What’s On 2024: In a Time of Confusion – With Glimmers of Hope

2024: From Uncertainty to Confusion
2024 is a time of many elections. More than half the world’s population will go to the polls – in India, the US, the EU, Russia, Mexico, South Africa, and many other places. The results, which are far from certain, may determine our future for a very long time to come. And the elections will be manipulated – by AI and by foreign powers. It is not even certain that it will be decided by the protagonists. The US presidential election may, as so many times before, be decided by some insignificant outsider. Like billionaire Ross Perot in 1992, consumer activist Ralph Nader in 2000 or peace activist Jill Stein in 2016. This year it could be RFK Jr, the environmental lawyer and now conspiracy theorist, or Stein again. 

Uncertainty about the future is not only about national policies and political choices. It is at least as much about their impact on geopolitics, climate change, regulation, and the future of the dominant technology of our time – AI. 

But despite the uncertainty and confusion, it is important to establish what we can be sure of. And that is that three major drivers will continue to set the scene for 2024 and beyond. And that the consequences of these drivers will be many and dramatic. But amidst the uncertainty and confusion, there are glimmers of hope for a better future.

Published: 2023