MARK STEVENSON
Mark Stevenson’s life is an exercise in balancing accessible entertainment and extreme geekiness.
His early career saw him simultaneously work as an expert in prime number cryptography while fronting a pop band, enjoying brief notoriety in Japan, France and much to his surprise, Chile. The videos still embarrass him. In his spare time he wrote a national newspaper column.
Mark then took to stand-up comedy, deriving almost all of his material from the annals of scientific and mathematical research. “Smart doesn’t have to be dull or for those with an education,” he says. “There’s something great about working Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem into a set on a Tuesday night in Swindon.” He was soon writing for Talkback Thames, fulfilling a regular joke writing contract and is currently collaborating on two plays about truth as well as writing ‘An Optimist’s Tour of the Future’ – a popular science book for people who don’t read popular science books, as well as providing a funnier read for those who do.
Continuing to balance entertainment with more formal vehicles Mark is also the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of both Flow Associates, the UK’s most respected cultural learning consultancy and ReAgency, an agency for science communication talent. He has recently been elected a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce.
A passionate advocate for science, an innovative approach, a great sense of humour and the ability to make the mundane seem much more interesting – Royal College of Surgeons
An unashamedly intelligent comedic talent – The Irish Independent
Extremely funny, scientifically relevant and a consummate professional – University of Bristol Medical School
A unique talent for communicating science in a funny, charming and accurate way. Highly recommended – Dana Alliance for the Brain
Tall – Lichfield Mercury
For more information visit www.optimistontour.com
LATEST BOOK: AN OPTIMIST'S TOUR OF THE FUTURE
Mark Stevenson has been to the future a few years ahead of the rest of us - and reckons it has a lot going for it. His voyage of discovery takes him to Oxford to meet Transhumanists (they intend to live forever), to Boston where he confronts a robot with mood swings, to an underwater cabinet meeting in the Indian Ocean, and Australia to question the Outback's smartest farmer. He clambers around space planes in the Mojave desert, gets to grips with the potential of nanotechnology, delves deep into the possibilities of biotech, sees an energy renaissance on a printer, a revolution in communications, has his genome profiled, and glimpses the next stage of human evolution ... and tries to make sense of what's in store. Insightful and often very funny, An Optimist's Tour of the Future is a book that tracks one curious man's journey to find out 'what's in store?'
BIBLIOGRAPHY: An Optimist’s Tour of the Future, Penguin USA; Profile UK, 2011; Piper Verlag, Germany, 2011; Carta Blanca, Poland, 2012; Hatice, Turkey 2012, Galaxia, Spain, 2010.
