It is a visionary and partially utopian claim. But it is not just an intellectual adventure. It is a vision very much needed at a time when humanity seems to have lost direction. Cyberness gives people hope when all existing establishments are losing value, and when highly sophisticated machines are about to challenge human primacy. Cyberness promises a world where meaningfulness is the main value of work and the future generations have a real future again.
A bundle of future-oriented questions come to mind following the reading of this book:
– If we do nothing and the current evolutionary pattern continues, will we have even more domination and more global polarization? Will we continue to have more new, prevailing “overlords” fighting for power?
– Will our future be dominated by highly sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) based entities? Will they become our new masters? Will people become obsolete?
– Can we expect many more crises?
– Do we need to live with the fear of nuclear disasters?
– Do we need to live with the constant fear of new global endemic disease or outbreaks of artificial microorganisms destroying large segments of humanity?
– How will organizations, jobs and work look in the future? How will the different levels of education look?
– Will we still continue to focus on growth?
As a global entrepreneur and investor, I am always interested in learning more about the future, and about challenges and opportunities. I am a pragmatic person, used to achieving what I imagine, used to shaping my future. In that sense I am the antipode for the authors, I can help them to link their vision to actual reality.
Exploring the future and understanding the direction we are moving is very important, but it is by no means enough. We need to decide which direction we want to go and what is the future we desire. What we do today impacts the future, so we need to know exactly what we can do in order to move in the desired direction.
We need to differentiate between the expected future and the desired one. Anticipation of an expected future based on existing and emerging megatrends allows us to prepare for it, which is already quite a lot! But it is only a starting point; it does not have any major influence on that future. Only the high art of designing the desired future with the development of ideas and visions and a roadmap to help us get there can have a major impact and change the direction it will take.
If we don’t create our future ourselves, we are subject to fortuity. Instead of fatalistic expectations of a future created independently of us by some “higher powers,” we need to cultivate the conviction that we can have an impact on our own future. This type of thinking has brought us the most fertile periods, in terms of development, discovery, and inventions created in the past. It is now more important than ever!
What we have mapped out in the past represents what we are doing today. Now we need to speculate about how it will affect our future. Is this the future that we would like to have? Are we going in our desired direction?
Humanity may be heading towards a new society. There is renewed hope for us because we have begun to take care of our world and our future. Tomorrow is today!
This is a historical opportunity to make fundamental changes to our ways, to our society, and to our economy. We need leaders with inner strength and we need to develop our own inner strength. But organizations and even entire nations have an inner strength, too. Once destroyed, it takes a very long time to regenerate.
We are about to witness the most dramatic changes seen since the end of ancient civilization ten thousand years ago. We are realizing that we are part of an interdependent world. A new worldview is emerging and a fundamental shift of values is occurring. The world, our world, is rapidly evolving. As new possibilities and opportunities emerge, we have the chance to reshape our world. Yes, we can achieve whatever we can imagine. Therefore we need to be very careful about our dreams. And we need to go far beyond where we are today! We need to leave our comfort zone, which means leaving our home base and venturing out beyond, the universe of conventional ideas, even beyond imagination!
As people begin to take care of the world and its future, life and work will become meaningful once again! We need to begin by changing our perceptions and our mindset. We need to reinvent education.
In order to navigate this new world of transformation, a metaphor comes to mind, the ancient technique of trying to take the safe and known route, always sailing with the coast in view, never venturing into the open sea. This does not bring us to new waters. This kind of linear thinking used so often by business leaders, academics, and politicians does not allow for new approaches or systemic solutions. Only venturing out into stormy waters can we, so to speak, sail into the open sea to discover new territories (and that is where we need to navigate).
While we have been able to fly to the moon and put explorer stations on Mars, we are still unable to really leverage human talent. We have made tremendous progress in most disciplines, including science and technology, and we have developed a powerful global economy, but the majority of humanity is still hungry and thirsty. And despite all the wealth created today, even those who control the vast majority of it do not seem to be content. We are living with an apparent contradiction: we are getting wealthier and having access to an increasing number of products and services, but we are not happier or more satisfied. It appears that constantly striving for more goods and services (which unfortunately serves as a model for many developing countries) is a recipe for disaster! The solution cannot be “more of the same!” because we will run out of everything, including a functioning ecosystem. We definitely need to find a new way, which will allow all humans to have a decent life without putting the entire species in danger.
Preface by Claudio Cisullo