# David Orban

> Searching for the Right Question

David Orban, AI pioneer, investor, author, and keynote speaker on how artificial intelligence, blockchain, and exponential technologies reshape society and expand human potential.

- [David Orban](https://davidorban.com)

## Start here

- [About](https://davidorban.com/about/): Meet David Orban: investor, entrepreneur, author of Something New: AIs And Us, and keynote speaker at the intersection of technology and society for over twenty years.
- [Speaking](https://davidorban.com/speaking/): Invite David Orban to keynote your conference, board, or leadership event. Over 100 talks delivered worldwide on AI, acceleration, and the human future.
- [Work with David](https://davidorban.com/work/): Work with David Orban: advisory, mentorship, and board roles for startups, funds, and organizations navigating AI and exponential technology.
- [Contact](https://davidorban.com/contact/): Get in touch with David Orban for speaking, advisory, media, and collaboration. Direct routes for events and general inquiries.

## Video and audio

- [The Context](https://davidorban.com/the-context/): The Context: David Orban's video series and podcast on technology, society, and turning understanding into action. Watch and listen to every episode.
- [Podcast](https://davidorban.com/podcast/): David Orban's podcasts: Searching for the Question, The Context, and Qual e la domanda. Conversations on technology, society, and the future.
- [Follow & Subscribe](https://davidorban.com/follow/): Follow David Orban across YouTube, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and his podcasts for ongoing insight on AI, technology, and the future of society.
- [AV & Speaker Kit](https://davidorban.com/speaking/avkit/): David Orban's audio-visual and speaker kit: streaming and recording hardware, biography, portraits, and everything event organizers need.

## Books and courses

- [Publications](https://davidorban.com/publications/): Books by David Orban, including Something New: AIs And Us, exploring artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, and the future of humanity. In English, Italian, and Spanish.
- [Jolting Course](https://davidorban.com/jolting-course/): Jolting by David Orban: a course on thriving through accelerating technological change. Learn to anticipate, adapt, and act on exponential shifts.

