A disruptive future or an abundant tomorrow?

We can not predict the future but what likely scenarios await us in 2025?

In our article last year we said that it will become increasingly difficult to decide between truth and fake news. This year it seems that all futurists point to massive disruptions.

Tony Seba is quoted as saying that we are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilisation in history.

Tony is a renowned thought leader, author, and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. He is the co-founder of RethinkX, a think tank that focuses on identifying disruptive innovations and their potential societal impacts. Seba is known for his work on technology disruption, particularly in the fields of energy and transportation. He has authored several influential books, including "Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation" and "Solar Trillions," and co-authored reports like "Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030" and "Rethinking Humanity". His insights and predictions have garnered significant attention and sparked debates about the future of various industries.

Imagine that within 10 years, millions of jobs become redundant! Humanoids will do the jobs 24/7/365 - cheaper than any human being can. Cars, taxis and buses are replaced by autonomous electric vehicles. Agriculture is fully automated, so are factories and AI is more intelligent than most humans with an IQ surpassing 160! Imagine a world built on photons, electrons, DNA, molecules, and quantum bits (qubits) rather than traditional resources like coal, oil, steel, livestock, and concrete. Anticipate a world where solar, wind and battery (SWB) energy will become the dominant energy sources delivering superabundant electricity year round.

Tony believes this disruption will lead to a 10-fold reduction in costs and 10 times more efficient production processes, using 90% fewer natural resources and producing 10 to 100 times less waste.

Futurists also say that the world has already started this rapid change, and the pace of change will outstrip ideology, policy and politics. We will see changes in governments that started last year with voters showing their dissatisfaction at the polls and they predict that it will continue this year with new faces to be seen at the G20 summit held in Johannesburg this year.

Is it all doom and gloom?

Elon Musk predicts a 80 to 90% chance that an abundant future awaits us. See this interview with Peter H. Diamandis recorded on Oct 29th, 2024 at the FII8 Summit in Riyadh. Peter and Elon discuss Elon’s predictions for AI.

Robots have a hard time replacing blue-collar jobs and we may soon see that electricians and plumbers earn more than doctors. Robots are bad at emotional jobs involving a rapport with humans so its seems that teachers, counsellors and therapists are safe. Robots are also not great with imagining things, so architects, innovators, strategists and people who dream about the future will also have a job.

Will you alter your strategic plans to grasp the future?

Only you can decide.

PS You may also be interested to watch a 39min podcast on a lecture by Tony Seba?

Disclaimer: This article is the personal opinion/view of the author(s) and is not necessarily that of the ASAQS