Short Video Clips of a Recent Virtual Talk
The global pandemic shut down almost all keynote talks in physical settings and so Leyden shifted to doing many more virtual talks. Here you can find short video clips of a highly-produced virtual talk he gave during the pandemic on The Transformation, a Future History of the World from 2020 to 2050. This talk was part of the prestigious Seminars on Long-term Thinking series put on by The Long Now Foundation.
Overview of The Transformation
This gives a good overview of the entire talk and lays the groundwork for the argument that America and the world are heading into three world-historic tech booms, which will drive a global economic boom, which could well bring a societal transformation that will be ultimately understood as civilizational change. (1 min 30 sec)
The Coming Infotech Boom
Leyden sees a dozen massive trends that will be almost impossible to slow down let alone stop in the next 30 years - what he calls The Inexorables. He talks about three of them here: Universal Connectivity of all 8 billion people on the planet, Ubiquitous AI enabling simultaneous language translation, among many other things, both of which will lead to Accelerated Innovation. (2 min 55 sec)
The Coming Biotech Boom
The world of Biotech is unleashing two other Inexorables: Genetic Understanding, which already helped us through the pandemic but is just beginning to transform human health, and Biological Engineering, which is just beginning to open up the whole world of synthetic biology. We are only just moving into what may turn out to be the biggest paradigm shift of the 21st century. (2 min 12 sec)
The Coming Clean Energy Boom
Then Energy Tech has two of its own Inexorables: Clean Energies, primarily in the form of solar and wind and other renewable energies, and then Electric Mobility, as all transportation ultimately shifts to electricity. As the world makes the shift to both these inexorable endpoints in the next 30 years, we will go through an economic boom that will eclipse the previous long booms, including the great Post World War II boom. (2 min 09 sec)
The American Political Inexorables
Not all the transformation will be limited to technology and economics. Leyden makes the case that American politics is going through a pendulum swing driven by two other Inexorables: Generational Shift as the Millennials and Generation Z supersede the Boomers as the power center driving the country, and New Majorities, as immigration and racial diversification literally change the face of the country. (3 min 44 sec)
The Global Inexorables
The big changes in America and the Western Liberal Democracies will only get us part of the way towards solving the challenges of our time like climate change. Luckily there are four other massive trends operating at the global level that could inexorably push the world towards a more positive future. They are Burgeoning Capital, Chinese Superpowers, Total Urbanization, and Middle-class Majorities. Watch the clip to see how they all play out over the next 30 years. (3 min 27 sec)
The Positive Reframe of Our Time
The first question of the Q&A section challenged Leyden’s positive framework of the next 30 years and questioned why he did not talk nearly as much about negative possibilities ahead of us. You can hear his answer and the reason he remains such an optimist in his conversation with the Executive Director of The Long Now Foundation. (3 min 05 sec)
The Entire 30-Minute Talk
If some of all of those clips enticed you to watch the entire talk, look no further. You can see Leyden tie them all together, and layer in a good deal more in the full 30-minute keynote. (33 min 35 sec)
The Full Q & A Period
Here you can watch the entire Q&A period, which included great questions from two of the renowned founders of The Long Now Foundation, Stewart Brand and Kevin Kelly. Leyden also answered many good questions that came from the audience over the internet. (32 min 33 sec)