S1E8. The future is now, but be careful how you apply technology. Guest Vivek Wadhwa.

I met Vivek several years ago in Houston, TX and have been in contact every now and then. With his knowledge and expertise in technology shaping the future and his engagements with Harvard, Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, Duke, I thought it was great to hear Vivek’s opinions on where we are heading.

Here we are, still enduring the pandemic; we are able to create new deadly viruses and look at how quickly we, humanity, have been able to develop solution. This shows on how quick technology development is taking place. For just a few years ago this would not have been possible.

The next 8-9 years will be more amazing than the previous 80-90 years. This decade will bring more progress than the last 100 years.

What we see happening now is our adaption of technology with electric vehicles, autonomous drive, clean energy and cleaning up our planet. We will see more drone technology and 3D printed housing and food. Living will get cheaper. This transition will create a big mass of new jobs, however the automation and robots will then take over the jobs. Some of Wadhwa’s views on technology you can read about in his book “the Driver in the Driverless Car”

Technology adoption is key, find ways to embrace the new and share the knowledge. We need to work jointly for the benefit of humanity. Sharing equally is key.

(NOTE: listen to the episode with Ernesto Sirolli, he has the same message).

The future needs to give us freedom of choice, not just rigid control.

AI, what is it? Are we overhyping it or are we able to utilize it properly? The bias in pattern recognition is happening many places, which can be scary and dangerous, so we need to be very careful in how it is put in use.

And is the innovation and venture capital going to stay/grow in Silicon Valley, is the magic still around? We ended up discussing the quality of life in the Silicon Valley vs. other regions.

As a matter of fact this is the cliffhanger - as a follow-up we are going to have a second round of discussion in a couple of months on how innovative and good life is in Silicon Valley but also the Nordic region. And we need to discuss his most recent book also - “From Incremental to Exponential”. Until then, I hope you enjoy this episode!

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