 2010, he was the first to own Ether during the Ethereum launch in 2014. He also led the adoption of Bitcoin and blockchain in start-ups and is an advisor and investor in numerous blockchain companies and funds, such as Blockchain Capital, Bancor, Swarm Fund, and others. David was the keynote speaker at the first Ethereal Summit in May 2017 in New York and is the Founder and a Trustee of Network Society Research, a London-based global think tank present in over 40 countries focused on decentralized exponential technologies disrupting governments and corporations.

He is a mentor for the Thiel Fellowship, a Scientific Advisory Board Member for the Lifeboat Foundation on the Faculty of and an advisor to the Singularity University, an investor in the Singularity University Labs Accelerator Fund (now SU Ventures), President of SingularityU Italy Summit and an advisor to Humanity+.

David is a sought-after speaker, he has given over 100 keynote addresses and speeches around the world for organizations including Abbvie, Cisco, Oracle, Roche, Ernst & Young, Accenture, Gilead, TEDx Academy, Alphabet and others and blogs at davidorban.com

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Megashifts, AI and Why the Future is More Unknowable than Ever | Gerd Leonhard

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Gerd Leonhard (@gleonhard) is a futurist, keynote speaker and author and listed by Wired Magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in Europe (2015). Gerd’s work focuses on the future of humanity, technology and digital transformation; including big disruptors like artificial intelligence, robotics, the future of content and media and much more.

Gerd addresses topics such as what it means to be human in a world of machines and algorithms, the coming redefinition of human-machine relationships, the future of work and jobs and much more. He is a much sought-after speaker, having presented at more than 1700 events in 60+ countries since 2004. His clients include Google, Sony, UBS, Mastercard, Unilever, Lloyds Bank, WWF, Nokia, The Guardian, Siemens, BBC, France Telecom, Orange, Deutsche Telekom, MTN, The Financial Times, The EU Commission, VISA, and many others.

Gerd is a member of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA, London), an advisory board member of the Indian and Canadian research institutes and the author of Technology vs. Humanity: The Coming Clash Between Man and Machine.

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