SMART TECH FOR LIFE
The developer calls it the ultimate gardening and health tool. But it’s artificial intelligence that is making the biggest impact on our present and—ergo—our future. James Lovelock, in his ‘Rough Guide to the Future’ speaks of this as being the single most disruptive technology event ever. It will impact how we manage our home life, investments, diagnose illness, have sex and work. If you are stuck on any question or need to speak a different language—just ask Babel or Google’s assistant (being engineered to outsmart Apple’s Siri). The live demonstrations of the capabilities of these interventions were astounding. This gathering of new economy CEOs was like a fashion shoot for the world’s top hipsters and they were well supported by engineers, musicians, doctors, scientists and investors. This reinvention space shows a snapshot of how the world is changing and at a pace that most won’t keep up with. But what really grabbed my attention was the concept of impact investing. Silicone Valley is the home of the start-up and Ela MAdel, who is the founder of Fifty Years, an impact investment fund that is there to solve the world’s biggest problems, spoke clearly about the fact that all business is being called to understand the finite resources of the planet and to adapt. The venture capital market has never been held accountable for the impacts of the investment itself; what it does to the planet, does it help solve climate change, social inequality and injustice? Technology and capital need to be in service of the planet—not purely for profit. Research shows that most MBA students would take a cut in salary to align their
Image courtesy of Anyware Solutions work to the personal values they espouse. There is a new generation of business leaders emerging who see the solutions need to come from business as well as consumers who have more developed intrinsic values. What was alarming is that AI already makes high-level investment decisions and will do so more in the future. But you can’t transfer your values to a piece of software that is programmed to seek out profit above anything else. “More and more aspects of the economy are not being run
Seth Bannon and Ela Madel - investing to fix the world
www.alive2green.com/publications/green-economy-journal/
by humans” she said and therefore, we need impact investing. Charl Kleissner of Impact Assets—also Silicone Valley based—agreed and he said the human face of investing the ‘consciousness’ is what is needed above just great algorithms. Consider the impacts of industrial agriculture on water and animals and the dystopian future is already here. In the future, all meat will be farmed outside of mass animal farming—in laboratories “cellular agriculture” as animals no longer can be efficiently farmed for their meat and by products. In 1931, Winston Churchill predicted laboratory meat and this turns out to be the most resource efficient (and ethical) way of eating meat. You can do whatever you want with animal cells without hurting the animal or taking away valuable water resources used for industrial abattoirs and factory farming. Impact investing throws away the Keynesian perspective that business is above humanity and success is measured by profit alone. Now, more than ever before, the global corporations are being called upon to solve the world’s problems and not capitalise on them. But what about sex? There is an app for that too and the intimacy problems that are resulting from a disconnected world—sex robots exist, sex toys exist but what of an intelligent sex toy? One that reads your body and your pleasures? Is this a sexual revolution that doesn’t involve people? I was asked the question what happens to start ups when they grow up? I reckon they just might offer astounding solutions to some of the problems this world is facing. Technology is replacing people and helping them too—but what is the balance and where will it be found?
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