## Recent writing

- [Cheaper Verification, and More Valuable Trust](https://davidorban.com/2026/10/cheaper-verification-and-more-valuable-trust/) (2026-10-16)
- [Every Project Still Needs Buyers](https://davidorban.com/2026/10/every-project-still-needs-buyers/) (2026-10-09)
- [Risk Between Ice and Gas](https://davidorban.com/2026/10/risk-between-ice-and-gas/) (2026-10-04)
- [A Bit of Chaos You Choose](https://davidorban.com/2026/09/a-bit-of-chaos-you-choose/) (2026-09-27)
- [Confusion Is the Correct Response](https://davidorban.com/2026/09/confusion-is-the-correct-response/) (2026-09-26)
- [What Three Months Look Like Now](https://davidorban.com/2026/09/what-three-months-look-like-now/) (2026-09-24)
- [Do You Want to Win a Nobel Prize?](https://davidorban.com/2026/09/do-you-want-to-win-a-nobel-prize/) (2026-09-17)
- [Hyperstition Over Superstition](https://davidorban.com/2026/09/hyperstition-over-superstition/) (2026-09-11)
- [A Millicorn in Everyone’s Future](https://davidorban.com/2026/09/a-millicorn-in-everyones-future/) (2026-09-05)
- [Which rung of sovereign do you mean?](https://davidorban.com/2026/08/which-rung-of-sovereign-do-you-mean/) (2026-08-28)
- [The Educational Transition: School and University in the Age of AI](https://davidorban.com/2026/08/the-educational-transition-school-and-university-in-the-age-of-ai/) (2026-08-20)
- [The Urban Design Of My AI Agent Architecture](https://davidorban.com/2026/08/the-urban-design-of-my-ai-agent-architecture/) (2026-08-16)
- [Present as Capital, Absent as a Voice](https://davidorban.com/2026/08/present-as-capital-absent-as-a-voice/) (2026-08-14)
- [The Anatomy of a Pass](https://davidorban.com/2026/08/the-anatomy-of-a-pass/) (2026-08-06)
- [When Machines Think, Twenty Years Later](https://davidorban.com/2026/08/when-machines-think-twenty-years-later/) (2026-08-02)
- [Avoiding The Freezing Equilibrium](https://davidorban.com/2026/07/avoiding-the-freezing-equilibrium/) (2026-07-18)
- [Exponential Aging](https://davidorban.com/2026/07/exponential-aging/) (2026-07-14)
- [Introducing Al Liwan Labs](https://davidorban.com/2026/07/introducing-al-liwan-labs/) (2026-07-11)
- [Ikigai Collective](https://davidorban.com/2026/07/announcing-the-ikigai-collective/) (2026-07-04)
- [Superintelligence: A Cosmic Phase Transition](https://davidorban.com/2026/06/superintelligence-a-cosmic-phase-transition/) (2026-06-21)
- [Italy’s Quiet Superpower: Design Excellence That Deserves a Bigger Stage](https://davidorban.com/2026/06/italys-quiet-superpower-design-excellence-that-deserves-a-bigger-stage/) (2026-06-18)
- [We Are About to Colonize the Solar System: The Transformation We Are Living Through](https://davidorban.com/2026/06/we-are-about-to-colonize-the-solar-system/) (2026-06-16)
- [The Right to Non-Adoption](https://davidorban.com/2026/06/the-right-to-non-adoption/) (2026-06-14)
- [From Work to Passion](https://davidorban.com/2026/06/from-work-to-passion/) (2026-06-07)
- [Learning Anywhere, with Anyone, at Any Age](https://davidorban.com/2026/05/learning-anywhere-with-anyone-at-any-age/) (2026-05-31)
- [Where the Pope is right about AI, and where Rome risks a second Galileo](https://davidorban.com/2026/05/where-the-pope-is-right-about-ai-and-where-rome-risks-a-second-galileo/) (2026-05-25)
- [Artificial Persons, Human Freedoms](https://davidorban.com/2026/05/artificial-persons-human-freedoms/) (2026-05-24)
- [Ten Years Later: Releasing “Something New?” to the Commons](https://davidorban.com/2025/12/ten-years-later-releasing-something-new-to-the-commons/) (2025-12-20)
- [The Evolving Architecture of Value, Technology, and Human Purpose](https://davidorban.com/2025/12/the-evolving-architecture-of-value-technology-and-human-purpose/) (2025-12-18)
- [Location, Location, Location: Physical, Digital, Global](https://davidorban.com/2025/12/location-location-location-physical-digital-global/) (2025-12-13)
- [The Capital Of Capital](https://davidorban.com/2025/11/the-capital-of-capital/) (2025-11-30)
- [Human Flourishing in the Age of AI and Robots](https://davidorban.com/2025/11/human-flourishing-in-the-age-of-ai-and-robots/) (2025-11-03)
- [How Do Wikipedia And Grokipedia Compare?](https://davidorban.com/2025/11/how-do-wikipedia-and-grokipedia-compare/) (2025-11-02)
- [We Are All Futurists](https://davidorban.com/2025/09/we-are-all-futurists/) (2025-09-15)
- [The AI Paradox](https://davidorban.com/2025/08/the-ai-paradox/) (2025-08-24)
