I had recently finished a book, The Next 100 Years, by George Friedman of Stratfor, when I discovered that he was to be one of the keynote speakers at an international conference on futurology in Jakarta.
Some key takeaways of the conference:
- The future will be more extreme – more rich; more poor, more crises in energy, agriculture, climates, politics and financial markets.
- Commercial space exploration – with the Space Shuttle program having just ended, it seemed odd to suggest that the future of space exploration looked bright. But it reminded me of other industries – such as railroads and national infrastructure – where private enterprise steps in only after significant initial government investment
- American dominance – George Friedman reiterated one of the central points of his book that American military and economic power will continue to shape the 21st century, and largely remain unchallenged and unsurpassed. He also spoke clearly about the future geopolitical role of China and demonstrated that, for all its advances, China remains a highly impoverished and unstable country.
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