ixty exceptional individuals. That’s the number of delegates World in 2050 gathered to take part in our inaugural Innovation Lab as we seek solutions to intractable global problems. Our delegates come from five continents and two dozen countries, ages ranging from 20 to 70. They were corporate executives, senior former government officials, civil society representatives, entrepreneurs, and outstanding students. This diversity helped us carry out an uncommon breed of collective intelligence, bringing together a large, diverse group of people with often radically different perspectives and experiences who nevertheless share the goal of seeking collaborative solutions to big societal issues.
Helping the Future Arrive Well
Our Innovation Labs are designed to be a core part of World in 2050’s mission—to help the future arrive well. What does that mean?
There are a bevy of interrelated and overlapping challenges which can have profound impacts on society in the coming decades. We’ve identified and divided these into five long-term megatrends to better conceptualize both under-recognized challenges and uncommon but impactful solutions. They are:
- Exponential technologies are radically reshaping the world.
- Disruption from climate change, energy transition is only beginning.
- The workplace cares less about education, more about skills.
- Societal distrust and fragmentation are surging.
- Democratic governance institutions are under pressure.
For our inaugural Innovation Lab, we assigned delegates into five committees—one for each megatrend—privileging diversity in background, expertise, and viewpoint to give each committee the opportunity for rich, uncommon discussions. Committees considered macro-issues related to each of their themes. Delegates carried out discussions through the lens of the Three Horizons Model, which asks that we consider pathways into the future through three timeframes:
- Horizon One: Current Situation (2020s). What norms in our “business as usual” world now are dying or should die, and how can we help them leave well?
- Horizon Two: Short-Term Future (2030s). What are our points of volatility along the way, and how can we mitigate the ills while empowering positive changes?
- Horizon Three: Long-Term Future (2050). What might arrive and how can we help it arrive well?
Key Takeaways
Over three months, delegates reached a variety of insights, which we have collected and will learn from. Six of these are highlighted in our recently published report from the inaugural Innovation Lab. While you can find longer discussions of these insights in the full report, we outline the key outcomes.
Democratize governance of exponential technologies. Governance of exponential technologies is flawed, lagging behind innovation and being neither equitable nor inclusive. Consumers have largely given over their agency to exert purchaser’s control over the exponential products they consume due to those products’ convenience, relying instead on regulators to protect their interests. Regulators have not been up to the task, leaving a major governance gap filled in part by corporations. A healthier governance ecosystem will ensure healthier individual agency in relation to exponential tech, ensuring that solutions to our problems are also inclusive and equitable.
Tech standards are more important than tech regulations. Typical suggestions for addressing exponential tech governance gaps have been to make regulators more agile or to slow down the pace at which innovations are introduced to the public space. Both are patchwork solutions. Delegates suggested we instead focus on building an infrastructure of ethical and practical standards for exponential technologies. Rather than regulating on a granular level, this infrastructure creates guiding principles applicable to all innovation, thus empowering consumers, investors, and regulators even as innovations continue to speed up.
Individuals, not institutions, must be at the center of education and work. Today’s labor markets and education systems have been under pressure for years. Labor markets are being disrupted by the recognition that skills are a better measure of potential in the workplace, upsetting established relations between education and work. Meanwhile, education advocates have begun talking about “education transformation” rather than just reform. Delegates suggested a more radical and intertwined approach, arguing that personalization of the education experience—focusing on individual needs rather than systemic optimization—meets both evolving labor market needs and the aims of education transformation advocates.
We should focus on mitigating, not defeating, climate change. The narrative on climate change is still about defeating it. Yet the dream of keeping warming below 1.5C is all but dead due to a deficit of political will and cooperation. Delegates suggested we face the fact that we’re out of time and pivot away from aspirational language of “winning” against climate change, turning instead to pragmatic conversations about mitigation and remediation to protect as many as possible, as quickly as possible, while building resilience. This should also help build momentum for longer-term solutions.
Rethink how we communicate for better climate action. Climate advocates struggle to communicate meaningfully with groups who are skeptical of robust climate action. Yet we require broad societal buy-in to employ both near-term mitigation and longer-term sustainability strategies. Negative rhetoric about climate action complicates already tough conversations about effective action. Delegates proposed a renewed rhetorical toolkit that includes meeting those you disagree with where they are and building a better taxonomy of those reticent about climate action.
