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the ground up. Most companies and governments today instead
take a top-down approach to change. JP Rangaswami, chief sci-
entist at Salesforce.com, says that this approach tends to get
bogged down in conferences and committees. He says that cur-
rent systems of government are not well equipped to establish
smart systems or act on insights gained from these systems. In-
stead, real problem solving may come from regular people who
rise up and work together. “We have many opportunities to solve
significant problems of education, health care, democracy, and
promoting freedom throughout the world,”
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says Glenn Edens, a
research scientist at Palo Alto Research Center, a technical con-
sulting firm.
Digital technology has the power to greatly amplify both the
good and the bad in humanity. From virtual and augmented real-
ity to big data and the IoT, emerging digital tools will make it ever
easier for people to connect and support each other or to exclude
and control each other. To make the most of these new tools,
people need to take digital technology seriously. In the midst of
each frenzied day, they must preserve time and space for car-
ing for their relationships with each other. At the same time, they
must adapt nimbly to ever-changing ways of doing business and
running society. They must also think clearly and critically about
the information they consume. And finally, they must take respon-
sibility for their own futures.
