Experts at CONNECTED conference dscussed key global narratives about the future
“An Informed View of the Future: A Worldview Approach” - this was the tagline for the plenary session of the CONNECTED international conference, which is currently taking place in the capital of Kazakhstan.
Speakers discussed how to find a balance between individual and collective interests, between the drive to increase production volumes and the quality of life and our intelligence. They explored how to achieve harmony with the surrounding world in pursuit of sustainable development and what steps need to be taken to create a future that aligns with our values and the challenges of our time.
The plenary session was moderated by Riz Khan, a journalist, television host, and former head of CNN International and Al Jazeera English.
The discussion centered on the idea that the modern world is on the brink of great changes. Global challenges such as climate change, social inequality, rapid technological transformations, cultural polarization, and a loss of trust in traditional values require special attention.
Experts also examined significant global narratives that play a key role in shaping perceptions of the future. These narratives reflect collective beliefs, values, and expectations of society, influencing political decisions, economic strategies, and social movements.
Gerd Leonhard, a futurist, humanist, and author of the book "Technology vs. Humanity", and CEO of The Futures Agency, emphasized the “side effects” created by the development of industry, economy, technology, and human civilization as a whole.
"There are side effects to what we have created. For instance, global warming already means 3 million global climate refugees. Artificial Intelligence is an invention comparable in scale to the steam engine. An AI-based economy is the “economy of new machines”. Yes, the economy is growing, and countries are actively developing. But the negative side effects could ultimately be even bigger than the positive ones," the expert warned.
Nobel laureate in Green Economy and Director of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better World, Rae Kwon Chung, emphasized:
"We have entered a phase where the main driving force of modernization is the free market system and liberal democracy. They are excellent in terms of increasing production volumes. However, that is not enough to improve quality. Therefore, we must enter a new stage of development, where enhancing the quality of life and sustainability becomes necessary.
Thus, we need to reformat the market system and concentrate on new technologies and higher-quality political systems. This must be an entirely new imagination, based on a new system of values and new goals that we want to achieve in the future," said Rae Kwon Chung.
Historian, writer, and professor at the University of Oxford, Peter Frankopan, author of the bestseller "The Silk Road: A New History of the World," recommended focusing on positive outcomes by visualizing a picture of the future.
"We are currently living in a world of tremendous change. For example, in Kazakhstan, after the collapse of the USSR, there has been a complete reorganization of the social order, ecology, industry, and all spheres of life over the past 30 years. Similar processes are occurring to varying degrees in other countries as well. This speaks to the scale of the changes we are facing. If we focus on the flower rather than its roots, we will receive only superficial results. We will not be able to understand the rhythm of changes and their speed. A new system of values, a new world order, and organizational structures are being formed. This is the manifestation of the convergence of climate change, demographic changes, epidemiological factors, and others.
Kay Firth-Butterfield, CEO of Good Tech Advisory and honorary laureate of the TIME Impact Award 2024, as well as a former AI lead and member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum, posed the question of whether Artificial Intelligence can save our world.
"AI is our assistant that can develop strategies to save the world. This is the narrative we are promoting. However, I would like to seriously question this assertion. Because it involves the ethical component. There are already countries and companies discussing the need to develop AI with greater responsibility, considering where we want to end up in the future. We should not wait for that future and then say, ”'Oh, you know, we should have started developing AI usage policies back in 2024 because we ended up with a future that looks quite unattractive, which is not what we wanted to achieve.'"
CEO of Aitas Foundation and founder of the movement, Serik Junusov, also expressed thoughts on the search for harmony in a changing world during the opening of the event.
“We have reflected on what the vision of the future world is and who the agents of change are that shape this vision. It has become vital to understand the entire global flow and our place within it. If the surrounding world is in disharmony, isolated sustainable development of a country becomes impossible. In this remarkable time of uncertainty, is global synchronization of a common vision for the future possible? Nature itself has given us the key to the answer. We see this in examples of synchronization - the flickering of fireflies, the synchronized movement of a metronome. They find their rhythm by coming together in harmony. The important truth hidden in this is that global narratives can also come into harmony," he noted.
CONNECTED-2024 is an international conference focused on conceptualizing the vision of the future.
Approximately 1,500 delegates from over 20 countries are participating in the conference. Among them are futurists, philosophers, leaders in innovation and technology, public and government figures, religious leaders, founders and representatives of leading global EdTech companies, international organizations, transnational corporations, and others.
The event includes 18 panel sessions featuring more than 70 international speakers from the USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, China, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Israel, Turkey, UAE, South Africa, Nepal, and Uzbekistan.
The program is structured around three key directions: "Future Shaping," "Future Education & Science," and "EdTech and Impact Entrepreneurship."
The general sponsor of CONNECTED is AITAS - the leading agro-industrial holding in the country.
The strategic partners of the event include the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan, and the Foundation for Sustainable Development of Education.
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