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Home > About SI > John Seely Brown Symposium 2006 > Speaker: Steven Johnson
JSB Symposium 2006 Speaker: Steven Johnson
Steven Johnson is the best-selling author of four books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience. His writings have influenced everything from the way political campaigns use the Internet, to cutting-edge ideas in urban planning, to the battle against 21st-century terrorism.
His most recently published work, the national bestseller Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter, was one of the most talked about books of 2005. Johnson argues that the popular culture we love to hate -- TV, movies, video games -- is getting better and are making us (and our children) smarter.
In addition to his books, Johnson is a contributing editor for Wired magazine and a monthly columnist for Discover magazine. He is a Distinguished Writer In Residence at the New York University Department of Journalism. He lectures widely on technological, scientific, and cultural issues, to both corporate and educational institutions.
Johnson's argument in Everything Bad Is Good For You builds on brain research he investigated in his previous bestseller Mind Wide Open: Your Brain And The Neuroscience of Everyday Life. In that book, Steven uses his own personality as the test case for describing how the new brain science is yielding new understandings of human personality. Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software was on four prestigious "Best Book of the Year" lists and was named a New York Times Notable Book. It was a finalist for the 2002 Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism.
His next book is The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, an account of the 1854 cholera epidemic in London and of a real-life hero, whose map of the outbreak paved the way for the emergence of the modern city. The book draws lessons about issues that define the modern world today -- the runaway growth of megacities, environmental crises, fears of apocalyptic epidemics, digital mapping, the need for clean water, urban terror, and the rise of amateur expertise.
He was the cofounder and editor-in-chief of FEED, the revolutionary Web magazine blending technology, science, and culture with a truly innovative interface. Newsweek named him one of the "Fifty People Who Matter Most on the Internet." In addition to his columns, he’s published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Nation, and many other periodicals. He’s also appeared on many high-profile televisions programs, including The Charlie Rose Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Last updated: Aug 16, 2006
Home > About SI > John Seely Brown Symposium 2006 > Speaker: Steven Johnson
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Steven Johnson, author most recently of Everything Bad Is Good For You and The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, is featured speaker at the 2006 John Seely Brown Symposium on Technology and Society.
The theme of the 2006 Symposium is "Gaming and Learning."
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