THE 2030 CHALLENGE: CONVERGING TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMY, AND HUMANITY

Noni Purnomo is the president director of PT Blue Bird. She co-founded ANGIN Women Funds and currently sits in several advisory positions in prominent institutions.

- NONI PURNOMO

The year is 2030. A young boy sits inside an automated, driverless vehicle - wandering the city streets while an AI instructor quizzes him on the historical significance of the very place he roams. Constantly collecting “stars” of affirmation for being an attentive student, he has become accustomed to basing his self-worth on likes, views, followers, and ratings. Meanwhile, in a distant city, his overprotective parents monitor him using the GPS features in their wearable tech, which they also use to remotely pay for their son’s ride. Said son has neither seen nor used any form of money, and has been dreaming of the day when he reaches the legal age to make his own payments. Little do his parents know, he had even considered hacking the system to bypass the age restriction - but a previously disastrous attempt to manipulate a dating App kept him from doing so.

While some of us living in the urban hubs of the globe may already experience aspects of this hypothetical scenario, all of it (and more) may become our future reality. When considering this, one could immediately ponder whether such technological advancements will benefit humanity - or if it will actually harm us. Even with current advancements, we already feel some negative effects on our society, which brings to question what additional issues the future may hold. In the words of Simon Sinek, this future could be immensely advanced, “... yet you’ll have an entire generation growing up with lower self-esteem and much more depressed than previous generations.”