José Luis Cordeiro Mateo (born 1 April 1962) is a Venezuelan-Spanish engineer, economist,

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

, and

transhumanist Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the human enhancement, enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cogni ...

, who has worked on areas including

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

, Latin America, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to affect monetary and other financial conditions to accomplish broader objectives like high employment and price stability (normally interpreted as a low and stable rat ...

, comparison of constitutions, energy trends,

cryonics Cryonics (from ''kryos'', meaning "cold") is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains in the hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticism by the mainstream scien ...

, and

life extension Life extension is the concept of extending the human lifespan, either modestly through improvements in medicine or dramatically by increasing the maximum lifespan beyond its generally-settled biological limit of around 125 years. Several resea ...

. Books he has written include ''The Great Taboo'', ''Constitutions Around the World: A Comparative View from Latin America'', and (in Spanish) ''El Desafio Latinoamericano'' ("The Latin American challenge"), and ''La Muerte de la Muerte'' ("The death of death").

Biography

Cordeiro was born in Caracas, Venezuela, from Spanish parents who emigrated from Madrid during the

Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" * Franco of Cologne (mid to late 13th cent ...

dictatorship. Cordeiro obtained Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees in mechanical engineering at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT), Cambridge, USA. He later studied international economics and comparative politics at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

in Washington, DC, USA, and obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau, France, majoring in finance and globalization. He started his doctoral degree at MIT, continued these studies in Tokyo, Japan, and in due course received his PhD at Universidad Simón Bolívar (USB) in Caracas, Venezuela. After graduating, Cordeiro worked as a petroleum exploration engineer for

Schlumberger Schlumberger (), doing business as SLB, is a global multinational oilfield services company. Founded in France in 1926, the company is now incorporated as Schlumberger NV in Willemstad, Curaçao, with principal executive offices in Houston ...

. He next served as an adviser for many major oil companies, including BP, ChevronTexaco,

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

PDVSA Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (acronym PDVSA, , English language, English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as e ...

Pemex Pemex (a portmanteau of Petróleos Mexicanos, which translates to ''Mexican Petroleum'' in English; ) is the Mexico, Mexican State ownership, state-owned Petroleum industry, petroleum corporation managed and operated by the government of Mexico, ...

Petrobras Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by and Trade name, trading as the portmanteau Petrobras (), is a Brazilian state-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. ...

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

, and

Total Total may refer to: Mathematics * Total, the summation of a set of numbers * Total order, a partial order without incomparable pairs * Total relation, which may also mean ** connected relation (a binary relation in which any two elements are comp ...

. Later, in Paris, he consulted for

Booz Allen Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American company specializing in intelligence, AI, and digital transformation. It is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washing ...

as a specialist in strategy, restructuring, and finance. Cordeiro has been an advocate of sound monetary policy and dollarization in Eastern Europe and Latin America. His 1999 book ''La Segunda Muerte de Sucre'' provided academic backing for the change from the

sucre Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...

to the dollar as the currency in Ecuador, where he is regarded as one of the thought leaders of this transformation. Cordeiro is an international fellow of the

World Academy of Art and Science The World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS), founded in 1960, is an international non-governmental scientific organization and global network of more than 800 scientists, artists, and scholars in more than 90 countries. It serves as a forum for s ...

(WAAS), executive director of the

Ibero-American Futurists Network Ibero-America (, ) or Iberian America is generally considered to be the region in the Americas comprising countries or territories where Spanish or Portuguese are predominant languages (usually former colony, territories of Spain or Portugal). Sp ...

, Venezuela Node Chair of The Millennium Project, vice chair of

Humanity Plus Humanity+ (also Humanity Plus; formerly the World Transhumanist Association) is a non-profit international educational organization that advocates the ethical use of technologies and evidence-based science to improve the human condition. History ...

, and former director of the

Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing list of global issues, global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in R ...

(Venezuela Chapter), the

World Transhumanist Association Humanity+ (also Humanity Plus; formerly the World Transhumanist Association) is a non-profit international educational organization that advocates the ethical use of technologies and evidence-based science to improve the human condition. History ...

, and the Extropy Institute. He has also been invited faculty at institutions such as the

Institute of Developing Economies Institute of Developing Economies (IDE; アジア経済研究所) is a semi-governmental research institute under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the largest institute on social science in Japan. Current status is a body of the J ...

IDE – JETRO in Tokyo, Japan, the

Monterrey Institute of Technology Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM; ), also known as Technological Institute of Monterrey () or just Tec, is aresearch university based in Monterrey, Mexico, which has grown to include 35 campuses located across 25 cit ...

in Mexico,

Singularity University Singularity Education Group (using the public names Singularity Group, Singularity University or SingularityU) is an American company that offers executive educational programs, a business incubator, and business consultancy services. Although t ...

