Cosmic Citizens and Moonshot Thinking

About the Book

From award-winning educator, innovation expert, and Global Teacher Prize finalist, Rohan Roberts, comes a provocative look at why our current education system is not fit for purpose and why we need to overhaul it. Cosmic Citizens and Moonshot Thinking: Education in an Age of Exponential Technologies takes a fresh approach to what we need to do differently to prepare our children for a world of exponential technologies, disruptive innovations, and ubiquitous A.I. In this groundbreaking book, Roberts outlines the purpose of education in a world of increased outsourcing and automation and explains how we can future-proof our youth to survive and thrive in a world of accelerating change. Through interactions with corporate leaders, interviews with principals, meetings with parents, and surveys of students, this book considers how the best and brightest students would overhaul their education system. The book highlights the role of neuroscience in education and explores several fascinating concepts such as radical openness, abundance mindsets, the gig economy, the technological singularity, intelligent optimism, the age of imagination, humanics, transhumanism, and the importance of Enlightenment values as we advance into the 21st Century. Underpinning this book is a constant focus on the importance of bringing a sense of awe into education and fostering a sense of cosmic wonder when contemplating human purpose and human existence. Written in a style that is discursive, contemplative, and with a sense of urgency, this book will appeal to students, parents, teachers, school principals, and to anyone who recognises that the only real and long-lasting way to create a better society is to first fix our education system.

About the Author

Rohan Roberts is the Innovation Leader at GEMS Education, the world’s largest private education provider. He is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of several global organisations including, Intelligent Optimism, Café Scientifique Dubai, and Awecademy. He is also the director of the Dubai Science Festival. He has a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Leeds and a CICTT diploma from the University of Cambridge. He is a Microsoft Certified Master Trainer, a Google Certified Educator, and has won numerous national and international awards in the fields of education, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He was the 2016 finalist of the $1 million Global Teacher Prize. In recent years, he has worked with MIT’s SOLVE lab, Harvard’s Project Zero, and is currently collaborating with Singularity University in creating a Global Futures Curriculum about disruptive innovations and the impact of exponential technologies on humanity.