THE MOST IMPORTANT CONVERSATION OF OUR TIME…
Whilst prediction is an uncertain art, majority opinion is that by 2035 the world will be barely recognisable through today’s lens. Artificial intelligence may have transformed economies, culture, politics, our bodies, and our minds. Robotics and 3D printing may eliminate human manufacturing. Infotech may ubiquitously shape and improve the efficiency of our lives, and biotech may constantly monitor and radically improve our physical well-being. The concept of physical locations (places of work and learning, the high street) may have dramatically diminished in significance, and we may spend a significant portion of our time in augmented or virtual realities. Drones may fill our skies and self-drive cars and hyperloops may have dramatically increased travel efficiency, improved safety and reduced pollution. The volume of digital ‘noise’ may be such that truth and fiction become impossible to distinguish. There may be many more consumers lifted out of extreme poverty, but a dramatically increasing unemployed and unemployable class searching for relevance. There may be a level of political and societal turmoil not seen before in human history as power structures are both destroyed and created in frightening speeds. The future of our species and our planet may dominate intellectual thought.
“If somebody describes to you the world of the mid twenty-first century and it sounds like science fiction, it is probably false. But then if somebody describes to you the world of the mid twenty-first century and it doesn’t sound like science fiction – it is certainly false”.
Yuval Noah Harari
The world of the 2020s and beyond will realise more of these exciting opportunities whilst exposing their risks and unintended consequences. Without putting too much of a brake on progress, collectively we can understand and influence developments in order to create a future we are comfortable with. It is time for choice consciousness, for us to battle the incredible pressure to focus on our personal issues of today at the expense of the transformations just on the horizon.
Immediacy sucks the life out of strategy. As citizens, voters and consumers, day-to-day pressures preoccupy our thoughts and actions. The private sector’s mandate is to deliver shareholder returns in as short a range as possible. Democratic governments focus on the electoral cycle and are held to account to fix the problems of now (the polarisation around current populist challenges amplifies this). But the choice for our attention isn’t either / or, and the challenges of the future are already encroaching on the present. Many of us conduct a daily donation of precious personal information without consciously choosing to whom and for what purpose. Big tech is beginning to face a reputational and regulatory groundswell from its predisposition toward monopoly and opaqueness. Political orthodoxy is facing an existential threat from failure to articulate new visions to meet new challenges. The issues that monopolise our present thoughts are arguably dwarfed by the issues to be addressed for the future.
Just as the fable of the slowly boiling frog wouldn’t actually lead to its self-destruction (“thermoregulation by changing location is a fundamentally necessary survival strategy for frogs and other ectotherms” says Wikipedia), so we are capable of ensuring that the spectacular technology advances already in our sightline, combined with dramatic power shifts and employment disruptions, and the huge challenge of climate change, don’t lead to a dystopian future for humanity.