Writer, commentator and technologist Azeem Azhar and cities consultant Stephen Hilton discuss creating better cities and a better life for people in cities in a fast-moving world.

We are entering the Exponential Age. Between faster computers, better software and bigger data, ours is the first era in human history in which technology is constantly accelerating. Azeem Azhar – creator of the acclaimed Exponential View newsletter – understands this shift better than anyone. Technology, he argues, is developing at an increasing, rampant rate. But human society – from our businesses to our political institutions – can only ever adapt at a slower, incremental pace. The result is an ‘exponential gap’, between the power of new technology and our ability to keep up.

In his new book Exponential, Azhar shows how this gap can explain our society’s most pressing problems – from established businesses’ difficulty keeping up with digital platforms, to the sclerotic response of liberal democracies to fast-moving social problems. He draws on cutting-edge social science to explain how to stop the gap eroding our economies, our politics and our lives.

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Festival of the Future City: Azeem Azhar and Stephen Hilton