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![Cutting-Edge Technology Takes Aim at Gun Violence](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/c9163745-6207-4022-a2b7-ae9f938daa8f/42250460714_31545d8a38_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1376%2C0%2C5504%2C5504&w=290)
Gun violence in the US is a public health epidemic. With partisan battles currently making state and federal legislative solutions elusive, private sector trendsetters are quietly exploring other avenues of opportunity. The Smart Tech Challenges Foundation funds research to advance biometric identification and other security technologies that allow only authorized users to...
![Temperature Check: Where Do We Stand in the Energy Transition?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/b6aff6cd-2e45-496b-977c-b1707350cef7/53000409457_f0b09a4e1c_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1000%2C0%2C4000%2C4000&w=290)
Policy, business practices, and profound breakthroughs in technology might be the raw ingredients for building a clean energy future, but can these solutions be deployed at the unprecedented scale needed? A top energy expert sets the scene by describing the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
![Safe or Sentient? Navigating the Future of Data, Privacy, and A.I.](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d302d321-2e77-42a1-b8fb-333a6c7567a7/230625_safe_sentient_015.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=666%2C0%2C2667%2C2667&w=290)
E.O. Wilson said, “We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.” How should technology be designed and controlled so it improves our lives, economy, and culture without losing individuality, privacy, and trust in society and each other? Presented by Allstate
![Best Frenemies: China, the US, and the Future of the 21st Century](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null87ec5638-26ab-46f8-87b6-625a4829f05c/48153290262_6527d490e0_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=276%2C0%2C1048%2C1048&w=290)
The China-US relationship appears to have arrived this year at two inter-related flashpoints, on trade and technology, as President Trump’s administration enters a trade war that has destabilized world markets and has gone to war too against China’s tech giant Huawei. What’s really at the core of the trade dispute—and just how dominant is China’s lead on next-generation 5G...
![Tech is the New Power Paradigm](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/406efde8-fe38-4102-93e6-a674fc2e8497/52181811923_557a7fe69f_o1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1376%2C0%2C5504%2C5504&w=290)
For the last twenty years, technology has been the most powerful force of globalization, but it now appears that the next decades will be defined by how the world splinters into different tech camps—changes driven by societal values, human rights, and nationalistic interests. Advanced technologies—from 5G to semiconductors to quantum computing—are the new currency of power...
![The Return of Rivalry](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null9f5472ae-8781-4df3-94f4-d84ea4aa04cd/48146150822_d0b9a8d3d6_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=307%2C0%2C985%2C985&w=290)
After decades with no significant geopolitical rivals, the United States now faces the emergence of China as a major adversary. How will this change the landscape of the emerging world order? What new forms of geopolitical conflict will arise, and what new forms of cooperation are necessary?
![Living Through Revolutionary Times](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/60cff82e-c3c8-4fe2-b494-02e919e39717/53814929313_3bf477bfa9_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=2430%2C267%2C2192%2C2192&w=290)
Revolutions in technology, politics and economics bring progress — but they also invite backlash. Fareed Zakaria discusses the rise of the modern republic through the Industrial Revolution to the age of globalization, and the reemergence of great power politics.
![The Curse of Bigness: Why Louis Brandeis Matters](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4dba7701-39b9-4925-ae7e-ee66b70afda6/27936017792_6380ffb6d8_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=727%2C0%2C2546%2C2546&w=290)
Louis Brandeis was the greatest critic of big business and big government since Thomas Jefferson. Jeff Rosen and Jeffrey Goldberg postulate about Brandeis’s relevance for the 2016 election and the future of privacy, technology, and free speech.
![How Do You Know if Your Vote is Counted?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/72fb3119-ab82-456e-b5ab-991174b6fde2/52184422502_87473dc00e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=823%2C0%2C3795%2C3795&w=290)
There’s nothing so sacred — or lately, so contested — as casting a ballot. But once the circle is filled, the screen is pressed, or the hole is punched, how can we be sure our vote does what we intended? Poor public understanding of cybersecurity issues feeds the flame of targeted disinformation, shaking our confidence in democratic institutions. How can the nation regain...
![Free Speech in the Age of Social Media](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/8a992058-6f19-42d1-92b1-c2167a52b2a3/53007069854_e2071aa681_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=656%2C0%2C2624%2C2624&w=290)
If the First Amendment’s protections against government intrusion are a core tenet of American democracy, what happens when the chief regulators of speech are private technology companies? What is protected, who gets to decide, and what are the implications for our democracy?
