Kenneth Cukier

I’m relatively new at The Economist, having only been there two decades... I coauthored two books: “Framers” on the power of mental models and limits of AI, and “Big Data,” a NYT bestseller. Earlier, I was a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Oxford’s Saïd Business School. I was a board director of International Bridges to Justice and Chatham House, and am a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Preserving human freedom, dignity and pluralism

Two ideas. First: to respond to the “defense tech” era, we need to reframe the debate: “encode the Geneva Conventions into military equipment.” Second: learn to avert. History mis-teaches since it emphasises disasters, not the calamity averted, which is more instructive to prevent future catastrophes — but the lessons are lost to time unless we deliberately look for them and the overlooked individuals.

Scotch tasting