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From Now Conference Preview: Playing with Ayogo’s Michael Fergusson

Where are we going in this world with so many advanced in technology? How will our homes, communities, cities and world change? Will it be for the better or for the worse? This is part of a set of interviews with experts on this subject that will be

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Where are we going in this world with so many advanced in technology? How will our homes, communities, cities and world change? Will it be for the better or for the worse? This is part of a set of interviews with experts on this subject that will be speaking at the From Now conference on 7th June.

Earlier this week we caught up with Michael Fergusson who is talking at the From Now conference, happening on 7th June here in Vancouver, about using game psychology and play to help us with managing and improving our health.

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Michael believes that playing is one of the most meaningful and productive things we can do. Michael is the CEO and Founder of Ayogo, a company that has won many awards for their use of social game play to help patients take control of their treatments. He was Ernst & Young’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year, and was recently named to the PharmaVOICE 100, a peer-nominated list of the 100 most inspiring people in Life Sciences.

Hi Michael, what drives your passion to keep looking at how being more playful can help health care become more efficient, more effective, and more relevant?

Delivering modern healthcare efficiently and effectively is one of the biggest challenges our species has ever faced. I love the idea that an important part of the solution is to play more, to be more joyful, and to engage with each other while doing so. If I can make the world a better place in this way, it would be a great legacy.

Ayogo produces amazing social games and apps that apply of game psychology to patient self-care. What are a couple of the biggest things you have learnt over the last few years in this area?

Thank you for saying. We have learned that much more of our behaviour is instinctive than we realize, driven by our subconscious. We've also learned that much of that is driven by our instinct to orient ourselves and our behaviour to the other humans we come in contact with. We're not just social on the surface - we're social to our genes. Subconscious cues passed between people, who themselves don't realize they're sending or receiving these queues, drives an amazing amount of our behaviour.

What games do you play to help increase the health of you, your family and friends?

Thankfully, we're not managing any chronic diseases in our family. I use games like Zombies, Run! and lighter, "gamified" apps like RunKeeper to motivate my exercise (and have a friendly competitions with my wife). I play sports (games) like soccer and Tae Kwon Do to help me stay focused. I also play a great many "barely games" (a term I take from this great talk by Russell Davies: http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2009/11/playful.html).

Can you give us a big prediction that will likely happen from now until 2045 (the reported year where the singularity will be realized)?

Here's three for you: The internet of things will include "things" like our organs and even our genes. Telecommunications technology will be universal and completely invisible. We will only forget things by choice.

It looks like we are on a path toward transhumanism and I, for one, can't wait to see where that goes. We look forward to seeing you speak on 7th June.

New speaker added - We are delighted to announce that we have added a new speaker to the roster as well.  Jonathan Tallant is the Associate Professor and Head of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham where he focuses on the philosophy of time. He's also the current president of the Philosophy of Time Society and an Associate Member of the Centre for Time, based in Milan, and will bring an amazing perspective. He will talk about philosophical models of time: their past, present and future, and how these models shape the way we represent the world around us.

Nikolas Badminton is a futurist, innovation consultant and the curator of From Now, a not-for-profit conference, hosted at Vancouver agency Make’s amazing warehouse space,  for people to come together, learn and discuss how technology is integrating into and changing our societies and culture. VIA is a proud media sponsor and we’d love you to join us to see Nora Young from CBC Spark, Toby Barnes from AKQA in Portland, Michael Fergusson from Ayogo, Amal Graafstra from DangerousThings.com and Jonathan Tallant from the University of Nottingham and myself. Take a look at the talks and register here.