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Framing: A Guide to Thinking in the 21st Century with Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

How can we choose the frames that will help us think more creatively and make better decisions?

An industrialist looks at a rain forest and sees trees to cut down and sell, while an environmentalist sees the ‘lungs of the planet’. To one person, complying with a mandate to wear a face mask in public during a pandemic is an act of communal responsibility. To another, it’s a denial of personal freedom. Same data, but opposite conclusions. 

The reason for this, believe internationally acclaimed authors Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, is that we all look at the world through different ‘frames’. By recognising the frames that we are using, they say, we can all learn to rethink them and make better decisions. We can see the world in entirely new ways.

In May 2021 Cukier and Mayer-Schönberger came to Intelligence Squared to share their insights. In conversation with science writer Timandra Harkness they explained how our ability to adjust our vantage point on the world is the essential skill humanity needs for the 21st century and will help us address the looming challenges we face, from pandemics to populism, AI to cyberattacks, wealth inequality to climate change. As examples, they pointed to the way Spotify beat Apple by framing music as experience, how the #MeToo Twitter hashtag reframed the perception of sexual assault, and how, as they argued, the UK’s decision to frame Covid-19 as seasonal flu led to disaster, while New Zealand’s framing it as SARS led to only 26 deaths. 


Speakers

Speakers

Kenneth Cukier

Senior editor at The Economist and host of its technology podcast Babbage


Senior editor at The Economist and the host of its weekly podcast on technology, Babbage. He is also an associate fellow at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. He is co-author of Big Data: The Essential Guide to Work, Life and Learning in the Age of Insight, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. 

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

Professor of internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford


Professor of internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Belfer Center of Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He is co-author of Big Data: The Essential Guide to Work, Life and Learning in the Age of Insight, which has sold over a million copies worldwide.
Chair

Timandra Harkness

Writer, broadcaster and comedian


Writer, broadcaster and comedian. She presents BBC Radio 4 documentaries including Divided Nation and the FutureProofing series, and has written for many print and online publications, including BBC Science Focus and Unherd. She is the author of Big Data: Does Size Matter?

 

Speakers subject to change.