Byron Reese

There are the people who hope the future will be better, then there are the people who reason the future will be better. Byron is the second variety. Both a futurist and optimist, Byron believes we are approaching a fourth age for humanity that promises to be infinitely better than anything we have seen before. Byron strives to help business leaders understand the implications of emerging technologies and their impacts on business and society. In Byron’s most recent book, “WE ARE AGORA: How Humanity Functions as a Single Superorganism That Shapes Our World and Our Future”, Byron asks if humans could unknowingly be part of a larger superorganism—one with its own motivations and goals, one that is alive, conscious, and has the power to shape the future of our species. Byron is also the author of “Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think, How Humans Learned to See the Future--And Shape It,” “Wasted, How We Squander Time, Money, and Natural Resources and What We Can Do About It,” “The Fourth Age: How Technology and the Internet Will End Ignorance, Disease, Hunger, Poverty, and War,” and “Infinite Progress, How the Internet and Technology Will End Ignorance, Disease, Poverty, Hunger, and War.” Byron possesses a diverse body of patented work, and enjoys talking about the intersection of technology, history and the future to both technical and non-technical audiences around the world. Byron brings his experience as a technologist, his passion for history, and his proven business acumen to illuminate how today’s technology can solve many of our biggest global challenges. As a lifelong entrepreneur with multiple IPOs and successful exits, Byron frequently speaks to business audiences about how to excel in the world of tomorrow, and how to deploy technology successfully. He states: “Technology multiplies human ability. That’s its trick. It magnifies us. We can move more bricks with a fork lift than we can on our back. Technological advancement is not to be feared, but should be welcomed, for by enhancing human ability, we enhance our productivity and therefore our standard of living. This is the entire reason why we live so much more lavish and prosperous lives than did our great grandparents. An hour of our time is vastly more productive than was an hour of theirs.” Bloomberg Businessweek credits Byron with having “quietly pioneered a new breed of media company.” The Financial Times of London reported that he “is typical of the new wave of internet entrepreneurs out to turn the economics of the media industry on its head.” Byron and his work have been featured in hundreds of news outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, NPR, and the LA Times Magazine. Specialties: Entrepreneurship, executive leadership, product conception and creation, and an optimistic can-do, scrappy, “anything is possible” attitude. As a public speaker, Byron has addressed hundreds of corporations and professional organizations on almost every continent, and reports he is open to traveling to Antarctica to round it all out.