No pun intended

The rise of technology and the digital age open up to a new world of remarkable possibilities for humanity, where the awareness of individuals through social networks and multiple international information platforms offer access to all, as well as a new window of awareness and actions for these individuals.

Worldwide communities and single souls in remote locations or big cities, coming from multiple social backgrounds, are displaying and watching their respective different ways of living, previously impossible to see for many of them before technology and the internet. Global networking observes and contemplates new aspects of human rights, with comprehensive resolutions for basic civil rights. The world is witnessing live as well broadcasts of resources and the way the environment evolves all over. People are now discovering with a simple click how someone can live a very comfortable everyday reality, or on the contrary, an unbearable daily life. Thanks to technology and artificial intelligence, information flows with new perceptions of a future, complementing what this technology already provides.

The emergence of new ecological events in climate change, the rise of think tanks and governing bodies with political extremism, the widening gap in wealth, the spreading waves of migrations, and now the health issues of pandemics are the new challenges of the world today. A world that also opens up to sustainable politics and economies and is discovering how it can incorporate to international governance, in order to change the course of discontent. But also a world that is facing the threat of totalitarianism with lobbying groups and governments taking advantage of emergencies: with Track and trace applications used for the wrong purpose, or with face recognition technology, as well as potentially regulated health implementations under the influence of certain pharmaceutical industries, or financial groups, are a reality. No Conspiracy theory here but the current news we read and watch. There have been some attempts through the course of the pandemic that are a little concerning and that need to be resolved.

Since the 2008 crisis, politics have mainly been about regulating the finances of countries internally and globally, as well as adapting financial governance to the effects of worldwide macroeconomic conditions. We still have not understood that we need to radically modify to thrive and survive in a world that originally could provide all that societies need to live well, to regulate economies, and adapt to climate change. So the rise of technology is a blessing. Its logistics can be adapted at all rich and poverty levels, for democracies to strengthen and modernize national policy frameworks, through proper international concertation.

A few successful examples show the way such new emerging traceability technologies are positively here to curb food waste and the connection between food loss, hunger, consumer demand, and climate change. These IoT sensors, blockchains, and food-sensing technologies could reduce food loss by millions of tons if properly applied. Those disruptive technology applications can effectively help trace inefficiencies in the food value chain.

Transitional environments of ecology, migrations due to climate warming, and social discontent due to several political and financial off balance or unethical mechanisms can altogether be redirected to a fruitful and positive outcome. It will depend on how quickly and ethically managed countries will use these AI tools.

Where human rights have been nonexistent or taken away for so many centuries, they can finally become part of life, thanks to the proper use of technology. Access to food for all, roof, and health is possible through the means of technology and AI.

Multiple actions in many different areas are taking place in the private, public, and plural sectors- rooted in community action influencing change. By coordinating operations, informing the entire population, and establishing temporary legislation for clean energy and agriculture, temperature rise can subside. Technology has become a major element in dealing with climate change, as well as artificial intelligence. How important they are to the future of our planet is as obvious as the need to establish and build these technologies on carbon resolution and sustainability.

The Paris agreement effectively started shifting global mentalities and economy at the government level in the public sector. But transformation genuinely occurred with foundations or groups such as the Sierra Club with coal, where engagement and actions from bottom to top occurred, developing through communities and social initiatives that became global actions and institutions. Now the private sector is starting to understand the opportunities, growth, and even more “profitable” results by engaging in sustainability. It is also better apprehended that circular economy, sharing economy, and sustainable everything is renewing a system that leads to better living and an increase in GDP. Application and AI with companies like Tesla, Uber, Airbnb, Bitcoin, or even Philips, as well as any applications resulting from technology, have changed the world.

Written by Pascale Rearte