Ed Finn - Thoughtful optimism, intellectual voyaging, and a Center for Science and the Imagination

Ed Finn might be best described as an imaginer. The rest of the many things that he is and does kind of fall into place with that foundation. He started and for the past decade has been Director of the unexampled Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University.

As founding director of the Center, as in his own life, Ed brings writing, art and other creative thinking into conversation with science, engineering and technology to reignite humanity’s grand ambitions for innovation and discovery.

In addition to cultivating a new imagination, Ed Finn is an associate professor with joint appointments in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and the Department of English.

He also serves as the academic director of Future Tense, a partnership between ASU, New America and Slate Magazine, and a co-director of Emerge, an annual festival of art, ideas and the future.

His teaching, research, and life explore digital narratives, creative collaboration, and the intersection of the humanities, arts and sciences.

In 2017 he published a brilliant book and compulsory reading for anyone trying to understand our digital age What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing. He is also the co-editor of Future Tense Fiction, Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers and Creators of All Kinds, and Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, among other books.

Ed has a BA in from Princeton in Comparative Literature, Computer Science, Creative Writing; and an MA and PhD from Stanford in English.

Before graduate school, he worked as a journalist at Time, Slate, and Popular Science.

Ed’s path through the world and the way he helps others radically reimagine our world is an inspiration.