Creating a Future to Be Excited About

[Music]

[Applause]

five years ago i was invited to

participate in my daughter’s middle

school

career day i was really excited to be

sitting between the petroleum and

engineer on this side and the

psychologist on that side

to be able to turn this group of seventh

graders onto the future

right that’s what i do i’ve told them

all about the exciting work i do and

artificial intelligence and regenerative

design and i couldn’t wait for their

faces to light up

and instead i got blanks faces first and

then the arms crossed

saying no robots are going to take over

our jobs ai is going to take over our

minds

climate change is going to burn us all

up don’t you think so mrs jordano

i was so unprepared for that that’s not

my view of the future

and as i thought about it i thought god

how sad that they’re so skeptical and so

concerned where’s the bright side

where’s all the optimism around what’s

possible

over the years i’ve found that this is a

consistent story i do give talks

a lot about the future i work with the

people who are designing and building

the future

and after we have these sessions and we

get all excited about it the parents

come to me afterwards and tell me over

and over again stories

of their 18 year old their 14 year old

their 12 year old

their 4th grader who’s worried about

their future and their own futility

it breaks my heart because i can see all

kinds of possibility but i think about

what the stories are and the posts are

they come across their screens all day

and all night

and it’s not surprising they feel this

way and the reality is there are some

stark headlines

right whether we talk about the fact

that robots are going to take over our

jobs by 20 30 or at least a percentage

of them

or the six things that we should be most

afraid of with artificial intelligence

or the fact that animals are becoming

you know increasingly instinct or

plastic is taking over our ocean or

temperatures continue to rise

we talk about loneliness we talk about

all kinds of issues

that are real and that do deserve our

attention so that part is true

but it’s not only the stories and the

headlines it’s also we perpetuate them

we send the scary stuff around a few

years ago a woman i really admire as a

student at uc berkeley got a job in

artificial intelligence company that i

was associated with and she was so

excited to tell me about her internship

and of course i celebrated it i’ve been

working at the same company we could see

all the possibility but if she told her

friends about it

she was getting memes back of the

terminator right no one was celebrating

that she might be figuring out how to

predict earthquakes or

create individualized educational

opportunities they were all worried that

she somehow was

you know going to take over the world

with um scary brains

the fact is these aren’t just headlines

and they aren’t just memes

there are things that become stories

this is how we as humans make sense of

the world around us which then become

our beliefs they are the things that we

create meaning

and they make us feel you know are we

safe do we have value

is there a future we can look forward to

it’s all about what it is that informs

what we believe

is possible these stories really matter

the stories we hear

the stories we tell others the stories

we tell ourselves

and here’s the catch there are many

industries that are incentivized to

sell us a scary story right the

entertainment industry

the media industry the social media

industry for sure and

also the incumbent businesses that are

threatened by what is possible

on the horizon right they’re trying to

make us believe that you know renewable

energy is scary or

that you know plant-based proteins might

not be as healthy for us so

we hear lots of conflicting advice as we

think about the future and our opinions

toward it

fortunately mark twain american writer

gave us a little perspective on this

when he said you can’t trust your

judgment if your imagination’s out of

focus

and i would argue our imagination is way

out of focus

the good news is that we can actually

change it right we can look for the

positive story

we can look for the things that actually

empower us around the future and

we can believe that we have an agency we

have the

opportunity if not the responsibility to

actually go build the better story

right do we want to live in a world that

looks like handmaiden’s tale or elysium

or terminator

or do we want to build a world and live

in a world that looks like

wakanda did in black panther or like the

starship enterprise did in star trek

it turns out utopian science fiction has

a much more powerful impact on us

it is the kind of thing that inspired

all the technologists to build the

transformer and the holodeck

even the cell phone came from someone

who watched star trek and got excited

about wanting to create that

right we have an opportunity to actually

sell each other and to

build toward a much more positive story

so here’s mine

i’m going to turn you onto the story

that i see when i look at the future

right when you talk again to the

technologists the designers the

entrepreneurs the engineers the

scientists who are building the future

they will tell you we’re one percent in

to what is about in the corner

right we have barely seen what is

possible i describe it as a productivity

revolution

that we’re heading into and here are the

kinds of things that i get to celebrate

and that i get to see

in austin it is possible to see a

company called icon

who is able to 3d print a home it

originally took 24 hours and 12 thousand

dollars and now it’s down to 12 hours

and seven thousand dollars

trying to get it down to four thousand

dollars just for perspective

the equivalent thousand square foot home

that you would build the normal way the

way that we’re used to

cost about 156 thousand dollars to build

so we’re going from 156 000 to

4 000 imagine the impact that has on

being able to create dignified and

safe housing for everyone and that’s

exactly what icon is doing with another

company called news story

i also can see that the tremendous

benefit in vertical farming if someone

asked me like the one thing that’s going

to really transform everything i would

argue it’s

vertical farming which means moving away

from land-based farming to putting it

inside buildings

or even inside an old tunnel that is no

longer useful

right it uses 95 less water it is 10

