[inaudible conversations] welcome to the Houston Museum of Natural Science i am the director of Adult Education here at the museum we have the honor this evening to host mr. Brown on his discussion his new book make think imagine also here at the museum if youre watching through cspan. This evening we have a wonderful presentation and then followed by a discussion with professor minnis cini from Washington University so now i will handed over to laura brown help me to welcome john brown houston. [applause] ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank the Houston Museum of Natural Science for inviting me to spend some time here this week on the board of several museums and galleries i have a deepo appreciation for the role of institutions like this play in the local community and in society more generally. Into a window of the past and the failure of the present and a guide to the future those resources that go above and beyond what we read in books houston is fortunate to have this place and it is a great treasure to bees here. As a natural scientist and engineer i always thought to maintain a Broad Perspective to educate myself about the art to be involved in cultural organizations to go beyond my core discipline. And then to study physics at the university of cambridge in england i have an essay about something completely different to my main area of study so with the architecture and i can explain later to anyone who is interested what that means so with my bonus check and as a more Senior Executive such as the Folger Shakespeare library in washington dc. Today it is one of the Great Stories to be able to spend even more time with such organizations. There has always been something that has troubled me again and again that arts and culture are the foundation of civilization. Certainly it is essential to understand the human condition and then to visit the chapel here in houston but in my view it is proceeded which is the True Foundation of the civilization and what it is built that is why i wrote make, think, imagine with the lifeblood of human progress. Today i want to tell you four stories while writing the book and after the publication. And just as you which and if they want wish and start the internal discussion so for my first story is about the perceived limits. A few months ago i gave a lecture chairman of the board its one of the major Biomedical Research hubs directed by the nobels prize winner and home to several more prizewinners. After my talk and answer a question that made me think arent humans just like e. Coli . [laughter] his question was about the way in which we use because when you put e. Coli bacteria into a vat of fresh nutrients and then exponentially a gross. Things go downhill rather quickly because they battle it out for a plume of resources. And those to argue the human population to push us toward catastrophic competition followed by a decline in the 1950 the american zoologist recoil and as he predicted around the year 2000 and in the club of rome the similar predictions as it talks about the limits but somehow all the predictions about the collapse have never come to pass and that we pace on plays great challenges today with the unintended consequences of progress itself. Some of these challenges such as Antimicrobial Resistance and Climate Change have the potential to become existential threats. But we are not bacteria. Time and again engineers use their ingenuity and imagination to overcome to work around those strengths to build a better world. That is why the amount of oil the world uses with gdp was by one third since 1985 as engineering and thats why texas by a large margin is the largest generator of cheap power from wind in the United States which is why using Carbon Dioxide with the lowest carbon source of oil in the world. And the progress instigated by the development accelerated by Consumer Preferences and guided by a combination of policy of market forces. And made possible by engineering. My second story is about unintended consequences. During the 1980s the dominant Us Communications operator , at t is broken up into several Smaller Companies this was in the 19 nineties and was all designed to open up the market to encourage competition. As you look back to say what all of this has achieved thanks to a series of mergers that at t is bigger than before it was broken up but when it comes to innovation we have lost something at t was described by some as the nobel prize now by no kia with the intellectual property that migrated overseas particularly to europe and china the practical consequences are bearing out today we do not have any distincty Competitive Authority but instead Companies Like ericsson and no kia and the chinesese firm huawei are in the five g mobile internet from asia and europe with these new standards along the way with these new Critical Technologies with the dependence on people in the us five g is being developed this word not matter if it was underpinned by globalization with a constructive dialogue but it does matter when we experience a technological trade war the major feature of which is deep suspicion from china and as a result the us is at risk of falling behind five g is a change to provide the speed and latency needed with robots and drones to transform our economies and those to perform surgery on patients on the other side of the world using extended reality and now allowing them to feel what is going on at the wendy stadium in one Wembley Stadium 360 degrees full coverage that will completely change the way we experience live sports the geopolitical standoff with the speed and breadth and depth of innovation and it can reverse the globalization many of you will remember having to carrying overseas one for the us, one for europe and one