Future Perfect 50 Recognizes Visionaries Who Have Made an Impact in Their Fields to Improve Lives Now and In The Future
Today, Vox announced its second annual Future Perfect 50 list. For the second year, Vox is highlighting 50 visionaries who are making a difference today and working to improve lives tomorrow. The list honors change agents — the thinkers whose moral imagination pushes the boundaries of what is possible; the activists making the world a better, healthier place; the technologists reimagining the future; the ethicists ensuring it doesn’t go awry. Future Perfect is animated by ideas that can effectively change the world for the better — and the people who can make those ideas a reality. Most of these changemakers aren’t household names; instead, they’re striving to push novel, often utopian ideas into the mainstream.
“For this year’s Future Perfect 50 list, we consulted our writers, our sources, and our audience to come up with a collection of the people who exemplify the principles and work we are most excited about,” says Vox editorial director and Future Perfect editor Bryan Walsh. “From researchers grappling with AI risks and activists fighting for animal welfare to the thinkers pushing the boundaries of progress and the climate advocates protecting the planet, the Future Perfect 50 is a cast of true world-changers. At a moment of global darkness, they are the points of light.”
The 2023 Future Perfect 50 list includes Genesis Butler, a teen environmental and animal rights activist who is drawing attention to the intertwined connections between animal rights and the climate crisis; Gul Dolen, a leading Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist and psychedelic researcher, who is investigating whether psychedelics might be the key unlocking new cures for health ailments like strokes; Meredith Whittaker, the CEO of Signal, the secure messaging app — who is staunchly opposed to encroaching on privacy online, and all the ways AI poses to upend digital life; Lant Pritchett, an economist who helped co-launch Labor Mobility Partnerships, an organization dedicated to helping rich countries allow more temporary work programs that people in poor countries can use; Priya Donti, the executive director of Climate Change AI, who is using AI and machine learning to tackle climate change through her global nonprofit; and Ashley Muteti, CEO of the Zuri Nzilani Foundation, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to creating awareness on maternal health, preeclampsia, premature births, and infant loss; among many others.
The Future Perfect 50 list has been divided into categories that highlight Future Perfect’s focus areas.
The full list of honorees is below.
Advancing Human Progress:
Azeem Azhar, author of the Exponential View newsletter
Jerry Chow, quantum computer engineer
Gebisa Ejeta, food scientist
Hannah Ritchie, data scientist
Caleb Watney and Alec Stapp, co-CEOs at the Institute for Progress
Heidi Williams, economist and progress studies pro
Tamara Winter, Stripe Press commissioning editor
Expanding Animal Rights:
Genesis Butler, teen animal rights activist
Christopher “Soul” Eubanks, APEX Advocacy founder
Crystal Heath, veterinarian battling Big Meat
David Kaplan, food tech professor
Mahi Klosterhalfen, chicken industry transformer
Catalina Lopez, fish farming opponent
Jon Lovvorn, chief counsel at the Humane Society of the US
Justin Marceau, animal rights lawyer
Kristie Sullivan, anti-animal tester
Imagining the Future:
Robin Carhart-Harris, psychedelics savant
Gul Dolen, neurologist and psychedelics researcher
Christopher Fuchs, quantum physics pioneer
Paul Niehaus, economist and social scientist
Christine Parthemore, CEO at the Council on Strategic Risks
Tatsuyoshi Saijo, design thinker and economist
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, philosophy professor
Nikki Teran, biosecurity specialist
Aligning on Artificial Intelligence:
Yoshua Bengio, deep learning master
Paul Christiano and Beth Barnes, AI alignment advocates
Katja Grace, lead researcher at AI Impacts
Jan Leike, superalignment champion
Meredith Whittaker, CEO of Signal
Fighting Global Poverty and Health Threats:
Seye Abimbola, editor of BMJ Global Health
Sasha Gallant, foreign aid innovator
Moitshepi Matsheng and Noam Angrist, co-founders of Youth Impact
Ashley Muteti, maternal health maven
Aisha Nyandoro, guaranteed income torchbearer
Scott O’Neill, CEO of World Mosquito Program
Lant Pritchett, immigration advocate
Joey Savoie and Karolina Sarek, co-founders of Charity Entrepreneurship
Varsha Venugopal and Fiona Conlon, co-founders of Suvita
Combating Climate Change:
Zahra Biabani, Climate Optimism author
Priya Donti, executive director of Climate Change AI
Jane Flegal, climate researcher
Jesse Jenkins, decarbonization buff
Ticora Jones, development scientist-turned-climate champion
Robinson Meyer, Heatmap News co-founder
Maisa Rojas, environmental politician