David Wood

One of the pioneers of the smartphone industry. He is now a futurist activist, consultant, speaker, and writer.

As Chair of London Futurists, David has organized over 200 public meetings since March 2008 on futurist, transhumanist, technoprogressive, and singularitarian topics. Membership of London Futurists now approaches 8,000.

As Executive Director of the transhumanist think tank Transpolitica, David is presently working on a “technoprogressive roadmap” of goals for the UK to keep in mind for accomplishment by 2035. These goals envision the possibility of profound increases in human wellbeing.

In his professional life, David spent 25 years designing, implementing, and avidly using smart mobile devices, including ten years with pioneering PDA manufacturer Psion PLC, and ten more with smartphone operating system specialist Symbian Ltd, which he co-founded in 1998. At different times, his executive responsibilities at Psion and Symbian included software development, technical consulting, partnering and ecosystem management, and research and innovation. By 2012, his software for UI and application frameworks had been included on 500 million smartphones from companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Fujitsu, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson.

From 2010 to 2013, David was Technology Planning Lead (CTO) of Accenture Mobility, where he also co-led Accenture’s Mobility Health business initiative.

As Principal of the independent futurist consultancy and publisher Delta Wisdom, David currently helps clients around the world to anticipate the dramatic impact of rapidly changing technology on human individuals and communities. Via Delta Wisdom, he highlights opportunities to apply technology in new solutions to deep-rooted problems.

David’s most recent book is Sustainable Superabundance. His previous books include Smartphones and BeyondThe Abolition of Aging, and Transcending Politics. He was also the lead editor of the volume Anticipating 2025.

David has a triple first class mathematics degree from Cambridge and undertook doctoral research in the Philosophy of Science. In November 2005 David received an honorary Doctorate in Science (D.Sc.) from the University of Westminster, in recognition of his services to the smartphone industry.

T3 magazine included him in 2009 in their list of the “100 most influential people in technology”. In 2010 he featured in the world’s first Augmented Reality CV.

He is co-founder of the futurist wiki H+Pedia, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), and sits on the Board of the IEET (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies).

He was Secretary of the Board of Directors of Humanity+ from March 2015 to September 2019.

In David’s view, the most important insight of transhumanism concerns the magnitude of the forthcoming technology-enabled transformation in the human condition. It’s not just that this transformation is possible. It’s not just that this transformation could be relatively imminent – happening while many people alive today are still in the primes of their lives. It’s that this transformation, handled wisely, could have an enormous positive upside, and is deeply desirable.

However, the transformation is by no means inevitable. Over the next few years, humanity faces some hard, critical choices – choices that will determine our future. If we choose poorly, technology will do much more harm than good. If we choose poorly, a bleak future awaits us – wretched environmental decline, bitter social divisions, and a rapid descent into a dismal new dark age. Instead of the flourishing of the better angels of our human nature, it will be our inner demons that technology magnifies. Hence the urgent need for conscious, thoughtful reflection and action.

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