I have MA Statistics 1973 from Cambridge Department of Applied Maths Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). My career has involved simplifying deep data for management decision making. For example, with the first database software Express I was the main statistician editing hundreds of projects and CEO presentations for Asian entries into a worldwide databank of modeling societal needs from global corporations compiled by professors from MIT and Harvard. Some individual surveys involved thousands of hours of interviews; in total this worldwide database of needs and solutions drew on millions of hours of interview fieldwork Or in 1990s, working for Price Waterhouse Coopers I was contracted to manage the largest postal survey of the 1990s of grants to a member country - the EU's PEDIP program Portugal.
Before my MA, I earned a starred First BA Maths from University of York. Quite early on my passion for co-creative opportunities of computers/AI was planted because my father (NormanMacrae.net) evolved into Von Neumann's biographer.
Fortunately, father had survived being a teenage navigator Allied Bomber Command Burma. He returned to Cambridge to finish Economics degree and was privileged to be in Keynes' last class discussing how increasingly a handful of economists exponentially locked in what futures were possible. He was hired by The Economist and seconded during year of 1951 to study Von Neumann's request that economics journalists build leadership surveys around what good will peoples United where they get early access to at least 100 times more tech per decade
For vExample, Moores Law mid 1960s gave this responsibility to silicon valley in terms of exponentials of chip capacity. Intel is on record that programable chips were innovated as a response to a Japanese calculator company's manufacturer's order. Japanese engineering multipliers and SME supply chain networks were on their own exponential multiplier thanks to Deming's quality approach and infratructure advances including containersiation and bullet trains.
Meanwhile Japan Olympics was first testing of live global broadcasting through Satellite transmission. Interestingly the then teenage Prince Charles met Akio Morita installing a tv set in his rooms in the Brutish Embassy, After half an hour's chat , Charles invited Sony to inward invest in his country (Wales). This became Japan's first consumer goods inward investment in Europe. Father occasionally write speeches for Prince Char;les on Royal trips to Japan and was awarded one of the Emperor's highest international honors :Order of Rising Sun with silk and Gold rays". Overall the development of Pacific Ocean peoples trade - two thirds of humans - seemed to my family and diaspora friends and some Economist readers to be the 20th C greatest advance in uniting humanity . EconomistJapan.com
The Economist's progress from 3rd ranked English weekly to one of a kind global viewspaper was built around Von Neumann's leaderships survey. After my first 10 years of my career working on computer projects including the UK National Development Program Computer Assisted learning and a Chief Statsitician National Opinion Polls Group, I joined in contributing to my fathers futures (40 years intergeneration dialogues) work- eg the 1984 future history genre 2025 Report timeline web1-3 opportunities and threats. This was my hobby whilst in parallel working on over 100 international projects both in 20 years of full time employment and then mainly as an associate or working for virtual platform partners.
However in dad's last few years, "marketing" dad's archives became most of my work. We succeeded during his last years in connecting with Glasgow University's Adam Smith scholars taking over dad's archives, and starting up two new journals: Social Business and New Economics. Soon after dad's death, the Japan Ambassador to Bangladesh staged 2 remembrance brainstorms to my father chaired by Sir Fazle Abed which led to 16 trips of mine as sherpa of youth journalists to Brac and Bangladesh. Culturally we started to undestand why women empowerment at its asian best mixed monetssorris and paulo freire, Ganghi and a fusion of Oriuental consciousness disciplines.
As Diaspora Scots, the history of 6 exponential multipliers of man made (artificial) engines and geonomic consequences fascinates myself and many members of our family tree. Simply put engine diffusion of types 1.2 started in Glasgow 1760 around physical power and precision instrumentation. Engine type 3 transportation eg railways happened wherever places advanced towards urban life. Engine types 4 electricity and particularly comunications engines ITU from 1865 gravitated around Switzerland. Whilst these 5 rising exponentials of engineering celebrated human advancement, they also multiplied inequality and so root causes of world wars bringing us to 1945 foundation of UN.
Therefore for transparent mediators of human development its Interesting that the UN's ITU has been in the epicentre of worldwide future design standards so its very good that Guterres (with some breakthorough support from Jim Kim, JMa 2016+ and Melinda Gates 2017+) design of UN2 roadmapping gravitated AIforGood connecting local-global dots of NY policy with Swiss practice epicentres of UN Health, Tech and Trade to name but three compasses that go back to League of Nation Days that Neumann and Einstein know in depth.
In a conversation with Marina Von Neumann , we wondered if an AI fantasy league game existed who would John Von Neumann have selected. So a pilot game www.aigames.solar has helped our dialogues with graduate students connected with Fazle Abed's University partnerships revisit contiunity of women empowered poverty alleviation mapping as well as West Coast progression by partners of Stanford HAI etc of deep data science and chaos system maths need to be roadmapped together. Covid, Climate and Women's Moments of Lift (see Nov 2023 book Worlds I See) are 3 cases where worldwide frames haven't wholly celebrated chaos maths system dynamics. It is fortunate that 21st C number 1 mathematucian is now female and Dr Fei-fei Li's work (Coding computer vision of objects all around mother earth is very different dynamic than starting with binary program languages designed by semi-monoplies). Overall, FFL restores neuroscience and potentially 1000 (LLM) cultures continuity with Von Neumann's last lectures The Computer and the Brain.
