Can Your Identity Survive 21st Century Technology

Tracey Follows presents an urgent exploration of what personal identity will mean for all of us in the coming decades.

In the future, how many identities will you have? How many do you want? From surveillance and identity hacking to social media and our legacies beyond the grave, Tracey Follows pre-sents an urgent exploration of what personal identity will mean for all of us in the coming dec-ades.

FULL DESCRIPTION: no more than 500 words, please
‘Who am I?’ is one of the most fundamental questions we ask of ourselves throughout our lives. But in the twenty-first century, this is becoming increasingly difficult to answer as technology forces us to nego-tiate different versions of ourselves distributed across a digital world.

Now, Facebook gets a say in verifying who we are, science can alter our biology and reinvent us over time, and advances in AI are revolutionizing how we interact with the world around us. Understanding and defining who you are has become confusing and chaotic and in some ways is already out of our con-trol.

In an age of digital disruption, creativity and innovation, Follows argues that we need to find a way to embrace a new era of personal identity, while ensuring we preserve our autonomy from state authorities, technology platforms and emergent social systems. In clear and accessible prose, she explores new ideas and technological advances covering legal identity; surveillance and privacy; avatar life compan-ions and the implications of AI; biological enhancements, genetics and transhumanism; and finally, the digital afterlife from cryonics, mind-uploading and longevity science.

TRACEY FOLLOWS is a professional futurist identifying the future trends that will shape our world. Her clients have included Telefonica, Google, Sky, Farfetch, Conde Nast and Virgin. She has spoken at UN HQ in New York, delivered her TedX at the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office and closed at events such as Think With Google.

She writes her own contributor column in Forbes and her opinions are regularly sought by national me-dia. She was an Adage 'Woman to Watch' 2017, Women in Marketing Award Winner 2016, and Inau-gural Creative Strategy Jury President at Cannes Lions 2019. In 2018, she was listed by Business Cloud as a Trailblazing Woman in Tech. She is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, World Futures Studies Federation and a Fellow of the RSA. Her book The Future of You: Can Your Identity Survive 21st Century Technology? is out 18 March 2021

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