- [The Jolting Mindset: Why Exponential Thinking No Longer Explains Our Reality](https://davidorban.com/2025/07/the-jolting-mindset-why-exponential-thinking-no-longer-explains-our-reality/) (2025-07-14)
- [Meet My AI Twin: R. David Orban](https://davidorban.com/2025/06/meet-my-ai-twin-r-david-orban/) (2025-06-30)
- [Discover The Power of the Command Line](https://davidorban.com/2025/05/discover-the-power-of-the-command-line/) (2025-05-04)
- [Quantum Consciousness in AIs and Robots: A Conversation with Suzanne Gildert](https://davidorban.com/2025/04/quantum-consciousness-in-ais-and-robots-a-conversation-with-suzanne-gildert/) (2025-04-17)
- [AI 2027: Are We Ready for Superintelligence?](https://davidorban.com/2025/04/ai-2027-are-we-ready-for-superintelligence/) (2025-04-06)
- [The Two Pillars of Modern App Expectations: Data Portability and Semantic Search](https://davidorban.com/2025/04/the-two-pillars-of-modern-app-expectations-data-portability-and-semantic-search/) (2025-04-02)
- [Audience Q&A From The Stellar Live Stream](https://davidorban.com/2025/03/audience-qa-from-the-stellar-live-stream/) (2025-03-23)
- [Is extraction economics coming to an end?](https://davidorban.com/2025/03/is-extraction-economics-coming-to-an-end/) (2025-03-20)
- [How to Export Your ChatGPT Data, and Those of Other AIs](https://davidorban.com/2025/02/how-to-export-your-chatgpt-data-and-those-of-other-ais/) (2025-02-10)
- [What Is Scalability?](https://davidorban.com/2025/01/what-is-scalability/) (2025-01-23)
- [The Unreasonable Scalability of AI](https://davidorban.com/2025/01/the-unreasonable-scalability-of-ai/) (2025-01-09)
- [AI Scaling Laws Prove Kurzweil Right Again](https://davidorban.com/2025/01/ai-scaling-laws-prove-kurzweil-right-again/) (2025-01-07)
- [Reclaim Your Digital Autonomy: Backup Your Online Data](https://davidorban.com/2025/01/reclaim-your-digital-autonomy/) (2025-01-05)
- [From Horse Carriages to Rockets: Why Data Quality Drives the Speed of Innovation](https://davidorban.com/2024/11/from-horse-carriages-to-rockets-why-data-quality-drives-the-speed-of-innovation/) (2024-11-23)
- [Lying, Dishonesty, Deception, Obfuscation, and Misdirection Are Normal and Necessary for Today’s AIs. And Tomorrow’s?](https://davidorban.com/2024/11/lying-ai/) (2024-11-02)
- [The Serendipity of In-Person Conferences](https://davidorban.com/2024/10/the-serendipity-of-in-person-conferences/) (2024-10-20)
- [Radio Interview About The Technological Singularity](https://davidorban.com/2024/10/radio-interview-about-the-technological-singularity/) (2024-10-14)
- [When Humanity Merges With Artificial Intelligence](https://davidorban.com/2024/08/when-humanity-merges-with-artificial-intelligence/) (2024-08-30)
- [I Have An AI Accent](https://davidorban.com/2024/08/i-have-an-ai-accent/) (2024-08-01)
- [Interviewed About Cryonics for Codice](https://davidorban.com/2024/07/interviewed-about-cryonics-for-codice/) (2024-07-27)
- [The Broken Periodic Table Analogy: A Disservice To Deep Understanding](https://davidorban.com/2024/07/the-broken-periodic-table-analogy-a-disservice-to-deep-understanding/) (2024-07-25)
- [Birthday Gifts of Positivity](https://davidorban.com/2024/07/birthday-gifts-of-positivity/) (2024-07-17)
- [Radical Human Longevity](https://davidorban.com/2024/07/radical-human-longevity/) (2024-07-14)
- [Is This Idea Novel? An AI Based Scoring System](https://davidorban.com/2024/07/is-this-idea-novel-an-ai-based-scoring-system/) (2024-07-06)
- [Shortening Doubling Rates Are The Engine of AGI Progress](https://davidorban.com/2024/07/shortening-doubling-rates-are-the-engine-of-agi-progress/) (2024-07-03)
- [Humanoid Robots and the Future of Labor](https://davidorban.com/2024/07/humanoid-robots-and-the-future-of-labor/) (2024-07-03)
- [Our First Interstellar Mission: Breakthrough Starshot](https://davidorban.com/2024/06/our-first-interstellar-mission-breakthrough-starshot/) (2024-06-25)
- [The Challenges Of Unions Between AI And Humanoid Robots](https://davidorban.com/2024/06/unions/) (2024-06-20)
- [Innovation And Tradition: A Role For Peer-to-Peer Communities](https://davidorban.com/2024/06/innovation-and-tradition-a-role-for-peer-to-peer-communities/) (2024-06-15)
- [21st Century Workers’ Rights](https://davidorban.com/2024/06/21st-century-workers-rights/) (2024-06-12)
- [Just Intelligence](https://davidorban.com/2024/06/just-intelligence/) (2024-06-10)
