Our World in 2018

Now we are moving into the
third wave. This is when
the digital revolution finally
moves to highly regulated sectors like
.
intelligence, genetics, blockchain, and
other highly complex science and
tech challenges, at the intersection
of the digital and physical worlds.
In this third wave I believe that
Europe has a great opportunity to
regain the initiative. Leaders and
policy makers can do a number
of things to help us to seize this
opportunity.
The first will be to practice
intelligent regulation. Jo Johnson,
the UK’s research minister, told me
a good illustration of this. He told
me about the laws in the UK in the
late 19th century, when cars first
arrived on British streets. They were
called the Locomotive Acts, and they
walk in front of cars that had more
than one wagon. The analogy for
bad, innovation-killing regulation is
perfect. A man carrying a red flag,
preventing progress. This must
not be us. We need to be smart, to
protect consumers, workers and
competition, while not standing in
the way of the development and
uptake of new technologies.
Secondly, research and innovation
profoundly affect our economy,
our society, and our lives. We have
to start to treat them with the
seriousness that they deserve, and
to put the discussion at the level of
Heads of State and Government.
Strong talk should be backed up by
strong investment – for fundamental
science, for market-creating
innovations, and by using public
loans to attract private money.
Finally, we also need to restore
the sense of purpose that was
once so central to publicly-funded
science. John F Kennedy knew
the uniting power of a common
scientific goal when he launched
the US’s quest to put a man on the
moon. We all remember the Human
Genome Project in the 90’s, and
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
how it captured out imagination. It
seemed incredible – to crack life’s
great code, to understand the very
core of our biological being and the
cause of so much that ails us. Dr
James Watson, co-discoverer of the
structure of DNA, rightly declared
it “a giant resource that will change
mankind, like the printing press.”
Fusion energy, the Human Brain
Project, cracking the secrets of the
universe in the Large Hadron Collider,
and defeating climate change by
invention and innovation – these
things and more we can achieve if we
E.A
we are courageous in accepting the
challenge.
Barack Obama once said:
"Traditionally, wealth was defined
by land and natural resources. Today
the most important resources is
between our ears." In this way more
than any other Europe is truly rich,
I see it every day in my role. Our
society is bubbling over with great
ideas, now we need to be serious
about supporting them.
A laboratory
assistant takes a
carriage with test
tubes containing
cell cultures from
an incubator at
the Robert Koch
Institute in Berlin,
Germany.
EPA/BRITTA PEDERSEN
OUR WORLD | 2018
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