🤔 What are megatrends, and why should we care? And what can technology such as blockchain and web3 do to mitigate the risks they pose to our society? 👇
📢 Megatrends are big, long-term changes that affect the whole world. These changes are believed to continue in the same direction for some time and highlight the phenomena that are currently happening around us. For example, some of megatrends in the past were The Great Depression, the rise of fascist regimes in Europe, the emergence of new forms of popular entertainment like radio and film ... you get it. 😎
🤓 In January this year, Sitra (a Finnish innovation fund; their research topics cover the European environment extensively), released their megatrends update. The last one they did was in 2020. Three years later, much has happened.
Surprises and crises, such as the covid pandemic, war in Ukraine, the food and energy crisis and extreme natural disasters have become all too familiar.
🌦 Surprises cannot be predicted exactly. But nonetheless, they can be expected. For example, the Russian aggression, the halt in energy imports, and the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria were unpredictable events that couldn't have been detailed in advance. However, they could have been foreseen with some level of anticipation, and some of them have been.
🌍 Sitra's megatrends for 2023 cover five themes: nature, people, power, technology, and economy. The environment is in crisis, and urgent action is needed to protect it and to improve people's well-being. Ageing, diversity, and population growth affect the workforce, healthcare, and technology, and the future is uncertain.
🕸 In the next few posts, I will look into each of the five megatrends themes and explore where and how web3 might help solve some of the issues.
(Image: Created with DALL·E. Prompt: "Megatrends in nature, people, power, technology, and economy")
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I’m Maša Černovšek, and I write about web3, UX and solving real-world problems. *Connect with me on LinkedIn! *