Building meaningful futures - Issue #8
When Brian Eno gets interpreted by US right-wingers for his Guardian interview as supportive of the new US president, you know that the world is really turning upside down. Luckily Brian took to Facebook to clarify his position:
“We now see political careers built upon lies and deceit and encouraged by openly biased media organisations, more concerned about revenue and ratings than giving the public real information. It’s this whole system that has to change: not just who leads the government but something deeper and more fundamental in our political and social processes. Democracy assumes an informed public: it doesn’t work if the media are corrupt. Changing the faces at the top doesn’t alter anything if the whole machinery beneath them stays the same - the rich become the super-rich, the middle class stagnates and the poor get poorer. (…) Trump has proven beyond doubt that the system is broken, so let’s fix it.”
As bad as things may look after one week of Trump’s policies becoming reality, the future is in our hands and we have the ability and the opportunity to not just fix the broken system but to (re)DESIGN our own future.
The retreat of the global company, the biggest business idea of the past three decades is in deep trouble. And it’s not only because of the threat of protectionism, according The Economist.
But that’s not all…
The same way Western corporations outsourced manufacturing jobs to the east and China in the 80s and 90s, the same way they will choose for technological progress creating further unemployment. It’s just against corporate DNA to not go for more efficiency and profit.
As humans, it looks more and more apparent that we’re in the wrong system design. So, the questions we need to ask ourselves are not about how to bring back the lost jobs or to keep finding solutions to existing problems - for the sake of creating a couple more new jobs (with all due respect to the ones creating them) - but to reinvent a society without jobs, or the notion we have of those now, and to redesign the concepts we have of the interpretation of work and remuneration, for example.
There will be still jobs for the STEM elite for a while in the current system, but we need to think how we can design a different society than the one we’re currently in with the elite on one side, and too many uneducated people who cannot think for themselves, take care of themselves or can create employment for themselves, on the other. And we need to do this together and prepare our children for a different future.
When looking at some of the videos from the Davos meeting last week (see links below), it’s revealing to witness business leaders in charge, they seem to have lost their moral compass and forgot that the future is not anymore about more power or more profits but it’s about PEOPLE, their values, health and wellbeing, comfort and security, cultural connections and ethical codes.
Old values are crumbling down in front of our eyes every day…
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty revealed the 3 guiding principles for ethical AI: purpose, transparency and skills. Few words about human values or ethics. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, warned sombrely of the “digital refugees” that would be created by AI and said there is no clear path forward.
How can we keep accepting living in societies where the elite is moving further ahead creating further inequality, with politicians in charge who’s only agenda it is to keep nurturing that gap, while we all are watching the downfall of humanity from behind our screens?
Google co-founder Sergey Brin was the only one who expressed hope for more and more creative and meaningful ways for people to spend their time due to technological unemployment:
“You do see more people that have been freed up over the last couple of hundred years to do work that is more about thinking about or creating things … and I would hope to see that trend continue. It’s important for people to have freedom to study, financial opportunity to study, and to get meaning in addition to work being an important way in which we exchange money. People find profound meaning in their day-to-day jobs and that’s an important thing for us to preserve.”
A different world to be designed… The task looks huge and the change will not happen overnight but we need to start now, there is no time to loose. To me, it sounds like Star Trek all over again :)
So, let’s get started. I’m working on a couple of ideas. One of them is to start a think tank group of people who’d like to start taking action in their respective fields. Who’s in? Send me a note if you’re interested to start a conversation.
This week, I urge you to view (or watch again) the Four Horsemen, written and directed by Ross Ashcroft, an award winning independent feature documentary which lifts the lid on how the world really works. As we will never return to ‘business as usual’ 23 international thinkers, government advisors and Wall Street money-men break their silence and explain how to establish a moral and just society.
And remember All is Full of Love.
Have a great week.
Socratic Design
Socratic Design · Istanbul - YouTube
Last week I spoke in Istanbul for a Socratic Design Lab with Turkish business leaders, lead by Humberto Schwab. Watch this review video of the event.
Socratic Design Workshop @ Mobile World Congress #MWC17 at Makers of Barcelona
Join us for another Socratic Design Workshop @ Mobile World Congress on Friday, 3 March 2017 at Makers of Barcelona. Learn HOW the Socratic Design Method could be useful for your personal life, your startup, company or organization.
Get in touch if you’d like to setup a workshop in your city.