times faster we are able to grow and

you know 400 times or you know times the

the square footage

and because there are no bugs there are

no pesticides

and we can totally optimize nutrition

which makes it so much more possible to

imagine how we’re going to feed 9

billion people on this planet

not just food but healthy food it’s

something that’s driving the whole push

toward plant-based proteins the food

industry is going through the biggest

transformation it has seen since

refrigerated rail cars

and i think that’s great news i’m super

excited about it

and same thing when you look at the

medical frontier there’s so many things

i could talk about about being able to

3d print

organs and skin and being able to use ai

to read

x-rays more efficiently but you know

even robots are now beginning to help us

do remote surgery

there’s been remote heart surgery in

parts of the world already where we can

start to see again we can make

medical care more accessible to others

and it’s not just about food and about

housing and about medical care it’s also

about fun

there are so many entrepreneurs right

now who are exploring the edge of space

from low orbital all the way to mars in

your lifetime you will see someone go to

mars i am sure of it but in the meantime

perhaps you’ll be able to go to the

space hotel which is supposed to open in

2027

and right outside of earth’s orbit and

be able to offer space jam

type gravity free basketball wouldn’t

that be fun

or you can put on your vr goggles and

potentially take a trip at some point

there’s a company called air nupon

airways

a a that doesn’t just think of

themselves as an airline

company they actually think of

themselves as a travel company they’re

making it possible for people to able to

go in

again through virtual reality and

robotics and haptic technology that

allows us to feel things

allow us to explore a destination we

might not be able to get to either

because physically we can’t

financially we don’t want to spend the

money or you know it’s just overrun by

other people or people in the past

we get to visit something historic so

it’s extraordinary to see what’s

on the horizon when we start to think

about again technological innovation

and this first productivity revolution

but it’s not just technology

advances it’s also our way of thinking

our consciousness is changing

we’re shifting from a mindset of winning

at all costs and being able to keep all

the resources

to thinking about caring and how we

steward them with much more

compassion empathy and i’ll even use the

word love

right whether we think about a universal

basic income or any of the other

universal basic services from

transportation to health care to

education to housing

again is a possibility or we think about

companies like h m that have committed

to go

completely to circular supply chain by

they’re 57 already they’re trying to get

to 100 because they realize that fast

fashion

is not sustainable for their customers

or for any of us

right we’re also seeing a huge

commitment to skilling and upskilling

and re-skilling

whether it’s companies like pwc who are

putting three billion dollars against

that or walmart that’s offering college

for a dollar a day

a lot of everyone’s sort of jumping in

and realizing that there will be the

skills gap

and we’ll need to be able to address it

which then also means that we’ll be

rethinking work

what does work look like it may not be

nine to five five days a week anymore

it could be four days a week it could be

shorter hours it could be

as we’re seeing clearly more remote but

it’s also about the structure of it

because we’re asking people to take on

more

and learn more and invent more it means

that we have to change the way we work

we’re no longer in a factory assembly

line way of working

right we’re in a productivity way of

working

all of which is designed to ensure that

we are no longer

work over here life over here mental

health over there

is about integrating all of that and

thinking much more thoughtfully about

how we build systems

that hold people well right and allow

them to thrive

in an inclusive way we hope so here’s

what i see as i look at the stack of

technologies that will continue to

advance

and emerge and converge we can’t imagine

what will be possible

right it’s really almost mind-boggling

to see

the solutions that they will be able to

generate and the complexity that they’ll

be able to manage that right now

we can’t now here’s the tricky part you

know several years ago i also

sat there wondering whether or not i

should be totally optimistic about the

future

or really pessimistic about the future

how could i hold both of those things

am i a glass half empty or a glass half

full and i realized

i’m all of it and more and i built a

tool it’s a really simple map

i called the rift map right it’s because

when i look at the future there are four

emotional responses i can have to it

i can think about what am i relieved by

what am i inspired by what am i

frustrated by

and what am i fearful of so i’ll just

take you for a moment just into a

sort of an abridged version of my riff

because all of these

are true right i am relieved by

the fact that education has become so

ubiquitous

if you have an internet connection and

any kind of device you’ll be able to

connect to the khan academy or any other

place where you can learn for free

right yes we’ll still pay for education

but not necessarily around the world

will have more and more access to it

that to me is really exciting i can also

connect with almost anyone around the

world who

shares my same passions or has some of

the same questions that i do and i can

collaborate with them

very very easily and lastly i’m relieved

by the fact that we are talking about

sustainability

more we are talking about the commons

we’re talking about how to build more

systemic solutions to things

these are new shifts in consciousness

that i think are really important i’m

very relieved

that we’ve gotten there i’m inspired

again by all these technologies and how

quickly they’re advancing

i’m inspired by the fact that we’ll have

the opportunity to redesign reimagine

and reconfigure almost every industry

from manufacturing

to again food and housing medical care

education finance

all of it is up for redesign i think

that’s really inspiring

i recognize that some people might find

that frightening but for me i’m very

very excited about what that’s possible