- [Signed by Provoke Management](https://davidorban.com/2024/06/signed-by-provoke-management/) (2024-06-10)
- [Useful Analogies For A World Of Abundance](https://davidorban.com/2024/06/useful-analogies-for-a-world-of-abundance/) (2024-06-07)
- [Artificial Intelligence and Emotions](https://davidorban.com/2024/05/artificial-intelligence-and-emotions/) (2024-05-26)
- [AI Agents with Tommaso Furlanello](https://davidorban.com/2024/05/ai-agents-with-tommaso-furlanello/) (2024-05-25)
- [Space, robotics and artificial intelligence](https://davidorban.com/2024/05/space-robotics-and-artificial-intelligence/) (2024-05-23)
- [AI Agents and Finance](https://davidorban.com/2024/05/ai-agents-and-finance/) (2024-05-18)
- [Technological Optimism and e/acc](https://davidorban.com/2024/05/technological-optimism-and-e-acc/) (2024-05-07)
- [On AI Copyrights](https://davidorban.com/2024/04/on-ai-copyrights/) (2024-04-29)
- [Guest on The Futurists Live](https://davidorban.com/2024/04/guest-on-the-futurists-live/) (2024-04-20)
- [Warning Sign “CREATED WITH AI”](https://davidorban.com/2024/04/warning-sign-created-with-ai/) (2024-04-12)
- [The Progress Of Quantum Technologies](https://davidorban.com/2024/04/the-progress-of-quantum-technologies/) (2024-04-12)
- [“When We Were Godlike” – a tale of creation](https://davidorban.com/2024/04/when-we-were-godlike-a-tale-of-creation/) (2024-04-05)
- [Remembering Vernor Vinge: A 2008 Interview on the Technological Singularity](https://davidorban.com/2024/04/remembering-vernor-vinge-a-2008-interview-on-the-technological-singularity/) (2024-04-04)
- [AI Safety and Alignment of LLMs](https://davidorban.com/2024/04/ai-safety-and-alignment-of-llms/) (2024-04-03)
- [Human Empowerment in an AI-Driven World](https://davidorban.com/2024/04/human-empowerment-in-an-ai-driven-world/) (2024-04-03)
- [My Video Transcription And Editing Process](https://davidorban.com/2024/04/my-current-process-to-transcribe-and-edit-videos/) (2024-04-01)
- [Rehan School – Innovation in Education in Pakistan](https://davidorban.com/2024/03/rehan-school-innovation-in-education-in-pakistan/) (2024-03-28)
- [Innovation Must Make Mistakes](https://davidorban.com/2024/02/innovation-must-make-mistakes/) (2024-02-24)
- [Why I Don’t Want to Travel Faster Than Light?](https://davidorban.com/2024/01/why-i-dont-want-to-travel-faster-than-light/) (2024-01-25)
- [AI Is A Bridge For Our Tomorrow](https://davidorban.com/2024/01/ai-is-a-bridge-for-our-tomorrow/) (2024-01-14)
- [Interoperable Online Human Relationships](https://davidorban.com/2023/12/interoperable-online-human-relationships/) (2023-12-26)
- [Email is great, let’s keep it that way](https://davidorban.com/2023/11/email-is-great-lets-keep-it-that-way/) (2023-11-14)
- [Embracing Generative AI: Transforming HR Functions](https://davidorban.com/2023/11/embracing-generative-ai-transforming-hr-functions/) (2023-11-07)
- [AI-powered startup coaching with Actioneer](https://davidorban.com/2023/10/ai-powered-startup-coaching-with-actioneer/) (2023-10-27)
- [Interview about the Singularity](https://davidorban.com/2023/10/interview-about-the-singularity/) (2023-10-20)
- [My Vipassana Silent Retreat Experience](https://davidorban.com/2023/08/my-vipassana-silent-retreat-experience/) (2023-08-21)
- [What Data for AI Training? The example of Japan](https://davidorban.com/2023/06/what-data-for-ai-training-the-example-of-japan/) (2023-06-05)
- [Jolting Dynamics at NVIDIA’s Announcements](https://davidorban.com/2023/05/jolting-dynamics-at-nvidias-announcements/) (2023-05-30)
- [The Coevolution of AI and Humanity](https://davidorban.com/2023/05/the-coevolution-of-ai-and-humanity/) (2023-05-22)
- [Don’t be a Zombie, be a Luminary](https://davidorban.com/2023/05/dont-be-a-zombie-be-a-luminary/) (2023-05-07)
- [Supporting Competence, the Example of Starship](https://davidorban.com/2023/04/supporting-competence-the-example-of-starship/) (2023-04-27)
- [Petition to reactivate ChatGPT in Italy](https://davidorban.com/2023/04/petition-to-reactivate-chatgpt-in-italy/) (2023-04-08)
- [AI Progress Can’t be Stopped but Must be Managed](https://davidorban.com/2023/03/ai-progress-cant-be-stopped-but-must-be-managed/) (2023-03-31)
- [Quieting the Busy Mind](https://davidorban.com/2023/01/quieting-the-busy-mind/) (2023-01-25)

## Optional

- [All writing](https://davidorban.com/blog/): The complete archive of essays, newest first.
- [XML sitemap](https://davidorban.com/sitemap.xml): Every indexable URL on the site.