THE EXPONENTIAL ERA

Today we met the man who has made commercial trips into space a reality, Dr Peter Diamandis. A true visionary, he hit on the idea of running a competition with a 10 million dollar reward for the first team to build a commercial space flight vehicle. Ten years later, and the companies who entered have spent far more than ten times the prize money in researching and ultimately delivering a solution. He is now working on similar projects in other areas, offering for example prizes for the successful creation of an electronic healthcare device that could help to plug the serious world shortage of doctors, and a piece of educational software that could educate children who have no access to schools. His mantra: there is no problem that we cannot solve if we harness the full brainpower of the human race through technology.

We are, (he argued and few will disagree), entering an era where technological development is advancing exponentially rather than in a linear fashion. Faster and faster computers are now building faster and faster computers. Within 20 years, his prediction is that a single handheld device will carry more brain power than the entire human race! If this seems a little far fetched, older readers of this blog may have grown up reading a work of science fiction, written in 1981 by Douglas Adams, called The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. The title refers to a pocket sized electronic device that is capable of accessing all of the knowledge in the universe at the press of a button. A ridiculous idea that such a thing could exist! 30 years later, most of you have one in your pocket. An African bushman has more information at his disposal today than did President Reagan.

The recent technological advances, Dr Diamandis argues, are not just about increased convenience: they are a total game-changer for the entire human race. Many of his visions are frightening. Consider 3D printers: already in existence, ladies might like to look forward to the time in the not too distant future when buying a pair of shoes online means printing them out in your sitting room rather than waiting for the postman to call. Nice! But what about the guy who already successfully 3D printed a fully working gun? For gun, substitute nuclear weapon ... and suddenly none of this seems a particularly good idea...

But you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. Pandora's Box is open and we cannot shut it. In which case, the only solution going forward will be for the leaders of tomorrow to develop a unified global vision: the very technology that is potentially so frightening could yet be our saviour in helping us to achieve this. But success in this respect will require not just education for all, but also collaboration around a set of shared principles and ideals.

Anyone still questioning the point of Round Square?!