i am however frustrated by some things

right i’m frustrated by how slowly

things are moving i’m frustrated by how

much people keep hanging on to some

nostalgic understanding of the past that

actually didn’t work for many people and

created a lot of

externalities that we’re trying to clean

up right now around our environment and

around our own

well-being i’m frustrated by the lack of

real concern around

resources right whether it’s water or

waste that we aren’t really fully

harnessing again

we’re moving closer in that direction

and a portion of people are but not

enough

are really thinking about resource

stewardship and the way that i would

like

and i’m very frustrated that there’s not

enough diversity

in the building of these technological

solutions

right across the board gender ethnicity

age background we need everyone in in

order to build safely

moving forward and there are some things

i’m frightened by some of those

headlines i described at the beginning

are true right climate stability

tremendous issue

loneliness and our separation from one

another and

the mental health impacts it has huge

issue

wealth and income gap a growing issue

that we have to address

right and the fact that we’re heading

into an algorithmically driven

future in which we have to think a lot

about privacy and a lot about

responsibility and ethics

so these are things that demand our

attention

the question is uh knowing this what do

we want to do about it

right this is my compass i no longer

have a map right or a playbook

in which i can define exactly how it’s

all going to turn out but i do have a

compass

and my compass is these two questions i

think a lot about what the future needs

and expects

of me and of all of us it’s part of what

the rift map shows

and it also shows what we’re in unique

position to create and contribute to

that future

as an individual as a team as an

organization as an industry i will even

argue as a nation

that conversation is happening right now

that’s part of what makes this future so

extraordinary

right it’s a lot of responsibility but

it’s also tremendous impact that we get

to have

it’s actually as i looked at this roof

map and i thought about those two

questions it’s actually caused me to

behave differently right i champion the

things that i am relieved by and excited

by again i’m super grateful for things

like khan academy or wikipedia or zoom

where i can connect with anybody right

i’m inspired to champion the ideas

that i think can build a better future i

am a big proponent of artificial

intelligence i work with a company now

to help transform organizations because

i believe it will have

a positive impact more than a negative

impact and i want to steer it

that way right the things that i’m

frustrated by i have built solutions for

around the diversity question i read

last year launched the femme futurist

society because i felt like women’s

voices weren’t heard enough

in the world again of not just historic

innovation but future innovation and i

want us to be a part of those

conversations we’re not pushing anybody

away

we’re just making the table bigger right

and in my frustration about moving too

slowly and thinking too short term i’ve

just written a book

in which i’m trying to get business

leaders to not just change what they do

but to change the way they think

right if we can all get into this place

of thinking more

about getting caring versus winning and

about how to build solutions that are

safe and inclusive

and build a dynamic mindset we’ll be

able to create extraordinary

solutions and for the things that i’m

frightened of i put all my as much

energy as i can

to blunting what i think is dangerous

right or creating a solution that’s sort

of the antidote to that

so around fear of the future i created

the career fair for the future for

college and high school students to see

how technology can actually empower

the professions are interested in versus

make them go away completely

i’m an advocate for something called

partnerism check it out at

partnerism.org it’s a social economic

structure that looks at a way that we

can work with each other

instead of against each other it’s power

with versus power over

it’s really thinking about it from the

biggest systemic place that i can try

and drive some impact and change

and honestly it is because of this love

for ideas this ability to be able to

share

this kind of thinking across the board

that inspired me to be part of tedx

from the very very beginning i’m very

proud of this platform and its ability

to be able to

convince to seduce people invite people

share you know ideas that they might not

be exposed to otherwise

here again is my story right if we’re

only one percent in that means the

future isn’t happening to us

it means it is us right and it isn’t

preordained

we get to build it so the question might

ask you

what is like what makes me believe that

what does the internal story

that allows me to hold that space

it’s this line the invitation that

you’re playing small

does not serve the world that’s a pretty

provocative line when you really think

about it

right it comes from an essay by marianne

williamson that i’ll share with you now

in a minute long video

our deepest fear from a return to love

by marianne williamson

our deepest fear is not that we’re

inadequate

our deepest fear is that we are powerful

beyond measure

it is our light not our darkness that

most frightens us

we ask ourselves who am i to be

brilliant

gorgeous talented fabulous actually

who are you not to be you’re a child of

the universe

you’re playing small does not serve the

world

there’s nothing enlightened about

shrinking so that other people won’t

feel insecure

around you we are all meant to shine as

children do we are born to make

manifest of humanity that is within us

it is not in some of us it is in

everyone

and as we let our own light shine we

unconsciously give other people

permission to do the same

as we’re liberated from our own fear our

presence

automatically liberates others thank you

when i came across that 25 years ago it

literally changed my life it made me

realize

that if we don’t write our own stories

others will create them for us

if we don’t actively build the future

that we want to see others will shape it

for us and that there is literally we

have a once in a lifetime opportunity to

rebuild

everything this is our time not to be

scared

but to play big thank you

[Music]

you