Digital Literacy is key to healing fractured societies. People the world over are increasingly unhappy. Much of this unhappiness hinges on a growing trust deficit within and across societies, thanks in part to populism, misinformation, social media algorithms, and echo chambers. The situation is made worse by a burgeoning infotainment industry, which feeds off this unhappiness to generate engagement and content for revenue. Conversations around how to do better typically center around improving regulation of online content. Delegates suggested a better approach is building digital literacy so consumers can make informed decisions about what to trust and consume.
An Ecosystem of Ideas; A Community of Action
Building a roadmap to actioning these takeaways is a complicated, long-term project beyond the scope of the inaugural Innovation Lab. What delegates did instead was to build what we are calling an “ecosystem of ideas.” Together with our growing “community of action,” these constitute a sort of infrastructure for how World in 2050 aims to help the future arrive well.
Rather than a roadmap to fixing the world’s problems, this ecosystem of ideas is more a treasure map pointing us in the right direction to dig down and find those solutions. This will be the work for future planned Innovation Labs, which will get more granular in scope.
Our vision for a community of action, meanwhile, comes from World in 2050’s basic tenets, which hold that a spirit of uncommon collaboration and fellowship are the secret sauce that will let us work across national and identity boundaries to co-create solutions to help the future arrive well. All delegates of past and future Innovation Labs are part of this community, but we are also building a platform for a wider and still more inclusive community of action to grow and collaborate, whether under the auspices of World in 2050 convenings or independently.
Building such a diverse community empowered by our growing body of learnings is, we think, what is needed to find the kind of solutions which aren’t just temporary fixes and which don’t leave whole segments of society behind.
Acknowledgments: World in 2050 would like to take a moment to thank the wonderful team at Unleesh for providing a great digital platform for our Innovation Lab, and being valuable learning partners.
Editors’ Note: This piece contextualizes and summarizes do tank/think tank World in 2050’s recent report from its inaugural Innovation Lab. The full report is available here now, for free.
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Uncommon Collaborations for a Better World in 2050
Photo via Adobe Stock.
January 11, 2023
Sixty delegates gathered to take part in World in 2050’s inaugural Innovation Lab to seek solutions to intractable global problems. World in 2050 Executive Director Shane Szarkowski highlights the key takeaways and insights from the recently published report.
S
ixty exceptional individuals. That’s the number of delegates World in 2050 gathered to take part in our inaugural Innovation Lab as we seek solutions to intractable global problems. Our delegates come from five continents and two dozen countries, ages ranging from 20 to 70. They were corporate executives, senior former government officials, civil society representatives, entrepreneurs, and outstanding students. This diversity helped us carry out an uncommon breed of collective intelligence, bringing together a large, diverse group of people with often radically different perspectives and experiences who nevertheless share the goal of seeking collaborative solutions to big societal issues.
Helping the Future Arrive Well
Our Innovation Labs are designed to be a core part of World in 2050’s mission—to help the future arrive well. What does that mean?
There are a bevy of interrelated and overlapping challenges which can have profound impacts on society in the coming decades. We’ve identified and divided these into five long-term megatrends to better conceptualize both under-recognized challenges and uncommon but impactful solutions. They are:
- Exponential technologies are radically reshaping the world.
- Disruption from climate change, energy transition is only beginning.
- The workplace cares less about education, more about skills.
- Societal distrust and fragmentation are surging.
- Democratic governance institutions are under pressure.
For our inaugural Innovation Lab, we assigned delegates into five committees—one for each megatrend—privileging diversity in background, expertise, and viewpoint to give each committee the opportunity for rich, uncommon discussions. Committees considered macro-issues related to each of their themes. Delegates carried out discussions through the lens of the Three Horizons Model, which asks that we consider pathways into the future through three timeframes:
- Horizon One: Current Situation (2020s). What norms in our “business as usual” world now are dying or should die, and how can we help them leave well?
- Horizon Two: Short-Term Future (2030s). What are our points of volatility along the way, and how can we mitigate the ills while empowering positive changes?
- Horizon Three: Long-Term Future (2050). What might arrive and how can we help it arrive well?
Key Takeaways
Over three months, delegates reached a variety of insights, which we have collected and will learn from. Six of these are highlighted in our recently published report from the inaugural Innovation Lab. While you can find longer discussions of these insights in the full report, we outline the key outcomes.
