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