for japan. It is my fear we are headed down the same path today. My third story is about making a tacticalto difference. December 11, 1945 after two other men put on their bowties to receive their nobel prize for the research into penicillin a littleknown female chemical engineer called Margaret Hutchinson russo and had been rich in our the history but the star of the penicillin story because she took a promisingit the highly unstable and sold that problem to transform into the drugs to save our lives. By the time of the Normandy Beach landing june 1944 there was two. 3 million doses off penicillin. Production was stored at 650 billion units per month. For me, that illustrates perfectly why such a powerful force in our world. I think engineering like janice who has two faces one looking at the past and the other looking at the future. And in the case of engineering and with scientific discovery with commerce and humanitarian on military and customers where engineers integrate to come up with solutions these are the tools we use to understand and shape oure world. Time and time again engineers to overcome the impossible eschallenges of the past 40 years they have the red cost of electricity and i hope and expect that the same will happen with the same expensive Carbon Capture technology and then it is a response to climate w change. So it shows us so clearly this is what engineering does to take tools for the once expensive and impractical to make them available to make a practical difference in the world printed books there might bulbs automobiles and Artificial Intelligencenc algorithms are all written up in that time to transform. And my final story is about imagination. Takes place in 19th century to be ever more efficient steam engines. That was of pending to establish social order and building the prosperity andd opportunity that would ripple through society. These engineering advances were unleashing the imagination to some of the air as best scientists. And to take an interest in the new engines using what he saw the fundamental principles of the universe and then to be formulated and that to state with universe as a whole with all the greater disorder. To work and a linear way but it works the other way also once the steam engine was made and then to get the inspiration and thats why call the book make, think imagine in that order and then to imagine those cases and times we have never lived in and that have not yet been built particularly in the Energy Industry because the future, difficult then needs and demands of customers are always changing within the next 20 years today oil and Gas Companies with the s p 500 over the last 30 years. And then and then in palo alto. No doubt we will rely on hydrocarbons for a very very long time to come and will account for 75 percent of a significantly larger base by 2040. The challenge for leaders which oil and gas still underpins prosperity in which the climate is not at risk from the unintended consequences in other words we need to take the carbon out of hydrocarbon. That is something ive been trying to encourage people to do for several decades. And in 1997 ceo of bp the first ceo of a major oil and gas company to recognize the threat posed by Climate Change that was more than 20 years ago i have some ideas and we can discuss that later. But for now if i am a continue from president Abraham Lincoln myom the end of 1862 to be an adequate and then just enthrall ourselves. One that i have always tried to follow and then to administer the advent of the inevitable is difficult to imagine and create this cant be done and that always allows us to bring order to disorder and with that chaotic flow of the universe and then to look at the better world to take that vision into a reality write your question down so we can read it. And to explain the title like its a should i be the opposite . So engineering the future of civilization and to introduce us as lord brown and what is the meaning of that title for you . As a practical matter of a former member of the United Kingdom. And why in history it goes back to a very long way. And then to be kept in order. And the head of state and the house of lords and to collect legislation and technology within the unitedee kingdom as well. So the indication he said get a real job. [laughter] what is the relationship with your father . I have a great relationship i wanted to do Everything Different from what he had done in his life so he was a great soldier during the war and in north africa and eventually after being a professor joined the oil industry and was sent to iran where everybody spoke farsi. And so he did. I spent my teenage life around oil and gas and i said i would never join an oil and gas company. [laughter]r] so i went to university and i was determined to say i was doing research at the time with the great people who uncover the mysteries of continental drift and then to say thats not a real job and then rather arrogantly my father retired that very day and i would like to and he said really . I said yes really. And i really didnt want to leave the uk at the time. Attitudes are very bad in the sixties. I said yes. And i imagine myself doing some work around new york. And the letter came and that the Hr Department word address people. [laughter] so off i went to Anchorage Alaska to become a trainee and to work in the field and in the 200 miles north of the arctic circle. And it was very exciting. And after two years i said i love it. He said stick with it. Thats a good piece of advice. My father was vindicated. [laughter] so a Good Relationship with yourio father. Theres always conflicts between the father ands son. I regard this. But you are inspired to solve problems that others to help find Practical Solutions to the most pressing