Scott Amyx is the Managing Partner at Astor Perkins a deep tech and sustainability VC that backs mavericks solving some of the hardest problems facing humanity on Earth and in space such as climate change mitigation, longevity, and human survival on Earth and in deep space.
Scott is also a Forbes New York Business Council Member, Singularity University/ Smart City Accelerator mentor and startup board member, and SXSW Pitch judge. He is a national Sloan Fellow/Woodrow Wilson Fellow and has spoken at TEDx multiple times. Scott is a global thought leader on breakthrough innovation, voted top global innovation keynote speaker, and author on smart cities. Scott has been nominated to the World Economic Forum as a committee member for the Future of the Internet. He has been featured in New York Times, TIME, Forbes, The Washington Post, WIRED, and many other publications.
Scott is the co-author of Internet of Things and Data Analytics Handbook, an academic publication by John Wiley and Sons, and The Advances in Information Security, Privacy, & Ethics (AISPE) Book Series: Managing Security Issues and the Hidden Dangers of Wearable Technologies, an academic publication by IGI Global.
Speaking Topics -
As a deep tech venture capitalist, Scott invests in some of the most cutting-edge technologies -- quantum computers, space, climate tech, longevity, and autonomy. As an expert in innovation, he intimately understands the benefits of exponential technologies but also recognizes the need for human change management within organizations. His keynotes address people's greatest fears about disruptive technologies and how they and their organizations can harness the potential while mitigating concerns of human displacement.
(BOOK) Strive: How Doing the Things Most Uncomfortable Leads to Success
Scott’s feature Wiley book Strive is available for order. Find out how doing the things most uncomfortable leads to success. Pioneering thought leader Scott Amyx shows anyone striving to succeed, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are, that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but doing the things uncomfortable he calls “strive”. Drawing on his own powerful story of an impoverished immigrant frequently told that he would amount to nothing, Amyx, now a celebrated venture capitalist and futurist, describes his meteoric rise from obscurity to prominence, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not intellect, opportunities or even network but pursuing personal change that’s uncomfortable. In this book, Scott takes readers into his defining life moments and stories from some of the most unlikely individuals who persevered through change to become outrageously successful. He also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in high performance. Finally, he shares what he’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from corporate CEOs, unicorn startup entrepreneurs to global policy leaders. Strive shows how you can shape your life and your career, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of delightful surprise.
(BOOK) The Human Race: How Humans Can Survive in the Robotic Age
Scott’s second feature book The Human Race: How Humans Can Survive in the Robotic Age is scheduled to come out next year. Scott explores the imminent net job loss from artificial intelligence, robotics and the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on income inequality and rise in populism and nationalism that are sweeping across the globe.
AI-driven cyber-physical automation is expected to displace 50% to 80% of the human workforce by 2030. As the pace of convergence of exponential technologies reach near vertical slope, the trend of human displacement is unstoppable. What will be the role of humans?
For the structurally unemployed and underemployed, it will be bleak future with limited options. Only those with highly specialized PhDs in fields that create, train and maintain AI, robotic and advanced scientific and technical systems may have a place in the world of hyper-automation. Contrary to popular belief that only predictable physical work is automatable, as narrow AI continues to master new niches, it will amass a superset of capabilities that will not only replace tasks but holistic job functions. There is no senior executive, policymaker or subject matter expert that will be safe.
Scott explores the limitations of universal basic income and taxing robots. Instead, he proposes a vastly different, out-of-the-box solution called the Human Currency. It’s a global economy and a cryptocurrency based on human-to-human empathy services. Moreover, it has the resiliency and sustainability built into the system to ensure the viability of the human race for centuries to come.
Scott emphasizes the need to pursue job training and labor force development in human-to-human services that leverage our ability to empathize with the human condition. The empathy business models and services will become the bedrock of post Fourth Industrial Revolution.
