NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, November 22, 2013

Do we live in a dystopian world where today’s problems have only gotten worse, technology has gone bad, and the very survival of humanity is at risk? Or in a world where our greatest problems can be solved by collaboration between human enlightenment and advanced technology? Within 10 years, there will be 50 billion connected things in the world, with trillions of connections among them. These connections will change the world for the better in ways we can’t even imagine today.

What will the future be like? As depicted in today’s popular movies and books, the future is either one of bright promise — where the world’s greatest problems have been solved by technology and greater human enlightenment — or it’s a dystopian world where today’s problems have only gotten worse, technology has gone bad, and the very survival of humanity is at risk.