problems. So which pressing problems have you tried to solve . I have tried to solve a a few because they are very pressing but one that is seized me is the oil and Gas Companies and that worries me a lot. I was convinced to produce hydrocarbon in the atmosphere. Thats the problem i started working with bp and the progress has been made and the other one is to have acceptance for gay people in business subsequent in one subsequently to my outing. My mother was a very determined person and in the holocaust and auschwitz and came out believing the best was always yet to come and history was not that important but what you would do tomorrow is d really important. So if you open a compound going beyond petroleum. That has a big impact and so i decided to go into private equity to set up a fund with no hydrocarbon energy. And several companies that are alive and well and doing things today around the world and then changes the way people thinkin about energy. And the Worlds LargestRenewable Energy fund and against all the odds and with the investment return. And also to produce a proper return on investment and to say and private equity and what you are we also make money and also hydrocarbons that the Second Chapter is titled make. And that is at the root of all progress. My whole life with the lyearly days it is very important we dont everyone in the world whether carpentry or something to wear or something bigger like a full house. And that is very human and as opposed to the factory that is producing something and then to feel more strongly about the factory. About have people mixing that appeals to all humans that is a point that it seems to me. But we are doing it so in a way they are building and we are all engineers. And so Like Software for example. So you say it could also be abstract. Correct. But that is a syntax and the change the way in which of the human being and we were able to cut of things with taxes. So if you really are an enginee engineer. But when i ride a book we cannot write the whole time but the day job i have to write or to pick it up or drop it without getting back to the beginning. And then to have no direction. But then you need to be successful and then to have more than 50 pages. So i was wondering who impressed you the most. They are very distinguished because you never want to answer the question. And at mit his name was bob and had life as a chemical engineer he tried 40 times for amoco to work in refineries he wants them to go into hospital work and why the engineer could ever work in a hospital. But to eventually make it the the engineer discovers whether artificial skin or the other things he has done but think of upstream as the river and then it gets to a tumor and it kills that rather than putting the chemicals in the river and then get to the tumor. That is an extraordinary event that just goes to the target with some success one i find it very impressive not only the breadth of his development hes known as the edison of medicine, 25 billion that have been dominated that when i asked him his purpose, his simply said i would just simply like to reduce suffering. I thought thats probably the most impressive thing i have ever heard anyone tell me some. Why did you write the book . I had the privilege and opportunity that only to write about myself because the books i have written are everything in the first person and in my life that ive been very lucky to do lots of things but i had thein opportunity to get some of the greatest people in these areas and ask if i could talk to them. In some ways i was trying to bring my readers into news around the world for those that we couldnt talk to. And that is very important and thats very important to me to make this key point that civilization to keep it progressing to do more, not less of this activity so lets do less of it if it is Antimicrobial Resistance or antibiotics or drugs that dont work against certain bacteria we see the whole thing doesntt work or that we have to engineer a different set of drugs. When there are problems with facial recognition we now open the iphone with our face but we dont like it when it is used for surveillance against people or to discriminate as we see happening in china we dont want that. So we have to do something about that if it happens in our country or we have to recognize everything you do has the unintended consequences bad news as well as good news. That third sector in this chapter, you write it is a favorite for whatis is unique what do you think . I look at the pen as the ultimate way to transfer what is in my w head with great discipline because it is tough. It is very difficult. As an example because it democratizes pens to be invented by hungarian and he invented beautifully designed engineered product and upside down even and with ink and pen and blotting paper to have one simple object and allows you to do amazing things. And now to the words i put on the page and the military resistance between the idea and that gives me space to think. So where we experience the precious moment. Word i said and i have constructed my life the point about what i do is to solve problems big and small. And the way myself is that i can write it down and then i can read it back and it still makes sense and if i read it out loud it still makes sense that i could get close to a solution i cannot waveos my hands and say i heard it on the street so i wrote it down. So to be disciplined it is that resistance to get something don done. I cannot do that with the scree screen. And because i had three kids. And also to have a very dynamic life were sometimes if you have an idea you have to weigh it down if im in the presence of a book i have the privilege to exercise and come back at breakfast and i do this in venice because it