We look at the latest book by Brett King, and this time around coauthored with Richard Petty also. You can see more about the book on the dedicated website here.
We have been looking forward to reading and reviewing this book since we first heard about it in 2020.
In an overall context Brett has been looking at the future in increasing detail, initially the prospects for banking, and then humanity, and now more specifically focusing on three of the most important issues facing us as a species and a planet, inequality, AI and climate. There is a lot that this book does very well. The book captures very effectively where we stand now, how covid-19 has impacted our situation, why climate change is a real and unavoidable problem, and finally why, until now, we have been taken into negative and counter productive practices.
If you want to have a well informed, balanced and intelligently explained oversight into what the key problems our planet faces, then this book’s analysis is a must read. We enjoyed reading it, while at the same time sharing Brett’s concerns that we are facing literally existential challenges, that simply can not be denied or kicked down the road. In these areas the book is a vital and helpful read. A question that repeatedly returned for us as we read it however was, as these problems are so deeply embedded, and the changes required are some systemic and drastic, can they be achieved? King and Petty rightly identify the extreme right leaning populist movements around the world, Trump, Bolsanaro, Johnson, and many more, that are actively fighting to not engage with these challenges.
Our concern therefore is that, how on earth can we pivot away from the sizeable number of people who deny climate change is an issue, and denigrate racial equality and other equality concerns as merely woke topics. Naturally the authors believe the answer is in the title of the book, namely a new model of ‘Technosocialism’. King does a good job of mapping out four potential future scenarios, of which the other three will not lead us to a happy outcome.
AI and rapid tech innovation are touted as the drivers to bring these sea-changes that we need. However the details of what these are, and how exactly we can drag our world away from the fake-news, Trump-esque capture by carbon loving interest groups, feel like they need more explanation.
We recognise that it is perhaps a big ask for the authors to completely detail how the planet can be saved. Their analysis is good, and a fair observation to draw is that humans have got themselves into this mess. Can AI, created by those same humans manage to avert global catastrophe? Perhaps that road map, with vibrant and compelling examples is the next book they will write. To summarise this book is important, well worth reading, but we still have a lot of unknowns and big, difficult questions to accept and try to find effective answers to.
We also recently had Brett on the podcast to learn more about the book.
More about the authors ->
Brett King is a world-renowned entrepreneur, futurist, speaker, international bestselling author, and media personality. China’s President Xi Jinping cited his book Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane on the topic of Artificial Intelligence in his 2018 national address; the same book that was listed as a Top 10 non-fiction book in North America. In 2019 his book Bank 4.0 was awarded the Top Book by a Foreign Author in Russia for that year.
In 2020 King was inducted into the Fintech Hall of Fame by CB Insights. In 2015 he was shortlisted for the Advance Global Australian of the Year Award. His books have been released in over a dozen languages. Banking Exchange magazine dubbed him the “King of Disruptors”, while The Australian newspaper in Australia called him the “Godfather of Fintech”.
Brett has spoken in more than 50 countries, at TED, Wired, Techsauce, Singularity University, Web Summit, The Economist, IBM’s World of Watson, CES, SIBOS and many more. He has appeared as a commentator on CNBC, BBC, ABC, Fox, and Bloomberg. He has spoken live to virtual audiences of over 42 million people.
He advised the Obama administration on Fintech strategy, and today advises regulators, lawmakers and boardrooms around the world on digital transformation and future readiness.
King founded Breaking Banks and The Futurists podcasts (distribution to 180 countries, 9 million annual listeners). King founded the world’s first mobile challenger bank—Moven —in 2011, raising $47m to-date and sits on the board of the largest US non-profit focused on financial inclusion, the Financial Health Network.
Dr Richard Petty is a government policy advisor, entrepreneur and awarded academic. Based in Hong Kong, Richard has lived and worked in Greater China since the 1990’s. He is a past Chairman of the Australian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong & Macau and CPA Australia, and is founding Vice Chairman, Hong Kong ASEAN Economic Cooperation Foundation. Richard sits on the board of listed companies in the United States and Australia, has advised on projects with an aggregate economic impact in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and has led reviews of several economies and studies on economic competitiveness in several countries.
A former board member of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), for many years Richard served as a member of the B20—the official G20 dialogue forum with the global business community—on the Financing Growth and Infrastructure Taskforce.
Richard has been professor or visiting professor at several business schools and delivered lectures and addresses at many universities including Stanford Graduate School of Business, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Cambridge University, University of New South Wales, Kellogg-HKUST, The University of Sydney, Emory University, and The University of Hong Kong. He has presented in more than 20 countries as an invited speaker for organizations including the OECD, Pacific Basin Economic Council, and Hong Kong Federation of Industries, and provided commentary on CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC, ABC, The Wall Street Journal, The South China Morning Post, and many others.
Richard has authored or co-authored more than 100 academic and professional works including several books, and several of his journal articles are among the top cited in their fields. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous academic journals. Richard holds several degrees, including a PhD. He was awarded the university medal for his undergraduate studies. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, CPA Australia, and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
See more reviews here.
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