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Jason Silva is no stranger to “turning the human mind inside out.”
That’s what he does as the host of National Geographic’s Brain Games and creator of the web series Shots of Awe, and he brought that same enthusiasm for how technology is shaping the future to the stage of PromaxGAMES.
“The pace of change is so relentless we’re feeling it in real time,” Silva said, taking the audience on a fast-paced journey that began with early humans using sticks to reach fruit as he talked about society’s innovation and progress today.
“Technology has always upended society, but it did it over lifetimes,” he said. But now, things seem to have sped up: “The pace of change is so relentless we’re feeling it in real time.”
People are witnessing the world transform around them, and while they believe it because they’re watching it happen, by the same token individuals and companies alike are constantly being disrupted in ways they never saw coming.
Thinking back to cavemen, “the human brain evolved in a world that was linear and local, and now we live in a world that is global and exponential,” he said.
This creates a blind spot in our minds when it comes to anticipating what’s next, and requires reframing the way we think in order to wrap our heads around what progress currently means.
“How do we overcome our blindness and biases that keep us from seeing the future coming?” he asked.
He challenged the audience to “start thinking exponentially;” to see the world “through the eyes of a child,” and “implored and inspired people to think bigger than ever before,” when it comes to everything from digital software and artificial intelligence, to healthcare advances and biotechnology—“it turns out we are software. DNA is code; we are made of language,” he said.
Through his words and videos, Silva conveyed a future where all jobs become obsolete and nobody will lack for anything—except maybe meaning. We will mythologize our lives through a virtual reality cosmos, as buildings self assemble into cities, and the concept of a billionaire is redefined not as someone who makes one billion dollars, but someone who positively touches one billion minds.
As we stand today, the technology to change the world currently fits in our pockets.
“What new dreams may we actualize?” Silva asked. “We’re limited only by our imagination.”
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Tags: brain games jason silva national geographic promaxgames 2018 the daily brief podcast