Guest bios
- Ross Dawson is a Sydney-based futurist and keynote speaker who founded the Future Exploration Network and has written five books.
- Ramez Naam is a Seattle-based author and climate-technology investor with more than 20 patents, some co-invented with Bill Gates.
- Dawson's book Living Networks, first published in 2002, anticipated social media and the connected economy.
Ross Dawson and Ramez Naam are two of the world's best-known futurists. Dawson, based in Sydney, is a keynote speaker and expert on digital transformation who has advised Fortune 500 companies, founded the Future Exploration Network and written five books; Living Networks, first published in 2002, anticipated social media and the connected economy, and Thriving on Overload helps leaders turn information overload into opportunity. Naam, born in Cairo and based in Seattle, is an award-winning author and climate-technology investor who began his career at Microsoft and holds more than 20 patents, some co-invented with Bill Gates. He is co-chair of energy at Singularity University, wrote the Nexus trilogy on brain-computer links, and in The Infinite Resource and More Than Human argues for innovation and policy reform to meet the challenges of energy, climate and human enhancement.
Show notes
Season 2 of Money Majlis wraps with a powerful double feature recorded live at the inaugural Dubai Futurists Summit 2025, bringing together two of the world’s most compelling futurists: Ross Dawson and Ramez Naam. In this special back-to-back episode, host Suvo Sarkar explores how exponential technologies, AI, clean energy and information networks are reshaping money, work and society, and what leaders, investors and citizens must do now to build a future worth investing in.
Ross Dawson, bestselling author of “Living Networks” and “Thriving on Overload,” explains why we now live in a deeply networked economy - and how AI layered on top of these networks could unlock borderless finance while simultaneously amplifying cyber risk. He shares a practical playbook for turning information overload into an advantage, from sharpening purpose and mental models to mastering attention and synthesis in an age of distractions.
Ross makes the case for designing human-AI collaboration that amplifies uniquely human capabilities instead of replacing them, and sketches a future of fluid organizations where talent, learning and AI agents flow together instead of being trapped in rigid job descriptions. He also warns of deepfakes and post-truth media, arguing that every company must now behave like a transparent media organization to earn trust.
Ramez Naam, futurist, award winning author and climate-tech investor, takes the conversation from networks to the planet’s physical systems, weaving together AI, clean energy and human ingenuity. He describes why, despite conflict and climate risk, this is statistically the best time in human history - and how ideas remain our “infinite resource” for overcoming scarcity.
Ramez breaks down the exponential cost decline of solar, batteries and electric vehicles, and the pivotal role of smart policy in turning early subsidies into today’s market-driven clean-energy surge. He highlights the Middle East’s unique opportunity to leverage abundant sunlight and capital to become a powerhouse in low-cost energy and climate innovation, while also flagging the bottlenecks in grids, data centres and EV charging that entrepreneurs can solve.
Both guests converge on a common call: believe that a positive future is possible, then accept the responsibility to shape it - through better decisions, braver innovation and more inclusive policy.
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