One of the best videos I’ve seen in a long time.
Please spend 5:57 listening to this.
The BBC asked kids in 1966 to predict what life would be like in 2000.
And their answers are amazing, articulate, and generally very, very pessimistic and wrong.
Source: BBCA few that jumped out:
1:29 — Fear of automation and not enough work and overpopulation. Echoes what we hear today, especially around AI
3:18 — We’ll be living in domes in the sea or in the Sahara
4:09 — Remarkably prescient on industrial farming (best prediction of the whole thing IMO)
5:22 — Some optimism emerges from 2 of the kids (then back to pessimism)
I asked my kids to predict what life would be like in 2050 and they pointed to climate change, AI automation, etc.
They were also pessimistic.
But here’s the reality. From 1966 to 2000 (per Our World in Data):
The percentage of people living in extreme poverty globally declined from 46% to 25% (and as of 2018 stands at 10%)
Life expectancy globally has gone up from 54 to 73
The world is, in fact, getting better.
Us humans are remarkably good at finding solutions, often using technology and entrepreneurship.
#tech4good
It’s easy to believe all the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that people tend to propagate but in 2050 or 2100, the trends and data suggest the world will actually be a better place.
After showing my kids the video, I’m hopeful they’ll also start thinking about how it might be better (and hopefully they’ll play a hand in making it so) AND be skeptical of all the bad news purveyors.
Anyways, I hope you’ll watch the video. And for those with kids, maybe watch with them. It’s good.