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.”

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.”

Related Posts
See All

Cyber-insecurity and Its Impact on Business

U.S. companies are losing client confidence and trust as news of ongoing surveillance programs and continued security breaches dominate headlines and water-cooler conversations. What can they do, what must they do, to combat customer and...

Why Microsoft’s Craig Mundie Worries About Weapons of Mass Disruption

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...

Microsoft’s Craig Mundie on Changing Governance in Response to Technological Change

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...

Microsoft’s Craig Mundie on How Technology Can Reform Health Care

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...