Democratize governance of exponential technologies. Governance of exponential technologies is flawed, lagging behind innovation and being neither equitable nor inclusive. Consumers have largely given over their agency to exert purchaser’s control over the exponential products they consume due to those products’ convenience, relying instead on regulators to protect their interests. Regulators have not been up to the task, leaving a major governance gap filled in part by corporations. A healthier governance ecosystem will ensure healthier individual agency in relation to exponential tech, ensuring that solutions to our problems are also inclusive and equitable.
Tech standards are more important than tech regulations. Typical suggestions for addressing exponential tech governance gaps have been to make regulators more agile or to slow down the pace at which innovations are introduced to the public space. Both are patchwork solutions. Delegates suggested we instead focus on building an infrastructure of ethical and practical standards for exponential technologies. Rather than regulating on a granular level, this infrastructure creates guiding principles applicable to all innovation, thus empowering consumers, investors, and regulators even as innovations continue to speed up.
Individuals, not institutions, must be at the center of education and work. Today’s labor markets and education systems have been under pressure for years. Labor markets are being disrupted by the recognition that skills are a better measure of potential in the workplace, upsetting established relations between education and work. Meanwhile, education advocates have begun talking about “education transformation” rather than just reform. Delegates suggested a more radical and intertwined approach, arguing that personalization of the education experience—focusing on individual needs rather than systemic optimization—meets both evolving labor market needs and the aims of education transformation advocates.
We should focus on mitigating, not defeating, climate change. The narrative on climate change is still about defeating it. Yet the dream of keeping warming below 1.5C is all but dead due to a deficit of political will and cooperation. Delegates suggested we face the fact that we’re out of time and pivot away from aspirational language of “winning” against climate change, turning instead to pragmatic conversations about mitigation and remediation to protect as many as possible, as quickly as possible, while building resilience. This should also help build momentum for longer-term solutions.
Rethink how we communicate for better climate action. Climate advocates struggle to communicate meaningfully with groups who are skeptical of robust climate action. Yet we require broad societal buy-in to employ both near-term mitigation and longer-term sustainability strategies. Negative rhetoric about climate action complicates already tough conversations about effective action. Delegates proposed a renewed rhetorical toolkit that includes meeting those you disagree with where they are and building a better taxonomy of those reticent about climate action.
Digital Literacy is key to healing fractured societies. People the world over are increasingly unhappy. Much of this unhappiness hinges on a growing trust deficit within and across societies, thanks in part to populism, misinformation, social media algorithms, and echo chambers. The situation is made worse by a burgeoning infotainment industry, which feeds off this unhappiness to generate engagement and content for revenue. Conversations around how to do better typically center around improving regulation of online content. Delegates suggested a better approach is building digital literacy so consumers can make informed decisions about what to trust and consume.
An Ecosystem of Ideas; A Community of Action
Building a roadmap to actioning these takeaways is a complicated, long-term project beyond the scope of the inaugural Innovation Lab. What delegates did instead was to build what we are calling an “ecosystem of ideas.” Together with our growing “community of action,” these constitute a sort of infrastructure for how World in 2050 aims to help the future arrive well.
Rather than a roadmap to fixing the world’s problems, this ecosystem of ideas is more a treasure map pointing us in the right direction to dig down and find those solutions. This will be the work for future planned Innovation Labs, which will get more granular in scope.
Our vision for a community of action, meanwhile, comes from World in 2050’s basic tenets, which hold that a spirit of uncommon collaboration and fellowship are the secret sauce that will let us work across national and identity boundaries to co-create solutions to help the future arrive well. All delegates of past and future Innovation Labs are part of this community, but we are also building a platform for a wider and still more inclusive community of action to grow and collaborate, whether under the auspices of World in 2050 convenings or independently.
Building such a diverse community empowered by our growing body of learnings is, we think, what is needed to find the kind of solutions which aren’t just temporary fixes and which don’t leave whole segments of society behind.
Acknowledgments: World in 2050 would like to take a moment to thank the wonderful team at Unleesh for providing a great digital platform for our Innovation Lab, and being valuable learning partners.
Editors’ Note: This piece contextualizes and summarizes do tank/think tank World in 2050’s recent report from its inaugural Innovation Lab. The full report is available here now, for free.
