Aspen IDEAS: Are We Ready for A ‘Next World’ Order?

The snow-capped mountains of Colorado are looking pristine at this time of the year. The clear skies and gentle breeze are a refreshing, if not somewhat ironic, backdrop to this year’s Aspen IDEAS 2019 Festival, which proved to be as vibrant and as vigorous as ever, set against a changing world that continues to be stubbornly divisive and mired in ambiguity.

I attended a number of thought-provoking sessions by some of the brightest thought leaders and innovators in their respective fields. Among the major themes that struck a chord with me include…

“Next World Order"

An ascendant China is shifting the balance of world power, long dominated by the US and the West. 

Winter has come for Western-style liberal democracy, and it’s “Springtime for the Strongman” anew, challenging the long-standing assumption that humans, at our deepest core, want and need liberalism. 

However, human nature reminds us that people sometimes want and need a strongman to rule and to make sense of a confusing and uncertain world. 

The state of freedom and our notion of civil liberties are both being challenged and redefined as new forms of authoritarianism are taking shape in many parts of the world. Is this a permanent trend?

Can we make America and China great at the same time? The current US-China trade dispute has changed the symbiotic relationship between the two countries forever and each must charter its course for permanent substitution going forward. Changes cannot be forced and must be based on respect for each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

As we know, trade is based on the principle of comparative advantage. Healthy competition is the guiding principle for progress. It applies to technology, trade and economics. Understanding China must take both an outside-in and an inside-out approach.

“The Currency of Trust”

Trust is in flux today both among businesses and governments. In business, the most trusted sector is tech, so the challenge for tech leaders is how to make use of all that trust capital to make technology a positive force in society. 

To do this, tech companies should do more to educate consumers about the changes they fear most. Trust as the ‘most trusted’ currency is in demand, and only a few things will be more valuable in the future than trust.

As we speak, however, the loss of trust in the Internet is dangerous. There is growing rebellion against concentrated power. Companies should fight it out when there is competition and not simply use their power to acquire whatever they see as a threat. When we break up more often there is more growth vs. promoting monopoly among a few national champions.

Giant companies have become untouchable by the markets, leading to…

• Lack of faith in competition 
• An increasingly centralized system, which is dangerous
• An ecosystem built on ‘favours’

Tech should take the lead and become the most decentralized. Tech can be used to tell stories that can bring about positive changes in the world – a sort of ‘national geography’ minus the boundaries.

Is tech here for good? Tech in general, and AI specifically, is amoral by nature, governed by the logic of algorithms understood only by a select few. It can be a force for good only if we want it to. We can already see, for example, how tech is amplifying the need to revisit the ethics and responsibility of traditional journalism. The mainstream media and other traditional institutions being transformed by tech, including banks, and in the future, even governments and religious institutions, must be prepared to address a confounding moral dilemma – do no evil vs. do good.

Ultimately, the power of tech lies in three things: Access, Engagement, and Personalization. In the future, most if not all companies will be tech companies, and those that can figure out how to harness the three to produce a greater good will get access to the most valuable capital – trust.

The future is both scary and exciting, especially when seen through the eyes of visionaries at the Aspen IDEAS Festival. 

Can China and the US co-exist in a multi-polar world where smaller nations can thrive and chart their own course? 

Are we doomed to live in a bipolar world where we are forced to choose sides? 

Or maybe, just maybe, there is reason to hope that a third independent power -- not necessarily another country, but something completely non-partisan like technology – completely create a “Next World Order” that transcends both geopolitical and ideological boundaries, a world unlike anything we’ve ever imagined? 

What will this new world look like? The great artist and visionary John Lennon might have imagined this world almost 50 years ago in his legendary song, “Imagine”…

Imagine

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

Lots of Love,

Louisa

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