The World That Is Coming

In this article, I want you to open your mind and travel with me across the past 40 years, then return to the present and try to visualize the future, because all you need to understand what is coming is data.

If you are between 35 to 45 years old, surely you have used and discovered the new technologies that we began to experience as children: cable television, CDs, the first mass video games, such as Atari or Sega, the Walkman, the first microwave, wireless telephones, the beeper or pager and the arrival of dad's mobile, which could kill you if it fell on your head, just to mention some. It was an incredible time where we were adapting to living with the new technologies that made our lives more comfortable and fun. We were increasingly connecting to the world and when the internet became prominent in schools in the 1990s, nothing was the same again.

I remember that my first email was from my high school and my parents could access the school’s web page, where they saw my grades, which didn't seem right to me since I spent many weekends grounded.

The first web pages that we discovered as teenagers were merely informative (yes, we visited Playboy too). Then, ICQ arrived in Mexico. It was an instant messaging service on the web where we began to interact in a faster and more fun way. Almost instantly, MSM made its appearance and as most of us at that time already had Hotmail, the migration was instantaneous and natural. (By the way, I still have that email too) The digital world was becoming part of our lives and emails were here to stay. Today, we can't even complete a simple subscription without adding our email address.

Then the gadgets arrived, including the new mobile phones with more accessories and the ability to take pictures and listen to music in mp3 format. We are talking about the first years of the 21st century where we sent messages using our mobile, shared photos and listened to music. I had a rock band and we signed our first contract with a big label called Univision Music Group in 2003. There one of the directors of the company told us to "enjoy your CD because in less than 10 years it will disappear." I could not believe it since everything that we did was around recording albums. Then, one of my friends from another band arrived with an iPod. That changed the history of music for me and for the industry. I became  interested in technology and how a small device could hold so many songs. I could buy songs, download those that I had on my CDs and literally have hours and hours of music on this little device. I know you were as surprised as I was if you are my age.

Firefox, Skype, YouTube, Facebook, Android, Apple, Microsoft Office and other companies and software became part of us as we took the first steps in connecting to a digital life.  And then something happened. The world began to digitize and hyper connect us in a way that, without realizing it, involved all of us. With that, something else happened that had to happen: we began to be the basis of information. Our consumer behaviors and lifestyles became necessary statistics for companies and governments. Today, we have the ability to predict the future in the short, medium and long term because we can measure almost everything. That is where those of us who are dedicated to technology can be inspired by people like Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jan Koum, Jack Ma or Elon Musk, along with many others.

Now, let's talk about the present. The last three years have been socially, culturally and technologically complex. We can call 2020 the year of the disruption of human behavior, where health became the core of the planet's economic and social stability.  Today, we know that the world is not prepared for another pandemic; the health systems, the economy and society as we know it would no longer be the same if that happened again. What we have from  those years is the information that we generated and with that data, we can predict what is going to happen in the coming years. 

With that, here my predictions for the next 20 years:

1. Public and private health is a priority: Informed citizens who take control of their health will help governments reduce health spending and improve people’s lives. This is achieved with technology that will connect citizens with health systems (private and public), life expectancy will be better, and we will live more than 100 years.

2. Mobility and energy: Better communication systems like the metaverse and remote work, where only essential jobs require people to move. Robots and AI replace 40% of jobs, from diagnostic doctors to McDonald’s staff. There will be better public transportation systems and an upgrade of supply chain logistics., Renewable energies will account for 50% of all power supply.

3. Digital ID: Personally, I don't like it, but we all already have it without realizing it. Now,with the control of the population and its needs measured through data, it is important that these IDs only have relevant information that has an impact on society from the start. Health, economy, security, education, but not like the Chinese model, which I am totally against due to the restriction of freedoms. The problem is that governments love control.

4. Food and farmland: There is no society if there is no food. The re-administration of eating habits and the consumption of products and services will change. There is not enough for everyone and we need to adapt to modify the supply chain and consume in a sustainable way, together with food technology companies that help with little food to meet the nutritional needs of people, especially the most vulnerable.

5. Education: Seventy percent digital and 30% face-to-face, designed so that young people learn more in less time so that they can develop more skills that help their development. They will be in charge of our future too, so we need to do this very well.

6. Money and economy: Local and universal digital currencies, such as bitcoin, will be the new way of exchanging goods and services with a high participation of banks or governments: only 20% will be decentralized. They will not stop receiving money. The circular economy will dominate most of the world.

7. Democracy: Citizen participation is imminent, but now it will be digital. Voting will be virtual and legitimate; parliaments will have to listen to the voice of the majority and will have to take it into account if they don’t want a revolution.

And last but not least.

8. The end of globalization as we know it: each country will seek its own independence; international treaties will be modified seeking benefits for each country’s population and not for global companies or organizations from  a few countries that have been exploiting other countries for decades. The balance of power will shift thanks to the leadership of BRICS and friends.

I see many opportunities and new ways of living. Many of these technologies are already being developed and I can only tell you that The Jetsons ( a cartoon from the ‘60s) were right.

A different world is coming, and I know that we are going to adapt to it; we always do.

I want to conclude with this thought because we still have many variables that we cannot control, from war to a solar explosion, an earthquake, and others. To this day, all digital technology depends on two things: electricity and the goodwill of people. As a great scientist who traveled to the future said: "Your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has! Your future is whatever you make it. So, make it a good one!" — Doc Emmett Brown.

See you in the future dear digital friends...