Pablos Holman: Tech Futurist

Technology futurist, inventor, and hacker keynote speaker Pablos Holman challenges organizations to rethink innovation, automation, and machine learning to solve global problems at scale.

Quick Facts:

  • Highlights:
    • Renowned hacker, inventor, and technology futurist
    • Former innovator at Intellectual Ventures Lab
    • Viral TED speaker with over 20 million views
    • Faculty member at Singularity University
  • Formats: Keynote Speaker on Innovation and Technology
  • Audiences: Technology leaders, innovators, executives, policymakers, cybersecurity professionals, and organizations exploring automation, AI, and disruptive innovation.
  • Outcomes:
    • Rethink how innovation can solve large-scale global problems
    • Understand the real-world impact of automation, robotics, and machine learning
    • Gain new frameworks for creative problem-solving and future-focused strategy
Reading time: 2 min
Reviews: (0 reviews)
  • Travels from: Washington, DC
  • **Fee range: $20,001 - $35,000

Talent Services

Keynote Topics:

How many taxi companies could have made their own iPhone app but didn’t?  Everyone knows they had better innovate or die, but what does that really mean?  How do you know if Silicon Valley is going to come after your industry?  Can we learn to innovate faster than our competitors?  If computers can do the job of a truck driver, what about a factory worker, or a chef, or a doctor, or you?

Pablos is one of the rare technologists who can both understand and explain these new technologies and their potential.  Working with them every day at his lab, his team has taken on problems ranging from hurricane suppression to brain surgery & disease eradication to nuclear energy.

A futurist, inventor, and notorious hacker with a unique view into breaking and building new technologies, Pablos works on invention projects that assimilate new technologies – making wild ideas a bit more practical and vice versa. He helped create the world’s smallest PC; 3D printers at Makerbot; spaceships with Jeff Bezos; Mosquito zapping lasers with Bill Gates; artificial intelligence agent systems; and the Hackerbot, a Wi-Fi seeking robot.  He is also an advisor to the biggest crowdfunding campaign in history, raising $27 Million in 30 days, for the 3D printer – Glowforge.

Take Aways:

  • Get into the mindset of the words most innovative people.
  • Glimpse into the next generation technologies nobody has seen yet.
  • Understand how to have a practical relationship with innovation.

Innovate or Die Trying– From the Mind of World Renown Hacker, Speaker Pablos Holman

How many taxi companies could have made their own iPhone app but didn’t?  Everyone knows they had better innovate or die, but what does that really mean?  How do you know if Silicon Valley is going to come after your industry?  Can we learn to innovate faster than our competitors?  If computers can do the job of a truck driver, what about a factory worker, or a chef, or a doctor, or you?

Pablos is one of the rare technologists who can both understand and explain these new technologies and their potential.  Working with them every day at his lab, his team has taken on problems ranging from hurricane suppression to brain surgery & disease eradication to nuclear energy.

A futurist, inventor, and notorious hacker with a unique view into breaking and building new technologies, Pablos works on invention projects that assimilate new technologies – making wild ideas a bit more practical and vice versa. He helped create the world’s smallest PC; 3D printers at Makerbot; spaceships with Jeff Bezos; Mosquito zapping lasers with Bill Gates; artificial intelligence agent systems; and the Hackerbot, a Wi-Fi seeking robot.  He is also an advisor to the biggest crowdfunding campaign in history, raising $27 Million in 30 days, for the 3D printer – Glowforge.

Take Aways:

  • Get into the mindset of the words most innovative people.
  • Glimpse into the next generation technologies nobody has seen yet.
  • Understand how to have a practical relationship with innovation.

Learn Less

The Future of Technology and Innovation in Health Care

Health care is one of the most important frontiers for innovation, but the industry often struggles to keep up with technologies driving the change. Armed with deep experience in creating new technologies, Pablos is one of the extraordinary few who can demystify them and the process of innovation needed to bring them into the world.

