Where Is Science Leading Us? - And What Can We Do to Steer It?

This book charts the evolution of the sciences and technologies that have shaped our modern age like nothing else in the last 60 years. As well as describing many exciting developments, it will also highlight the challenges and dangers of the technologies that have emerged from them. While science and technology have brought about enormous and often astonishing improvements in our quality of life, they have often also brought with them considerable risks, including the risk of human extinction. We place particular emphasis on the aspects that directly impact us as human beings: Artificial Intelligence (AI), enhancements of our brains/minds through innovative neuro-technologies, and the integration of nanotechnology into our bodies for early disease detection and elimination. What philosophical implications arise from these transformations? Authored by two theoretical physicists who are also experts in economics and capital markets - a rather rare combination - the book will explain the developments of modern science and the resulting technologies. It also examines the current state of play and emerging developments in a manner accessible to non-scientists. Based on their own experience and the analysis, the authors also propose ways in which science can progress more harmoniously in future.

Lars Jaeger, 53, studied physics, mathematics, philosophy and history in Bonn and Paris, and spent several years doing research in theoretical physics in the area of quantum field theories and chaos theory (University of Bonn, Ecole Polytechnique de Paris, Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden). He has lived near Zurich for 25 years, where he has built up two companies as an entrepreneur, using mathematical methods to model global financial markets and construct systemic trading models from them. His enthusiasm for the natural sciences and philosophy has never left him. He is the author of ten books around corresponding topics and lives with his family in the canton of Zug.

Michel Dacorogna is partner at Prime Re Solutions, a company advising financial institutions on actuarial and economic matters. He is the former scientific advisor to the chairman of SCOR, the fifth largest reinsurer. He conducts research in the field of insurance mathematics, capital management and risks. He presents models and capital management techniques to management and customers. Michel was deputy group CRO of SCOR in charge of Solvency II and risk modelling. He was at the origin of SCOR's internal model, which he developed with his team for more than 10 years. In 2009, he received from Risk Magazine the price of Insurance Risk Manager of the year.

Author and co-author of more than 95 publications in refereed scientific journals; he is often invited to present his results in international conferences and specialized seminars. His work is referenced in many publications. One of the papers he co-authored was the most quoted paper over 5 years in the Journal of Banking and Finance. His book: 'An Introduction to High Frequency Fi-nance' remains a reference in the field. He also lectures at the ETH and University of Zurich, and at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, at ESSEC Business School (Paris) in their Master of Finance and insurance programs.