![Same Game, New Rules: Parenting in 2018](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/8bffae9e-0a72-4607-8cba-736347b5b6ad/41196270290_7494e7f43d_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=500%2C0%2C2000%2C2000&w=290)
Raising well-adjusted children has always seemed difficult, but now the task — as well as the duty to protect them — seems more difficult and necessary than ever. As our lives are disrupted by technology and identity is viewed with more nuance than ever, how do we parent well in 21st century? How can we work to support our children instead of confining them? What stresses...
![How Did We Get Here? The Roots and Future of Populism](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/aa7c6b77-1866-4fc6-b575-67e6e9988db9/35612312465_908ba58a41_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1000%2C0%2C4016%2C4016&w=290)
The confluence of globalization and the information revolution has primed the United States, and the world, for a resurgence of populism. Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” explains how the populist ideology helped President Trump win the White House. Trump’s message of cultural anxiety connected with voters, but it’s not an unfamiliar ideology. Zakaria op...
![Connecting the Dots Between Global Terrorism and Local Law Enforcement](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null375e6e3a-57b5-4ccf-8e90-c6a4e76acd1b/27721850850_2f507deaf9_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=266%2C0%2C1068%2C1068&w=290)
The United States can’t win the battle against terrorism abroad if it is vulnerable at home. In the era of ISIS, national security, homeland security and public safety are converging, and local law enforcement is on the front lines of this complex new battle. How do we ensure that our state and local police have the technology, information and resources they need to play t...
![Tricks of the Trade: Revealing the Secrets of Modern Campaigns](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null997237f3-5077-45ee-910f-2bb8e09bdda9/27987955615_0b00f5aadd_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=265%2C0%2C1069%2C1069&w=290)
Modern campaigns combine psychology, data, analytics, and technology to persuade and mobilize voters. The smartest campaign teams try to be one step ahead of the voters they’re targeting, even as the 24-hour news cycle and the social media echo chamber move constantly to keep up with this unprecedented election. This session engages political scientists, experts, and campa...
![Taking Aim at Online Hate](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulld46dd285-39a1-42b7-810b-1fae9bbc0c1d/34809293694_66eb6bfec6_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1120%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=290)
Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other hatreds are thriving today, and nowhere are they more rampant, vitriolic, and dangerously unchecked than in cyberspace. Learn how an innovative, high-tech initiative of the Anti-Defamation League and Omidyar Networks will take the fight against hate to the online arenas where it’s thriving, combining state-of-the-art technolog...
![Reaching Rural Populations](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulld4a92c83-d808-4dde-acb7-6d41a59b7699/48114705942_44642b1500_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=904%2C0%2C3600%2C3600&w=290)
In thinly populated regions that stretch over vast territories, primary care is often a long journey from home and specialty services may be completely out of reach. Access to care in some isolated communities may be further complicated by cultural or language barriers, limited transportation networks, and poverty. But advocates working in the rural space are talking solut...
![Tech's Immediate and Existential Threat to Humanity](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/5e671a32-ec3c-4012-bba3-2da8aba730de/43022578652_9854a67175_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1120%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=290)
George Soros said social media platforms are the largest threat to democracy. Marc Benioff said we should regulate them like tobacco. Why? Every day, platforms like Facebook and YouTube point their supercomputers at two billion people’s minds to capture their attention, and in the process create social harms that include digital addiction, amplifying genocide, political po...
![Online Child Trafficking: A Critical Domestic Problem You Probably Don’t Know About](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null31425dd0-135b-42fd-8654-7ad5ef2dc10e/28003740356_1b50c3faa5_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=261%2C0%2C1078%2C1078&w=290)
Today, throughout urban, rural, and tribal regions of the nation, underage girls are being trafficked and sold for sex, online. They are abducted or lured by traffickers and then routinely raped, beaten into submission, and sometimes even branded. And because most children are being sold online, buyers of child sex enjoy full discretion and anonymity. Technology has render...
![The Neuroscience of Poverty](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/b3858c66-9fce-4bb0-b75e-09d013ad5254/35338877282_59d4bac39e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1032%2C0%2C4080%2C4080&w=290)
Poverty is a powerful stressor that influences growth and development in children, and physical and mental health throughout adulthood. Science and imaging technology are making its impact visible, demonstrating how the socioeconomic disparities that flow from historical injustice alter brain structures. We’re also learning that social capital can be a protective layer aga...
![Wicked Problem: A.I. and the Future of Everything](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/ff276956-52b9-42bf-b199-3877f8d121db/53004906983_4c6bd041ea_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1376%2C0%2C5504%2C5504&w=290)
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. The rapid growth of generative A.I. — surpassing expectations with over 100 million users of the technology in a short span of time — is a testament to its distinct intelligence and unique approach to problem-solving. There are many upsi...