My Events during Mobile World Congress
Mobile Sunday 2017 with Tech.eu, 26 Feb 2017
We’re still hard at work building the program for the evening, but we’re delighted to announce a number of confirmed speakers who will be joining us on stage at the ridiculously beautiful Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm. Check them out on our website. Early Bird tickets are already sold out! Don’t hesitate to book your Standard tickets.
IoT Stars – THE Internet of Things Networking Event during #MWC17
Last week we added new jury members to make the startup selection online and on-stage at the event. IoT Startups can apply to pitch on the website. Don’t hesitate to grab this unique chance!
The House of Beautiful Business
The House of Beautiful Business is a special pop-up community during Mobile World Congress (MWC), designed to offer an intimate space for meaningful conversations about technology and humanity. The event will take place in La Casa de la Seda (The House of Silk), a guild house in the heart of Barcelona declared to be National Cultural Heritage in 1919.
I’m helping to curate The Great Debate evening with Futurist Gerd Leonhard and Tim Leberecht on Technology and Humanity on Tuesday evening, February 28.
Public Sphere Philosophical Salon
The same evening in the same building, I’m organising a philosophical salon in partnership with The Public Sphere on the same topic.
How has technology changed the way we form communities and communicate with others? How has it effected our personal relationships, understandings of social decorum, and communicative behaviour? What are the problems of technology in the social sphere that have already manifested and how can they be overcome? What are the possibilities of these technologies in strengthening community and positive social interaction and how could they be improved and elaborate upon? These are a few of the questions we will consider in this salon.
Ping me if you’d like to attend as this is an invite only event.
Trends
Technology Trends 2017 – Accenture Tech Vision
The 2017 Accenture Technology Vision report showcases the top five tech trends and innovations essential to business success in the digital economy.
“80% of executives surveyed agree that organisations need to understand not only where people are today, but also where they want to be.”
PwC’s 20th CEO Survey
In PwC’s 20th CEO Survey we’ve asked 1,379 CEOs about the impact of globalisation and technology on business growth, talent, trust and society at large.
“Almost half of the CEOs surveyed fear that the latest industrial revolution will feed further distrust among their companies’ stakeholders — whether they be investors, employees or the wider public.”
The Circular Design Guide
The scale of what we’re designing has shifted from products, to companies, to economic systems. Meanwhile, creativity has never been more important: the global economy is stuttering and disruptive technologies challenge established business models.
Add to this Socratic Design and we’re starting to discover a new way of redesigning our futures…
Corruption Perceptions Index 2016
This year’s results highlight the connection between corruption and inequality, which feed off each other to create a vicious circle between corruption, unequal distribution of power in society, and unequal distribution of wealth.
Must watch and must reads
What Is a Successful Society? – umair haque
The function of a society is expanding human potential. And that is what a society is successful at, or not: expanding or limiting human potential. A society is successful at being a society when it expands human potential.
Why ‘1984’ Is a 2017 Must-Read
The dystopia described in George Orwell’s nearly 70-year-old novel “1984” suddenly feels all too familiar. A world in which Big Brother (or maybe the National Security Agency) is always listening in, and high-tech devices can eavesdrop in people’s homes. (Hey, Alexa, what’s up?) A world of endless war, where fear and hate are drummed up against foreigners, and movies show boatloads of refugees dying at sea. A world in which the government insists that reality is not “something objective, external, existing in its own right” — but rather, “whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth.”
And why the book sold out on Amazon this week
George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984 has sold out on Amazon in the US, just days after rising to the top of the site’s bestseller list.
2017: goodbye to replication, hello to originality. Efficiency is for robots.
Only a human being can start from nothing and that terrifying prospect may become a richly consoling reality. Goodbye cruel world of replication — and good riddance. Onwards. Upwards.
Scott Galloway at DLD 2017
Every year a must to watch of the always witty and insightful Scott Galloway talk at DLD 2017. Watch till the end!
I trained myself to be less busy — and it dramatically improved my life
By and large, though, I am feeling better than I have in a long time — more deliberate in the choices I make, more connected to the people around me, and more energized for the demands of the day. The surprising irony here, for me at least, is that by doing less, I am getting way more out life. I have banished my inner robot.
Davos videos on AI
Sergey Brin: The Future of AI and Google
Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google and one of the most successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, says he did not foresee the artificial intelligence revolution that has transformed the tech industry. And much more of course…
Davos 2017 - Panel on Artificial Intelligence
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Director of the MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito in a very interesting panel discussion on AI.
