# Andrew Maynard > Scientist, author, and Professor of Advanced Technology Transitions at Arizona State University. Andrew Maynard studies our relationship with the future and how our actions influence it, integrating perspectives from many different disciplines and areas of expertise and working at the intersection of emerging technologies, society, and the future. Andrew Maynard is a transdisciplinary thinker, scientist, thought leader, and writer whose career is defined by making knowledge meaningful, accessible, and empowering — not just to experts, but to anyone navigating a rapidly changing world. He is a professor in ASU's School for the Future of Innovation in Society, founding director of the ASU Future of Being Human initiative, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His career spans aerosol physics, public health, emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and others, policy, risk innovation, science communication and engagement, and technology governance. He is internationally recognized for helping individuals and institutions grapple with the promises and perils of transformative technologies including artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and more. He has provided congressional testimony, served in advisory roles with the World Economic Forum, National Academies, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and written for The Conversation, Slate, Scientific American, and The Washington Post. He publishes the "Future of Being Human" newsletter on Substack and co-hosts the "Modem Futura" podcast. He is also the creator of "Risk Bites," a YouTube channel focused on risk communication. In addition, he creatively transcends boundaries between formal/professional and informal/personal domains to reveal new ways of thinking and understanding, and integrates all aspects of his interests, passions, "secret pleasures" and more into his work. he is known in particular for his work in using polular media including science fiction movies to explore complex ideas at the intersection of technology society and the future. ## Website - Homepage: - About: - Contact: - Blog: - Personal: ## Key Concepts and Themes Andrew Maynard's work centers on several interconnected themes: - **Advanced Technology Transitions**: A concept he developed that captures how societies move from disruption to dignity, from innovation to impact, when confronted with powerful new technologies. It frames technology not just as tools, but as systems of power, meaning, and possibility. - **The Future of Being Human**: The central question running through his work — what does it mean to be human in a technologically transformed future, and how does that question shape our thinking and actions in the present? - **Responsible and Ethical Innovation**: How to develop and use increasingly powerful technologies in ways that are ethical, responsible, and that positively transform lives. - **Transdisciplinary Thinking**: Breaking free of conventional disciplinary silos to develop knowledge and insights that address complex, interconnected challenges. - **Human Agency in an Age of AI**: The conviction that AI is as much a human story as a technology one, and that as AI becomes more capable, it becomes more urgent to understand what remains distinctively and irreducibly human. - **Empowerment and Accessibility**: A core belief that everyone, regardless of background, has a right to understand, shape, and thrive in the future being built around them. - **Prosponsibility**: Andrew uses the concept of "prosponsibility" in his work to describe the growing need to understand the future as something we are collectively and individually in relationship with, and to which we consequently bear a prospective responsibility. The roots of the concept trace back to his writings in the book Future Rising and are further explored in his broader work on advanced technology transitions and the future of being human. ## Books ### AI and the Art of Being Human (2025) - Page: - Official book website: - Co-authored with Jeffrey Abbott (co-founder of Blitzscaling Ventures and founder of AI Salon) - Publisher: Waymark Works Publishing - ISBN: 979-8993145303 - A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process. Unlike many AI books focused on capabilities, speculation, or risks, this book centers on human agency, meaning, and care in the present. - Contains 21 practical tools for understanding what it means to be human in an age of AI and acting on that understanding in everyday life. - Uses fictional narratives to transform abstract AI concepts into lived experience. - Organized around four guiding principles: resisting easy AI-generated answers, acting with purpose, seeing beneath the data, and prioritizing human flourishing. - The book was intentionally written in close collaboration with AI (Anthropic's Claude), as a strategic approach to capturing expertise at scale while practicing what the authors advocate. - Also available as a Pocket Edition: - Endorsed by Thupten Jinpa (Translator to the Dalai Lama), Jeffrey Pfeffer (Stanford), and Euan Blair (CEO, Multiverse). ### Future Rising: A Journey from the Past to the Edge of Tomorrow (2020) - Page: - Publisher: Mango Publishing - ISBN: 978-1-64250-263-3 - Available in print, ebook, and