INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTILE I HAVE COORDINATED FOR THE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT OF THE "40TH ANNIVERSARY" OF GROUP Z, INSERTED IN ALL PUBLICATIONS OF THE GROUP

The twenty-first century will entail a great wave of change that will amount to thousands of years of evolution in terms of the last century. The last 100 years have been the period of major changes in the history of mankind. But the decades that lie ahead will leave as obsolete, slow, old and boringly stable the last century.

Undoubtedly, we are about to live in the most important moment in the man history since he began to walk on two legs. This century will be the most radical of all times, by size, speed and ability to impact our way of living and relating to the world.

And we are not talking about what will happen in the long run. We are talking about what will be our life, which we will all live those who are reading this article. Most people under the age of twenty are very likely to live in the twenty-second century. But independently of the time we will live, it’s sure that we will be witnesses and protagonists of decades of immense evolution.

The future is going to be dramatically intense, shocking, complex, exciting and unpredictable. Those who will be able to confront this stage with an appropriate attitude, will live in fullness one of the most special times of humanity; but the mentality of many people will not be prepared for what is to come, and will find great difficulties to surf the huge wave that is being created.

The main factors of this great wave of change will be a spectacular development of robotics and artificial intelligence; the hyper connectivity between billions of people and hundreds of billions of devices; a revolution in health, longevity and human capabilities; a world with more than 9,000 million inhabitants; and major challenges that are causing great stress on the planet.

These will be, roughly, the elements that will make up this great wave, but then there will be a final ingredient that will turn it into a real tsunami: the high speed. Humans tend to think of the future as something linear, and we find it difficult to see and assume the scenario of what is coming, marked by an exponential evolution.

The world at the end of this century will not resemble anything we know today as humanity. It will be an uncertain and complex world, but at the same time exciting and full of opportunities.

The moment in the history of the universe that we will be in this world will require us to be very good in the only two things we can control: our attitude and our actions. We will be responsible for our attitude towards what has to come, and we will be responsible for the actions we take, and the negative or positive impact they have in the world.

For all this, we will have to learn how to ask the right questions every time, to find valid answers that allow us to adjust our individual and collective compass. And that’s the reason why we wanted to raise here what we consider to be the forty key questions to consider for the future. Obviously, there are many more questions, and each of them generates an infinite number of new questions; But we have to start in one point, and we believe that having a great group of experts passionate about each subject, and daring to make a forecast for the next decades, will bring us a value and an impact that will not leave us indifferent.

In the coming weeks, I will post on the Blog the response of each expert to each of the key questions formulated, which I detail below:

1.       How will the world population evolve?

2.       How many humans can the planet hold?

3.       Will it be possible to eradicate hunger in the world?

4.       How will climate change affect us and what can we do?

5.       How will the pollution and acidification of the oceans evolve?

6.       Is access to drinking water the greatest challenge that man will face?

7.       What will the cities of the future be like?

8.       How will we be transported?

9.       Will oil cease to be the main source of energy?

10.     Will the world be able to run on 100% renewable energy?

11.     How will technology be incorporated into the human body?

12.     Is Artificial Intelligence a threat or an opportunity?

13.     Should we grant rights to robots or humans integrated with robots?

14.     How will we live in a hyper connected world?

15.     How will our lives change with virtual reality?

16.     Will privacy disappear?

17.     How will medicine evolve in this century?

18.     Will we win the war against cardiovascular disease and cancer?

19.     How many years will we live?

20.     Should Human Rights affect other non-human living beings?

21.     How will we form and what role will schools and universities play?

22.     How will we manage mass migrations of people?

23.     How will religions and fundamentalisms evolve?

24.     What will be the most powerful states in the coming decades?

25.     Will there be major changes in geopolitics?

26.     Is there a risk of a global war?

27.     What are the great challenges of democracy?

28.     What role can the capitalist model play in the challenges of our society?

29.     Will offshore countries disappear?

30.     Is sustainable economic growth possible?

31.     How will inequality evolve in the world?

32.     Are other economic systems viable, such as collaborative economics or other trends?

33.     What will be the changes in the working model?

34.     How will robotics and artificial intelligence affect employment and professional activity?

35.     Is a universal minimum income necessary and possible?

36.     Will there be real equality between genders?

37.     How do the new family models look like?

38.     What will happen to the dominant and minority languages?

39.     Will man travel beyond the moon?

40.     Will we colonize other planets?