Richard Thieme is an author and professional speaker focused on the challenges posed by new technologies and the future, how to redesign ourselves to meet these challenges, and creativity in response to radical change and identify shift. He has explored issues raised in this DEF CON 23 presentation for 20 years but raises his game to outline the shape of the future self, defining it as a system open to modification and hacking, giving the term “biohacking” new and compelling meaning.

His column, "Islands in the Clickstream," was distributed to subscribers in sixty countries before collection as a book in 2004. When a friend at the NSA said after they worked together on intelligence issues, "The only way you can tell the truth is through fiction," he returned to writing short stories, 19 of which are collected in “Mind Games.” He is co-author of the critically extolled “UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry,” a 5-year research project using material exclusively from government documents and other primary sources, now in 50 university libraries. A recently completed novel FOAM explores the existential challenges of what it means to be human in the 21st century. “The UFO History Group” is exploring a second volume and Thieme is selecting “the best of” his diverse writings for “A Richard Thieme Reader” and writing more fiction.

Thieme's work has been taught at universities in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States, and he has guest lectured at numerous universities, including Purdue University (CERIAS), the Technology, Literacy and Culture Distinguished Speakers Series of the University of Texas, and the “Design Matters” lecture series at the University of Calgary. He keynoted a conference on metadata this spring for the U of Texas-San Antonio. He addressed the reinvention of “Europe” as a “cognitive artifact” for curators and artists at Museum Sztuki in Lodz, Poland and keynoted “The Real Truth: A World’s Fair” at Raven Row Gallery, London. He has spoken for the National Security Agency, the FBI, the Secret Service, the US Department of the Treasury, Los Alamos National Labs and has keynoted “hacker” and security conferences around the world.

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