Audio-Only version: The Good Future Film by Futurist Gerd Leonhard (2021)

Are you excited about the future or are you worried? Are you expecting good things or more misery? These days it seems like all around us, the future is getting bleaker and bleaker. Netflix and Hollywood are telling us about dystopian scenarios. The news are showing more reels of climate change disasters, economic issues and clueless CEOs and politicians. And of course, in the end, the robots will take our jobs and then they're going to harvest our bodies for energy. But despite all of that noise, I am here to tell you that the future is better than we think. I believe that human ingenuity, our science and technology can and will solve most of our long standing problems. I, I also believe that human kindness and the ability to collaborate will prevail. But we're running out of time because the future is arriving faster than we think. Actually, the future is already here. We just haven't paid enough attention. Science fiction is becoming science fact and we are at a fork in the road. The next 10 years will bring more change than the previous 100 years. We must make the right decisions now if we want a good future. What is currently wrong is that what we've done for the last 100 years is no longer going to be suitable for the future. We've had a certain logic that has allowed us to prosper, but we've come to the top of the ceiling. We've had crisis after crisis after crisis and many issues that we're not solving. The current system is unfit for the future. In a way, you could say capitalism is unfit for the future. In the future, we're going to need to think wider, to think beyond profit and growth, to think about people, planet earth, purpose and prosperity. We need a different logic so that our future can be good and can be developed for all of us. We have a chance now to get it right for our foreseeable future, or to let it go and end up in a bad place. So we're not at their point to where things that were science fiction are becoming very real, becoming science fact, whether that's about language, translation or robots, or artificial intelligence. And that makes a big difference, because now in technology, the question is no longer if we can do something or when or how, but why do we do something and what do we want from it. So in just 10 years, we're going to be at an entirely different point of our lives, where it's not about deciding if technology works, but what technology do we want and is it going to be good for us. But before we talk about building the good future, and creating the good future for us. We have to define what good is, what it means for you, what it means, what it means for us, what it means for our society. You know, in many ways I think in our society it has been brought down to the definition of good being very simple, which means prospering and having things and having more things. And now we're finding out, I think right now at this very moment, that we need a little bit more than that. We have to have a wider definition. So it's about other people, it's about relationships, experiences, then it's about the planet. If we can maintain the earth as it is going forward. It's about purpose, which means having a sense of what you are living for. And then finally it's about prosperity, not just about profit. It's a much wider definition. Let's have a look at some examples about how the good future could manifest in the itself. Imagine if you could eat meat without harming animals. I mean, I eat meat, but I do think that the future of food will be vegetarian. Some 30% of the world's global pollution comes from agriculture, farming and livestock. And there's just no way that we can feed an eventual 12 billion people in this way. Fortunately, we are already inventing our future with vertical farming, with plant based meat, with meat from the lab. So we can solve this problem. The good future of food is sustainable, healthy and affordable for everyone. Imagine if we can solve the world's energy problem. You know, I often feel really strange about how much energy I use. Especially considering that I fly around the world to give speeches about the future. 75% of our current energy supply comes from oil, gas and coal. And this is an existential threat to our future. Yet at the same time we know that we have solutions like solar and wind turbines and renewable energies, and of course next generation nuclear. So here's the we will have all the right technology, but will we have the will? Imagine if education isn't just about downloading information. When I went to university and music school, this is what I did. I downloaded things for later. But this will clearly not work in the future. There is too much information available. And after all, this is what machines do. They download information for later use and understanding. If you have kids, you have to think about this. Our kids have to learn how to do things machines can't do. The good future of education is is going to be about lifelong learning on demand, in all formats and at very low cost. Imagine if most of our routines can be done by smart software or machines. Imagine if work is no longer the center and purpose of our lives. I tried for a long time to use technology to work less, and it hasn't worked out. But this is what the future holds. Technology will allow us to move up the food chain, leave routines behind, and use intelligent machines to be faster and more efficient. If you work like a robot, a robot will take your job. In the good future of work, our ultimate job is to be human. Imagine if healthcare wasn't just about treating sick people, but actually keeping us healthy. You know, when I go to the doctor these days, I get the medication and that's the end of the story. We can do so much better. Technology can help us to use data, to become intelligent, connected, holistic, and to think about food and lifestyle to go with our healthcare. When we look at the future of healthcare, it's going to be about being connected, customized, personalized and affordable. About real health care, not just sick care. Clearly, we are now in a situation where we're realizing our old paradigm of profit and growth is ending and business as usual is dead. Capitalism as we know it is unfit for this future. Now we have to design a new future based on a wider sense of goals. So what can business leaders and politicians do to create a good future? First, the stock markets have to embrace this idea of a wider target, of a wider goal, of things that we want to accomplish. And every company has to be rated on performance on four issues, not just one. People, planet, purpose and prosperity. Second, the story of the future has to be told by the people, the creatives, the society, all of us together. Not just by technology companies who are inventing the future so that they can sell it to us. The third one is we need every politician and public official to have kind of a driver's license for a future, to understand it, to plan for it, to be ready for it, to lead us into a great future. They need to be authorized and taught and have a license to run us into that future. Fourth, we need a council of the wise. People think of ancient Greece, Socrates and others that talked about how we could exist in a new world. We need people like that to come together and tell us what are the options, which way is the best to do, and what goes beyond economics and helps us to go to the further human future. But it's not just up to the politicians and public officials to create a good future. It's also up to us. So what can I do and what can we do together to create that good future? First, we have to believe it's possible that we have a good future because as we believe so will become. And then the good future has to be a priority for us. We have to spend the time on understanding it. We have to learn. We have to study. We have to spend one hour a day in the future to help create it. I have to develop what I call the future ready mindset. And then we have to make choices. Don't give your data to companies that will abuse it. Don't do business with those that will not create a good future. Don't buy stock from companies that will not create a good future. And finally, if we want a good future, we have to be good. The good future is entirely possible, and it's our choice. The only question is, are you going to be part of it?