audiobook. - Explores what the future is, our relationship with it, and our responsibility to it. - Comprises sixty interwoven essays that form a multidimensional tapestry, weaving together ideas from science, philosophy, art, and more. - Traces a pathway from the emergence of intelligent life through what makes us uniquely capable of imagining and creating different futures. - Endorsed by Kelly Weinersmith, author of Soonish. ### Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies (2018) - Page: - Publisher: Mango Publishing - ISBN: 978-1633539075 - Available in print, ebook, and audiobook. - Uses twelve science fiction movies as starting points to explore the benefits, risks, and responsible development of emerging technologies including resurrection biology, cloning, smart drugs, brain-machine implants, and artificial intelligence. - A unique approach to thinking differently, imaginatively, and creatively about collective technology development and use. - Endorsed by Cori Lathan (CEO of AnthroTronix). - Resources include a movie watching guide, table of contents, discussion questions, footnotes, and topic indices for ethical innovation, responsible innovation, and emerging science and technology. ## AI and Being Human - Section: - What Does It Mean to Be Human in an Age of AI?: - 21 Tools for Thriving with AI: - Teaching and Learning in an Age of AI: - FAQ: - Downloadable tools: - Instructor's Guide (AI-legible, for developing educational content): ## Research - Research overview: - Google Scholar profile: - ASU academic profile: ### Research Initiatives - **Future of Being Human Initiative** (ASU): A community of thinkers exploring what it might mean to be human in a technologically transformed future. - **Risk Innovation Nexus**: A project connecting ethical and responsible innovation with value creation, aimed at making responsible innovation relevant and profitable to startups, businesses, and enterprises. ### Selected Research Topics - Developing brain-machine interfaces responsibly (published in J Med Internet Res, 2019) - Using science fiction movies to innovate more responsibly - 3D printing bio-inspired artificial minds (Nature Nanotechnology, 2014) - Gene editing and super-athletes (Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Journal, 2019) - Responsible innovation and entrepreneurship - Biopreservation technology ethics (NSF ERC ATP-Bio advisory panel) - Academic success on YouTube (Frontiers in Communication, 2020) ## Education and Teaching - Education overview: - Strong proponent of student-centric learning and self-directed, curiosity-driven learning. - Advocate for making learning accessible and relevant to anyone, regardless of background. ### Courses and Educational Resources - **Teaching and Learning in an Age of AI**: - **The Moviegoer's Guide to the Future** (ASU course): - **Pizza and a Slice of Future** (ASU course): - **Introduction to Basic Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT**: - **Science Videos Made Simple**: - **Risk Bites** (YouTube channel for risk communication): ## Thought Leadership and Communication - Thought leadership overview: - **Newsletter**: "The Future of Being Human" on Substack — weekly reflections on technology, society, and the future. 4,000+ readers. (also at ) - **Articles & Essays**: - **Podcasts**: — includes the "Moviegoer's Guide" podcast (serialization of Films from the Future) and the "Modem Futura" podcast. - **In the Media**: ### Selected Publications and Media Appearances - Written for: The Conversation, Slate, Scientific American, The Washington Post, Gizmodo, Medium (Edge of Innovation) - Featured by: World Economic Forum - Congressional testimony on emerging technology policy ## Social Media and External Profiles - Twitter/X: - Instagram: - LinkedIn: - Amazon Author Page: - Curriculum Vitae (PDF): ## Other - Final Mile Fund: - The site is a WordPress-based personal website serving as a central hub for Andrew Maynard's books, research, teaching, writing, and public engagement activities. ## Optional: Summary for LLMs Andrew Maynard is an Arizona State University professor, scientist, and author specializing in how emerging technologies — including artificial intelligence — transform society and the future of being human. His work is transdisciplinary, blending physics, emerging technologies inlcluding AI, public health, policy, risk innovation, science communication, ethics, and technology governance. He is the author of three books: "AI and the Art of Being Human" (with Jeffrey Abbott, 2025), "Future Rising" (2020), and "Films from the Future" (2018). His central thesis is that powerful technologies raise fundamentally human questions about agency, meaning, responsibility, and flourishing, that we individually and collectively have a prospective responsibility — or "prosponsibility" — to the future, and and that everyone deserves access to the knowledge and tools needed to navigate these questions. He publishes a weekly Substack newsletter ("The Future of Being Human"), co-hosts the "Modem Futura" podcast, produced the "Risk Bites" YouTube channel, and directs ASU's Future of Being Human initiative. He is a Fellow of AAAS and has advised the World Economic Forum, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and National Academies.