Changes in the future: The new normal?

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A friend asked me to list things that will undergo seismic change in the next 10 years.
So i thought why not have some fun..here goes.

Ir4.0 will cause change, but not in the way we think. It will help nudge the current dominant economic concept from exploitative capitalism towards altruistic and egalitar economic. Ir4.0 will help this by opening up access of information and data to small players and monster capitalists alike. Small players may bypass the big boys" cruel game.

Positive changes will only happen when people see the true face of capitalism. I predict/hope to see more zero growth economy as a sustainable model. Impact investment, crowdfunding, philantrophism, will disrupt stock market.Spirituality, egalitarianism, altruism will be the dominant counter market forces.

And the data will expose China true colors. It is basically rogue capitalism, greedy and wicked. and it will be shunned by the new economy, which will prefer small or even zero growth model, altruistic and egalitar mode of production n consumption.

Green energy will cease to be THE answer. The "Greta Thunberg" generation will realise that Replacement of fossil fuel towards green energy will only encourage us to consume more, spurred by having removed the guilt of causing global warming.. Technological solutions to make efficient green technologies are necesssary, but this alone will only delay the effect of depleting natural resources and env disaster. The key to reverse the trend is the renaissance of "good human".

That is why real change comes from changing human psyche, not tweaking technology.

Well this shift calls for evolving human psyche. Some group of people will be more naturally disposed towards the new psyche. This brings me to another controversial point. That is, some cultures are often deemed backward, not productive, lazy, etc. I think it is just  an issue of framing in context. In a world where money n growth is the rule, of course those who are agressive,  and tenacious will have the right acumen  and they will win. But as the coming humanity realised the importance of slowing down, keeping things small, even at subsistence level, Then those who seems to be in perpetual 'indolence' mode will be exemplary leaders and trendsetters. The current apparent lethargy shown by this group is simply due to the current game being not what they enjoy playing.

Another thing, this is a wishrather than a prediction. I wish all technical and professional  courses move out of university to the industry and apprenticeship. This will be facilitated by microcredential trainings made easy by online platforms. Universities will be a place of enlightenment. People come to the universities to learn the meaning and purpose of life.

'Small is beautiful' will be the new big. Power is in the hands of billions of small entities, synchronised by a holistic moral compass.It will challenge big capitalistic and exploitative economies. It will be like hundreds of piranhas killing a big bear crossing a river.

The spurring of local small productions during lockdown is a telltale sign. People buy from their neighbours, buat kuih, jual buah, jual sayur. If we can match production and demand at a more granular level accorded by ir4.0, we might find less reliance on big factories and mass productions.

We need to change our education mantra from "get good education so you will have a comfortable life" to ...."get knowledge so you can make yourself useful to the world".

By
Z Jaafar
22 Ramadhan
17 Mei 2020

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