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty on Artificial Intelligence
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty talks with CNN Fareed Zakaria about A.I. at Davos 2017
Future of Work
The Gradual Disappearance of Jobs
Stuck Between Fantasy And Reality From the very beginning of industrial era, the idea of replacing humans with machines caught on and has persisted, to the point of appearing credible today. Indeed, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence are raising concerns about the significance of humankind in the future. That still far event horizon forecasts a society lead by strong artificial intelligences which may bring us to our obsolescence.
Are you sure you want to innovate like a startup?
Let’s paint some broad strokes: a startup throws mud at the wall and see’s what sticks, with a 0.002% success rate or less. A corporation makes more planned, but slower, moves and hits around a 12.5% success rate according to a recent HBR article. As large companies jump on the startup innovation bandwagon, the danger is that these collaborations represent the worst of both worlds: throwing mud at the wall, slowly and expensively.
How to Get People to Collaborate When You Don’t Control Their Salary
Most of us assume that if we want to change people’s behavior, we need to change their incentives. Five steps to kickstart cooperation.
The Neuroscience of Strategic Leadership
Have you ever had a difficult executive decision to make? This is the kind of decision where the best options aren’t obvious, the ethics aren’t clear, and the consequences could affect hundreds of people or more. How do you figure out the right thing to do? More importantly, how do you develop the habit of making better decisions, time and time again, even in difficult and uncertain circumstances?
Neuroscientists and psychologists are beginning to learn what happens at moments of choice inside the human mind and the brain.
Strategy
The Great Unbundling by Ben Thompson
To say that the Internet has changed the media business is so obvious it barely bears writing; the media business, though, is massive in scope, ranging from this site to The Walt Disney Company, with a multitude of formats, categories, and business models in between. And, it turns out that the impact of the Internet — and the outlook for the future — differs considerably depending on what part of the media industry you look at.
Society
Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich
Some of the wealthiest people in America—in Silicon Valley, New York, and beyond—are getting ready for the crackup of civilization.
An International Front Against Trump
With the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president, America is set to move into a more isolationist and more self-interested direction. The rest of the West must now stand up to defend our values.
IoT / Smart Cities
Bring on better energy consumption management
It’s still early days but the future of infrastructure and better energy consumption management looks bright. My latest opinion piece for Smart Cities World.
Artificial Intelligence
Competing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
As AI achieves human-like capabilities, business leaders need to learn how to take advantage of the specific strengths of man and machine.
Ethically Aligned Design: A Vision for Prioritizing Human Wellbeing
Have your say in how AI standards are being developed internationally. Public comments are invited on this 1st public document request for input that prioritises ethical considerations in the creation of autonomous and intelligent technologies.
How to build an inclusive future in the time of AI
The road to 2020 will be significant not only in the development of technologies around AI, but also because of the strategies that will govern our interaction with it for years to come. As leaders, we have a responsibility to reimagine education, employment and social frameworks, and work diligently to bring everyone along with us into the new reality.
How artificial intelligence can be corrupted to repress free speech
The internet was supposed to become an overwhelming democratizing force against illiberal administrations. It didn’t. It was supposed to open repressed citizens…
Whatever happened to the DeepMind AI ethics board Google promised?
When the search giant bought the artificial intelligence company, part of the deal was setting up an ethics board. Three years on, where is it?
An extensive list of European AI tech startups to watch in 2017 - Tech.eu
We have seen a fast growing interest in current activities around AI companies. This extensive list contains more than 600 AI startups in Europe.
Art
Your solar nebula by Olafur Eliasson
After the Big Now – Fabien Girardin
Imagine another version of the Internet respectful of people’s attention and time.
Your solar nebula by Olafur Eliasson
When visiting the very inspiring Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, I was baffled by the “Your solar nebula” work by Olafur Eliasson.
A cluster of 328 glass spheres resembles a scattered mass of large water droplets. The back of each sphere is marked by three small circles of colour: a circle of silver mirror finish at the centre, a circle of black paint to the right, and a circle of yellow paint to the left. On the exterior of the spheres, a flat black paint covers the three dots so that the colours and the mirror finish are visible only when the visitor peers into the spheres. The spheres are of five different sizes, and rest on individual wire racks. Their arrangement presents no regular geometric logic but suggests a natural formation, such as the position of the stars in a newly forming spiral galaxy.
The placement and size of the coloured circles causes the spheres to appear fully reflective when viewed head-on. Looking into the spheres from different angles, though, the viewer can recognise that the reflective surface is only a part of a larger system of colours and transparency present in each sphere.
You can read more about Olafur in this interview in The Guardian or visit his website full of interesting material.