Ten forces of the future
People&Places
1. Demography, it changed, will change and it influences heavily how the world will work. New distributions between the working and retired population place new constraints on job availability. Also shifts in population, like in Africa, will redistribute power.
2. City planet, most of the people on the planet will live in cities. New, very large and non-Western cities will create new opportunities e.g. creating the women workforce, but also create challenges in health and housing.
3. Millennial generation, a truly new generation is rising that has new values, use information and communication technologies in new ways. This generation has its own questions and different needs with regards to e.g. spirituality.
4. Africa, all indicators show that Africa will be the next growth engine of the world. Now, the attention is still with the BRIC-countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), but the potential of the complete African continent with all its diversity and richness in raw materials is huge. New alliances like the one with China, show that we need to watch this continent.
Economics&Technology
5. Post-Western globalization, the West will loose it historic position as 'ruler' of the world, become a major exporter of talent and importer of ideas.
6. BANG technologies (Bits, Atoms, Neurons and Genes) will converge as the developments within IT, nanotech, neuroscience and biotechnology lead to unimagined possibilities.
7. Human enhancement will be the result of applying the results of BANG innovations to ourselves to be smarter, better and healthier. For the first time innovation will lead to change inside humans instead of changing the environment.
8. Energy, it is not a question if but when we will run out of oil. It is also a fact that the demand will increase and we thus need alternative sources of energy. Will it be nuclear or natural energy from wind, sun and the tides? We do not know exactly, but it is sure that we need to take new steps.
Seismic shifts
9. Climate change is really happening and poses us for new questions with regards to our health and risks e.g. related to extreme weather (see also the post 'What if NYC...').
10. Social change is sure to happen if you combine all the previous nine trends. NGO and new communities will influence the global agenda and new models will be needed to understand and manage the new opportunities.
You can download the Flash animation (61 MB) at the GBN website.
