Abstract
Who am I? is one of the most fundamental questions we can ask. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to answer as technology challenges our traditional concepts of identity. Now, self-sovereignty will become a defining issue in a post-Covid world. Vaccine certificates are already being made mandatory by nation-states and commercial industries. A louder call for digital ID can also be heard from some quarters. But these are just the opening salvos in a bigger, wider, more essential debate yet to come. What are the terms of service when we have brain-machine interfaces? How many avatar identities will you have in the metaverse? Technology is impacting one's legal authentication but it's the tip of the iceberg in terms of implications for identity overall. The Future Of You takes on themes of identity expression, anonymity, technological surveillance and conformity, medical ethics around genetics, and even the preservation of personal identity beyond death in the digital afterlife.
About the speaker
Tracey Follows is a futurist appearing in a list of the top 50 female futurists in the world in Forbes, regularly commenting on the future of technology, society, and identity. She runs Futuremade - a strategic foresight, and futures consultancy - working with global brands and businesses to help them spot trends, develop foresight, and fully prepare for what comes next. Her clients have included Telefonica, Google, Diageo, Sky, Farfetch, Conde Nast, Cosette, CogX, BT, and Virgin.
She has spoken at UN HQ, keynoted at events such as the Financial Times Tech Live, Nobel Visions in Moscow and Think With Google, speaking alongside Silicon Valley CEOs at the FT's Global Boardroom and alongside UK Government and Parliamentarians at Think Digital Identity, delivering her Tedx at UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
As a go-to futurist for media she has appeared on BBC Business Matters, Radio 4, Talk Radio, LBC, and TimesRadio, and GBNews and appeared in FT, Guardian, and the Daily Mail. She has written for the Guardian, the Big Issue, Spiked and more, and has her own contributor column in Forbes.
She was an Adage 'Woman to Watch' 2017, the Women in Marketing Winner for Outstanding Contribution to Marketing in 2016, she was Inaugural Creative Strategy Jury President at Cannes Lions 2019. She was on the Advisory Board of DotEveryone and listed by Business Cloud as a Trailblazing Woman in Tech. She is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, World Futures Studies Federation, a Fellow of the RSA, and an Associate Fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science. Tracey graduated from the University of Manchester with a First Class BA (Hons) in Philosophy and MSc in Technical Change and Industrial Strategy.
Event recording