Page 8 - DIVA 2 2025 web

international

soon rather than later, at all levels. We must ese new technologies are frightening for a lot
also remember that the human being has a very of people, but it’s also hugely exciting, for they
strong survival gene, and that gene seems to also bring enormous promise.
kick in when the knife is at our throat. It is now!
All of these things converge: that women are What role can individuals play in facilitating
participating much more, that youth are ready to these changes?
participate, that we understand to a much greater Individuals can and should do a lot. ey can,
extent the need for an interrelated approach to the f.ex., promote tech literacy within their families
problems. Standalone organizations who don’t and communities. Encouraging schools to teach
understand this, will end up mostly sidelined. relevant skills like coding is vital, especially as jobs
ose in the United Nations system that don’t evolve rapidly. Simple actions, such as conserving
understand the need for reform, for partnership water in their daily lives, can contribute to larger
and collaboration, will atrophy, and others will environmental solutions. We need a mindset
arise. at is a healthy life cycle. I think some shi to recognize the importance of both our
of these organizations may have been around individual and our collective possibilities and
for too long in their current form and haven’t responsibilities.
understood that they need to completely change
their mode of thinking and work. e future of jobs is very much a concern. Some
40% of the jobs that we have today globally will
You said that we are at the edge of a new type of probably disappear within the next 10 years, but
society. How do you see this new society? other jobs will come. We’re not quite sure what
As I said, it is a much more integrated, they will look at. We need to teach our kids to be
collaborative society. And the great unknown prepared for these jobs. Young people are much
is the impact of the arrival of new technologies faster at adapting to new technologies than you
that are coming at us fast and are going to be and I.
really intrusive in our lives, completely changing
the way we work, live, interact, travel – the way Countries in Europe and elsewhere are now
we do everything. beginningforbidding cell phones in the school. I
Some governments are forbidding social media
And I am afraid that we are not ready for it. for kids under 15, by law. And there are many
Nobody really seems to be. So, it’s urgent that we discussions going on to on how to collectively
start thinking and acting on that. And when I say push for some order in how we deal with these
we, I mean governments, educational systems, new technologies. e key is going to be to
civil society, individual citizens and politicians at ensure that these technologies are used for the
all levels, particularly at city levels, where most good of humanity and not to harm humanity.
of us live already and will be living in the future.
What is coming is not just arti cial intelligence ere is concern over the e ect of rapid
as we know it today. It is the next generations technological evolution on future generations.
of AI, it is quantum, it is geoengineering, it is How do you respond to that?
a whole gamut of new technologies that are
on their way and will interact. e capacity of Many people share your concern. We must stop
quantum within the next 10 years, when you educating children for yesterday and focus on
couple it with arti cial intelligence, is going to be preparing them for tomorrow. is requires
mind-boggling. But we also need to ensure that systemic changes in educational approaches
ethics, solid governance structures and attention and fostering an understanding of history. Our
to equity are included. We cannot allow these educational systems have not followed society’s
technologies to bene t only rich white men evolution. But I hope that will change simply
in Silicon Valley. ey have to be available to because it has to.
everybody.
We are seeing, for example, here in Northern
A lot of di erent actors are coming up with Europe, new towns being built where the people
governance proposals, but there is a worrying who move in, the young people, don’t want cars.
lack of coordination. We need a globally accepted e towns are not even built for cars, they are
set of rules. e United Nations is trying to do it. built for bicycles and walking. e idea is that

w w w. d i va i n t e r n at i o n a l . c h