Pablos answers only to Nathan Myhrvold, the creator of Windows at Microsoft, at an innovative Lab in Seattle, where all kinds of futuristic invention projects are underway. Collaborating with Bill Gates to develop technologies for humanitarian impact, the Lab has invented a reactor powered by nuclear waste; an AI powered microscope to automate malaria diagnostics; a super thermos that can keep vaccines cold with no power for months & a laser that can shoot mosquitoes out of the sky.

Having worked on a brain surgery tool; a cure for cancer; health care data architecture; low cost medical devices for the developing world & 3D food printers, Speaker Pablos Holman has a unique point of view on the future of health care. Whether inspiring institutional audiences at Humana & Kaiser Permanente or groups like the American Association of Anti-Aging Medicine & the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Pablos offers a relevant mix of education, entertainment, vision & inspiration.

Banking and finance are important frontiers for innovation, but these industries often struggle to keep up with technologies driving the change.  Armed with deep experience in creating new technologies, Pablos is one of extraordinary few who can demystify them and the process of innovation needed to bring them into the world.

Having worked on a cryptocurrency since the 1990s; artificial intelligence for the stock market in the 2000s; and the depths of cybersecurity, Pablos has a unique point of view on the future of finance and banking.  Whether inspiring institutional audiences at SWIFT, Credit Suisse & Fidelity or groups like the World Economic Forum at Davos, Pablos offers a relevant mix of education, entertainment, vision & inspiration.

Crypto technologies are coming of age and entire industries are being reinvented around these new possibilities.  Pablos was part of the early Cypherpunks community where many of these technologies and the philosophy around them originated.  Armed with deep experience in cryptocurrency, Pablos is one of the extraordinary few who can demystify these technologies and the potential they to bring to the world.

Having worked on cryptocurrency, anonymity systems & secure services since the 1990s, Pablos has always been ahead of the curve with his unique point of view on the future of crypto technologies.  Whether inspiring audiences at SWIFT, Credit Suisse, Fidelity or groups like Singularity University and the World Economic Forum at Davos, Pablos offers a relevant mix of education, entertainment, vision & inspiration.

Talent Short Bio

Pablos Holman is a renowned hacker, inventor, entrepreneur, and technology futurist known for approaching the world’s biggest problems with unconventional thinking and bold technological solutions. His career has been defined by a relentless curiosity and a belief that innovation, when applied creatively, can fundamentally reshape industries and improve global outcomes.

At Intellectual Ventures, Pablos worked on breakthrough concepts ranging from brain surgery tools and self-sterilizing elevator buttons to systems designed to suppress hurricanes, eliminate malaria-carrying mosquitoes, and reimagine food production through 3D printing. His work spans health care, climate, infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing, reflecting a rare breadth of technical imagination.

As a keynote speaker, Pablos is known for translating complex technological ideas into clear, provocative visions of the future. He speaks widely on innovation, invention, hacking culture, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies, offering audiences practical frameworks for thinking differently about automation, robotics, and machine learning. His talks are fast-paced, idea-dense, and designed to challenge assumptions rather than reinforce them.

Pablos Holman is a notorious hacker, inventor, entrepreneur and technology futurist who looks at the world differently than most, and is on a quest to solve the world’s problems through the innovation of technology. At the Intellectual Ventures Lab, he has worked on a brain surgery tool, a machine to suppress hurricanes, a self-sterilizing elevator button, a cure for cancer, a gun that shoots laser beams at malaria-carrying mosquitos, and 3D food printers. Pablos has a unique ability to articulate practical visions for the future of technology. He has contributed to visions for the future of urban transportation, entertainment, education, health care, food delivery, sensor networks, payment systems & cloud computing.

With a unique ability to articulate practical solutions and visions for the future of technology, Pablos Holman is often invited to speak at conferences about innovation, invention, hacking, technology & cyber security. He has spoken at Singularity University, Stanford, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum at Davos, the Microsoft CEO Summit, the CIA, Google Zeitgeist, The Milken Global Conference, and to many of the top tech companies and conferences in the world.

As a viral TED Talk speaker, his videos have over 20 million views. Currently, Speaker Pablos Holman is working to rearchitect industries with the superpowers of automation, robotics & machine learning. He is on the faculty of Singularity University, founder of Bombsheller and an advisor to data.world & Glowforge.

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