Jolene Creighton, Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Publication at Futurism, LLC (futurism.com), provides expert insight into the state of our advancing technologies and what the future holds for society. Some of Creighton’s past accomplishments include her tenure as co-founder of From Quarks to Quasars and her noted work as a freelance writer with Hattiesburg American. She was an instructor at the University of Southern Mississippi. Creighton’s Ph.D. work was focused on digital media & discourse analysis at the University of Southern Mississippi and her master of art study was at SUNY Brockport where she studied English language and literature/letters working toward her thesis on digital communication and viral storytelling. Creighton received her BA from Keuka College in Keuka Park, NY.

Creighton is a noted public speaker and writer in the field of science via digital, print, and video output. She has taught more than two dozen university courses on writing and communication. Creighton’s work as editor-in-chief at Futurism brings together her many varied interests and profiles her expertise on the topic of future science and its applications across various media.

Creighton discusses the pace of change as technology is accelerating, and the additional power that is packed into our devices as they decrease in size but expand in capability. She touts the many benefits of the changing technology landscape such as the nearly instantaneous reporting of news and events through media platforms such as YouTube and others that have revolutionized the news dissemination avenues.

Futurism is a media publication that covers the science and technology that is currently shaping our future. Creighton discusses their overall intention for the platform. Futurism’s mission is to deliver captivating news and further the dialogue about forward-thinking products and narratives that make an impact on our world. Futurism, as Creighton explains, seeks to bring thought-provoking news items that bridge the expanding areas of science and technology. She details the interesting case studies and questions that surround the safety, science, and responsibility of autonomous vehicles as they dramatically expand into development and use in our society. She discusses the vigorous scientific debate that revolves around vaccinations, and other significant areas of science and medicine, and more, and how fear of technology can sometimes keep people from accepting proven science that can improve their lives or help to keep them safe.

The futurist technology advocate also discusses some of the more dubious applications of technology such as social credit systems that rate the quality of someone as a citizen. She details how China is using algorithms to judge individuals and how parenting could be one way to increase someone’s score, as bizarre as that idea may seem. She provides information on the government policy and research that goes into the development of technology and the checks and balances that are in place to ensure that technologies benefit people in a safe and effective manner.

As technologies can be utilized for good and bad purposes and are being generated at a blistering pace, it is important to ensure that the development and release of technologies are monitored by multiple entities for the good of society. However, Creighton stresses that the overpublicized ‘worst case scenarios’ that technology detractors speak and write about are typically absurd and unrealistic, and have little to no chance of becoming reality. In essence, she states that most advancing technologies will be used to benefit our lives in multiple ways.

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