The Future is Young

Why this book

2. Amid the growing velocity of change, new players are emerging. We need to capture their voices if we are to make the future a collective success 3. As we define and redefine the future, it is values and talents that will guide us in the right direction. 4. It is also organized in six chapters, each dealing with one or several aspects of the synergies and strategies required to bring our future back to where we want it to be, and to fully engage younger generations in that effort. Here is a quick summary of each of them. Chapter 2 — Do self-driving cars need rear-view mirrors? Looking back at our collective past (that of mankind, as well as that of our planet) is a salutary and necessary step whenever new problems arise. The past tells us that every era and every century has had its own problems. To their contemporaries, such problems often appeared insurmountable. The past also tells us that the issues faced by mankind were best addressed by those who had solutions to offer, and those who remained optimistic about the future. Considering the past before we formulate our positions on current problems also yields key lessons, including the following five: (1) At any point in time, the future is what we make of it, (2) One-dimensional thinking is a proven way to waste a crisis, (3) Our history is about pragmatic action and social transformation, (4) Technology, innovation, and talent will remain key – just like they did in the past – with a key difference: we now have more of each than any of our predecessors ever dreamed, and (5) We live in paradoxical times, in which incredible gullibility jousts global distrust: to convince, and to be convinced, we need facts and metrics. This chapter describes some of the tools that may enable us to operationalize the lessons of history.

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