The unforeseen consequences of a fast-paced world

In this piece, I teamed up with two engineers to ask the question, "What could the world look like in 25 years if the pace of social, environmental, technological and biological change keeps accelerating?" This work is part of a suite of projects conducted under the RAND Center for Global Risk and Security and the Security 2040 initiative. Security 2040 envisions the critical political technological, environmental, social and demographic trends that may be underappreciated by policy- and decision-makers, but will likely shape security challenges in the coming decades.

In the 1990s, RAND researchers developed a theory of social evolution whereby the world was shifting to a network-based structure. They predicted that networks would be characterized by loose ties organized around flows of products, money, information and shifting roles, eventually dissolving into instantaneous, immediate connections and reactions. In other words, that we would be hyper-connected, but that these connections are constantly forming and dissolving, there but not really there. In that sense, RAND kind of predicted cyberwarfare, online learning and FOMO!

My anthropology mentors were pioneers in thinking about how the pace of human biological change lags far behind social and cultural change, meaning that our bodies are not entirely built for the contexts in which we currently live. This theoretical model was recently made popular by the “Paleo diet,” but I propose that we can use it to understand the burden of mental health and wellbeing in the age of speed. We might be hard-wired to like the taste of fat and sugar just like we get a kick out of going fast (in cars, video games, etc.), but it might be worth to think about both in moderation.

This blog summarizes our article on speed and security and includes interesting insights on the topic from former Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who describes the compressed reaction times policymakers are facing in the age of speed. He notes that in his 25 years of civil service, “the single biggest change that I experienced … was in the areas of speed. Nothing had a more profound effect on government and the challenges of government.”

This brief essay showcases a great project from public artist and fellow TEDxManhattanBeach speaker, Otis Kriegel. Otis created silver coins to represent 20 minutes of time, a universal currency and precious commodity. What would you do if you gave yourself or someone else those twenty minutes?