Top Ten Drivers of the Future?

I recently had the opportunity to brief a group on the key drivers shaping World Futures. I have taught a class by that name for several years. You’d think it would be a fairly easy presentation to put together, right? Think again! 😊

It’s easy to generate a lot of candidates, but its hard to prioritize. For the talk, I figured [correctly] that I had time for 15. But that’s too easy. Let’s try for a top 10, shall we? I’ll start, which means I had to prune from my original 15, and, of course since you are a different audience, I might switch one or two. See what happens? And you’ll see even so I cheated a little bit.

1. Values Shifts: Value are shifting in a consistent direction over time, from traditional to modern to postmodern to integral.
2. After Capitalism & the Post-Work Future: One can envision a long-term future beyond capitalism where people having full-time jobs is not needed, but that would be a huge change.
3. Climate Change & the Circular Economy: Climate change and humanity’s growing ecological footprint are threatening the ecosystem, with the circular principles of using less and re-using being a promising development.
4. Technology Acceleration, the Singularity & Abundance: Accelerating technological progress is such that within a generation, it may be possible  to provide goods and services, once reserved for the wealthy few, to any and all who need them.
5. Inequality > Universal Basic Income: Huge gaps in inequality are driving interest in program such as UBI, with several trial programs are already in motion or being developed.
6.  Integration of Virtual and Real: While often more prominent “at work,” it is expanding into the home as well … differences are beginning to blur as we get used to it … and will increasingly fade.
7. Local & Decentralized Production: As 3D printing and other approaches, e.g., vertical farming,  expands their reach, local supply chains become more feasible vis-à-vis global ones.
8. Augmented Humans: Technology and medical breakthroughs provide ways for us to keep up with AI … or to make ourselves into superheroes.
9. Tribalism: Our growing unwillingness to empathize and compromise outside of our communities threatens the social and political order.
10. New Metrics of Success: Gross National Happiness: The most common measure, GDP, only tells a small part of the story. New measures, such as the Triple Bottom Line, and Gross National Happiness are emerging.

What would you add or subtract? Or even better, please share your Top 10 list? – Andy Hines