Carl O. Pabo

Society seems to get stuck when dealing with problems of the Anthropocene — problems like climate change, environmental degradation, and risks posed by the rise of artificial intelligence. There’s trouble because of a complexity that overwhelms the current problem-solving capacity of society. Despite increasing awareness of the problems/risks, and despite ongoing discussion of possible solutions,…

As humans, we tend to do well with the typical, the ordinary, the expected. We rely on experience. This — quite naturally — makes it hard for society to anticipate, prepare for, and handle a pandemic like that seen with COVID-19. And — caught off guard — a crisis then demands our full attention: Failing…

Civilization has set a trap for itself. Humanity has made amazing progress over the centuries — progress made possible by the rise of the expert. But this progress creates a new problem, as ever-more-complex technologies are deployed at an accelerating rate. Billions of different devices, protocols, ideas, traditions, and people interact — second by second,…

What are the 100 best books to help humanity prepare for the challenges of the human future? Which can best train our minds—showing the problems, the possibilities, the hope—as we try to build a world that we’ll be proud to pass along to our children and grandchildren? Books have a power to help shape the…

  A notebook can be a powerful tool, helping you learn how to think more clearly. At Humanity 2050—where we focus on thinking about long-term challenges of the human future—we certainly need the kind of careful, deliberative frames of thought that can be cultivated by using a notebook. (Obviously, some of the specific ideas that…

What will it take to address our key global challenges and thus help ensure a livable human future? How can we develop a useful strategy, working with others and coordinating efforts around the globe? I am writing to introduce Humanity 2050 (humanity2050.org) and to advocate a more comprehensive, coherent way of thinking about the human…

  Just a few days ago, officials in Saudi Arabia granted citizenship to a robot.  One might laugh this off as a PR stunt designed to showcase recent work on AI, but this raises serious issues that will affect the whole future of our species. When we look at this event in a larger context,…

My time as a Visiting Professor at Caltech went quickly: I’ve moved back to San Francisco and had fun hiking again in the hills near Muir Woods. I’ll miss my friends and the students at Caltech, but it’s exciting to be back, ready to finish my book, ready to start my new institute and help…

I’m having fun at Caltech – teaching my course on “The World in 2050,” having dinner with friends and colleagues, meeting for coffee at the Red Door Café, hearing about some of the latest advances in science. Yet – in my lectures – I’m focused on these tough “Zone IV challenges,” problems (as mentioned in…

After working for years on Thought++, developing new ways to think about complex problems, it’s exciting to start this blog.  And it’s wonderful to be here at Caltech as a Visiting Professor, giving my new course on “The World in 2050.” This class, which just started a few weeks ago, will focus on the cognitive…