The Feedback Thinking Project is a framework to help prepare our generation for the transformations ahead of us. From mass automation to fiscal policies to social interactions, we will explore what the next 20 years will look like, how it will affect us, and how we can alleviate some of the fears associated with large scale change. This project will manifest itself in several ways over the coming months including a book, a forum, and other ideas that we will pursue together!
…But you probably already read that on the homepage! To get more specific, let’s first look at what is changing about our world.
Take self-driving cars as an example. When cars drive themselves a lot of big things will change; laws, city infrastructure, insurance, jobs, mortality rates, to name a few. Traffic lights may disappear as cars learn to navigate intersections by themselves. But then how do people cross the street? What happens to the jobs that support the production or operation of traffic lights? If the likelihood of your car getting t-boned in an intersection diminishes, do you need insurance coverage? Does your car need the same impact cages? Will you need to call for a tow truck or an auto-repair company?
What about money? Today when you pay for things you do so with a currency. Food, shelter, water and essentially everything that you need (besides love), has a cost to it. But what happens when the truck driver, the taxi driver, the auto repair person, the insurance sales agent or the traffic light manufacturer are no longer employed? How do we ensure they have food and shelter? Do we need to find new jobs and retrain the workforce today? Do you explore a universal basic income or do away with money entirely?
“What are the major changes that you think will be highly disruptive over the next 20 years?”
These are exciting times but they are also scary. What about our jobs? How will I feed my family? Where will I live?
Because all of these technologies and events are happening in silos, it’s difficult to conceptualize how they will all flow together for the betterment of our world. Our natural response to something we don’t fully understand is to regress back to what we know versus rejoice in the innovation.
The Feedback Thinking Project will establish a framework for how to ensure that the people most affected by these changes are comfortable with them. How do we mobilize the masses around change and innovation as opposed to fear of alienation? How do we breakdown innovation to appear more linear to help people understand?
To start, what are the major changes that you think will be highly disruptive over the next 20 years? Shoot us an email at contact@feedbackthinking.org with your ideas or write a note on our Facebook page. We will compile them all in the next post!
Too many people in too crowded conditions, too few interesting jobs, growing inequality between classes, deteriorating infrastructures with no desire to put money towards improvements, meanness towards others, overuse of technology rather than thinking and doing for ourselves
Modifying consumer expectations and reframing them will be key. Technology is reshuffling the deck, not increasing the number of cards to be dealt. No one with a crystal ball can ever seem to come to grips with income disparity, whether on a national or global basis. I’d like to reunite politics with economics. 🙂