Talks, Panels, Interviews and Podcasts, Teaching, Publications

Simon Wardley the creator of the Wardley Mapping method for management, invited me to the annual MapCamp event. I gave a talk in the Green transition section about why digital and green go together.

And here’s the link to the whole panel with Andra Sonea and Adrian Cockcroft.

● Index:

00:00:00 Marcia Luyten – Moderator
00:01:20 Joost de Laat – Director Centre for Global Challenges
00:05:57 Johan Schot – Prof. of Global History and Sustainability Transitions
00:08:58 Carlota Perez
00:09:00 Introduction and title
00:11:45 Five technological revolutions; four golden ages
00:23:25 The socio-political shaping of technologies
00:28:06 Why smart and green together?
00:30:42 Why fair and global?
00:33:27 Why growth? Which growth?
00:37:25 Q&A
00:37:44 Does the sequence hold in every case? (long installation)
00:43:14 Will the powerful and rich elites and shareholders give up their positions?
00:45:36 Will the post-Covid recovery mean going back to business as usual?
00:50:29 What social pressure would be needed now to help push the transformation
00:54:16 What do you see as the greatest problem to be faced in the golden age?
00:59:01 Will we need a new set of global institutions?
01:01:21 What do you mean by satisfaction (as opposed to comfort)?
01:04:57 Is bitcoin comfort or satisfaction?
01:06:17 What is your view of the role of social media?
01:08:44 Will African governments be interested or engaged in the golden age?

This is a presentation for Baillie Gifford, the Scottish long term investors. The talk lasts one hour, covering: (1) the difficulty of predicting the future (2) getting help from recurring past patterns (3) asking where we are now in such patterns (4) how to shape the future by shaping the direction of the new technologies and, finally, (5) the role of the Covid-19 crisis in opening new possibilities.

Opportunities for development are a moving target. I talked about Technological Opportunities and a Dynamic Post-Covid future for Latin America at Oxford University.

It was the inaugural lecture of the 2020/21 academic year. My proposal here is to combine technology, natural resources and social inclusion taking advantage of the new technological and market potential.

In May 2020, in the midst of the pandemic lockdown I gave a talk in the virtual Consensus event of the blockchain and cryptocurrency crowd. My goal was to clarify a confusion about blockchain and cryptocurrencies, which are often associated with my theory about technological revolutions, bubbles and golden ages. I basically argued that there is a major difference between a revolutionary technology (like artificial intelligence or blockchain) and a technological revolution, which involves many successive revolutionary technologies and technology systems, such as the mass production revolution in the 20th century and information technology now. I also suggested that, in the necessary process of modernizing government such technologies could play a key role.

After the talk there was a discussion with Chris Burniske, the author of Cryptoassets, chaired by Zack Seward of Coindesk.

And finally there was a Q&A session

Not an easy task. I was in the lion’s den.

On Nov 12, We discussed the shaping of the Post-Covid future on two levels. I presented the macro-historical point of view and Stelvia, the view from the very poor areas in the developing world, specifically the Brazilian favelas. Radical redesign for sustainability through entrepreneurship and innovation.

Hilary Cottam presented her powerful report on Welfare 5.0 referring to the social revolution that has to accompany a potential golden age based on the information revolution. It was chaired by Mariana Mazzucato, the Director of IIPP, and commented on by Anne-Marie Slaughter (CEO New America), Imandeep Kaur (Director of Civic Square) and me. I referred to how Hilary’s proposals came from the wisdom of experience and why the time was ripe for putting them to practice. But no matter how appropriate the safety net, society needs to be fairer to begin with, so that welfare policies only have to care for a decreasing minority.

I gave an interview to Roel Verrycken of the Belgian business daily De Tijd. Corona can lead to a golden age. They tell me it was the most widely read for three whole days. People are looking for new directions, which is what I tried to signal there. You will need Google Translate because It’s in Dutch 😉 It was also published in French here.

I essentially argue that technological revolutions radically change the nature and conditions of work and they therefore require welfare revolutions and institutional innovations. And, to be consistent, those who think giving something for nothing is harmful for people should also be against inheritance.

Another blog in my page on the Beyond the Tech Revolution project Digital and green: a very convenient marriage. I basically argue that we need to move towards green with the help of the digital revolution and give some examples of what that could look like

I wrote a blog for the Deep Transitions project (@DTransitions2) about why we need to imagine the future in order to shape it, but also why it must be based on the technological and innovative potential at hand (in this case ICT). “Imagining a good life in a green and fair society: You must visualise the future in order to shape it!”

I wrote a blog for UNCTAD titled “An opportunity for ethical capitalism that comes once in a century”. It refers to how midway along the diffusion of each technological revolution society gets a chance to actively shape the new technologies with a social purpose in mind. A global sustainable golden age is a real possibility and the chance to shape it is now.