One of the things that worries me in a profound manner are the potential, far-reaching possibilities (i.e. unintended consequences) of the world’s digital transformation that could lead to something eventually looking like Panem in the movie, “The Hunger Games”. While I believe that digital assets will first allow another “golden age” of increased productivity, scale and efficiency on a global basis, it will likely also increase the divide of the “haves” and the “have-nots” to an unsustainable level. The current world already has enough suffering, genocide, protests and inequality from the uneven economic circumstances of its population.
Loosely speaking, a good portion of Earth’s productivity has evolved from an agrarian economy to a manufacturing one, and then on to a service-based one, which is what many developed nations have today. Next is the technology-based economy, which is coming sooner than most realize. Along the way, there is always an unfortunate slice of the population that gets left behind, compounded by situations where there is either no training or motivation to reverse this unfortunate direction.
The techonology-based economy will accelerate the diminished need for human labor, simply because it takes less people to run networks of computers, which are doing more and more of the work. As this progression continues, there will be less opportunity for the average person to be included in the advance and make a living wage. If circumstances become dire across enough of the population, social unrest will undoubtedly occur and violence will be used. The last thing any nation needs is a popular excuse for a leader (President or otherwise) to invoke authoritarian rule in the name of safety and security. Once this happens, it is extremely difficult to backtrack and go back to previous regimes that were more democratic in nature.
Therefore, will technology advancing so quickly, all participants in the new global economy bear some responsibility that countries, or even the world, do not end up like The Capitol and the Districts.