NASA Ames The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, California, the

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT; , also known as PhysTech), is a public university, public research university located in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It prepares specialists in theoretical physics, theoretical and applied physics, ...

(MIPT), and the

Higher School of Economics HSE University (), officially the National Research University Higher School of Economics () is a public research university founded in 1992 and headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Along with its main campus located in the capital, the university ...

in Russia. Cordeiro has written a fortnightly opinion column in El Universal, the largest Venezuelan general newspaper, since 1996. In 2008, Cordeiro conducted the last public interview with science fiction writer

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A ...

, in Clarke's home in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He is a lifetime member of the

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...

Tau Beta Pi The Tau Beta Pi Association (commonly Tau Beta Pi, , or TBP) is the oldest engineering honor society and the second oldest collegiate honor society in the United States. It honors engineering students in American universities who have shown a ...

, and

Beta Gamma Sigma Beta Gamma Sigma () is an international business honor society. Founded in 1913 at the University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois and the University of California, it has over 980,000 members, selected from more than 600 collegiate chapters i ...

honor societies. In the

2019 European Parliament election in Spain The 2019 European Parliament election in Spain was held on Sunday, 26 May 2019, as part of the 2019 European Parliament election, EU-wide election to elect the Ninth European Parliament, 9th European Parliament. All 54 seats allocated to Spain ( ...

, Cordeiro ran for MEP as the candidate for the

Movimiento Independiente Euro Latino The Movimiento Independiente Euro Latino (MIEL) (Independent Movement of European Latinos) is a Spanish political party founded in 2019. Among its aims are the representation of Latin Americans in Spain and Europe, and the promotion of science ...

, promoting the representation of Latin Americans in Spain and Europe and promoting science and research to build better societies.

Philosophy

Cordeiro has been described as "a hopeless optimist always bursting with energy". He advises audiences to "forget flying cars and robot butlers ... the future will be a far more interesting place". He views nano, bio, info, and cogno (NBIC) as being the four main technologies that "are pushing mankind into the post-human age", and he predicts that "in the future we will be upgrading our brains every few years in the manner that we currently update our computer hardware". In 2009, Cordeiro spoke at the European Futurists Conference in Lucerne about the concept of 'Singularity': "a not-too-distant moment when artificial intelligence overtakes the capabilities of the human mind – the point when we are going to merge with machines". As a teaching fellow of the

, he added that "the purpose of Singularity University is to prepare humankind for this transformation". Cordeiro coined the term 'Energularity' to refer to "the biggest change in the largest industry on our planet ... the Energy industry’s shift from fossil fuels to solar, wind, geothermal, or fusion". He also coined the term "Benesuela" as a contrast to "Venezuela" in reference to the educational situation in that country. In a set of forecasts about Latin America in 2030, Cordeiro and the Millennium Project highlighted two extreme scenarios: "God is Latin American" and "Disintegration in Hell". The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

has quoted Cordeiro as saying "The constitutional history of Latin America is the most convulsive in the world. Constitutions seem to have become like shirts, not even suits, which rulers put on and take off at their whim." In line with forecasts by

Ray Kurzweil Raymond Kurzweil ( ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), speech synthesis, text-to-speech synthesis, spee ...

that the Singularity will occur by 2045, Cordeiro predicts that "death will be optional by 2045". This will take place "thanks to exponential advances in artificial intelligence, tissue regeneration, stem cell treatments, organ printing, cryopreservation, and genetic or immunological therapies that will solve the problem of the aging of the human body".

Books

''El Desafio Latinoamericano''
(1996)
Gran Tabu Venezolano: la desestatizacion y democratizacion del petroleo''
(1998)
Great Taboo''
(1998)
''Benesuela vs. Venezuela: el combate educativo del siglo''
(1998)
''La Segunda Muerte de Bolivar... y el Renacer de Venezuela''
(1998)
''La Segunda Muerte de Sucre... y el Renacer del Ecuador''
(1999)
''Pesos o dolares?''
(2000)
''El desafio latinoamericano y sus cinco grandes retos''
(2007)
''Constitutions Around the World: A Comparative View from Latin America''
(2009)
''Telephones and Economic Development: A Worldwide Long-Term''
(2010)
''Latinoamérica 2030: Estudio Delphi y Escenarios''
(2014)
''La Muerte de la Muerte: La posibilidad científica de la inmortalidad física y su defensa moral''
(2018)

References

External links

Official website

Official blog

The Millennium Project
Videos * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cordeiro, Jose Luis 1962 births People from Caracas Venezuelan expatriates in Spain MIT School of Engineering alumni INSEAD alumni Futurologists Spanish transhumanists Transhumanists Singularitarians Life extensionists Living people