Toshi Anders Hoo

Member

Feb. 16

Toshi is the director of the Emerging Media Lab (EML) at Institute for the Future (IFTF), where he explores the implications of the rapidly evolving technologies and platforms that transform human communication. He has worked on a wide range of cutting-edge experiential media projects utilizing interactive and immersive technologies such as A/R and V/R. Under his direction, the EML serves as a prototyping studio, an independent research group, and an active participant in the continually evolving relationship between humans and the sophisticated media systems they create.

Toshi’s work explores not only the direct applications of emerging technologies but also the wider implications and impact on individuals, organizations, and society at large. Prior to joining IFTF, Toshi served as media technology consultant for famed futurist Ray Kurzweil, with whom he produced live VR demonstrations for the TED stage and co-directed the feature-length documentary “The Singularity is Near” based on Kurzweil’s best-selling book. Toshi studied film at Mass College of Art and Design and religion at Bryn Athyn College. Toshi also runs the "Future Curious" FB group tracking and sense-mapping #signlsofchange.

Q&A

What are the problems you are interested in solving?

I believe that stories are the most important human technology as they evolved as our most valuable tool of survival and allow our collective action and intelligence to pass through time and space. Like food, we live in a time of over-abundance that has led us to forget that our survival is based in the cultivation of stories to ensure our survival as individuals and as a species. I am very interested in exploring both the new TECHNOLOGY and the MYTHOLOGIES that are emerging to help us make sense of our relationships to ourselves, each other, and our world, and that challenge and revitalize existing mythologies that encapsulate models of previous times.