Here's a quick list of what I'm mildly obsessed about right now:
- Data analysis, large-scale inference, augmented cognition — labels differ, but the underlying mathematics is often pretty much the same.
- Smart, distributed, large-scale software/systems/markets/organizations — basically, the systematic application of inference-driven technologies.
- The big challenges and the big opportunities: dealing with climate change, improving global information, policy, and financial systems, global health and education, application of (simultaneously) bio-neuro-cogno-cyber tech, and the thorny question of 19th century-minded politicians using 20th century governance systems to deal with 21st century problems.