To be continued

Ákos Kozák
director
GfK

When members of the Chain Bridge Club met in March, I talked in detail about the changes that the next decade is likely to bring. Futurist and Google’s director of engineering Ray Kurzweil says three things are bringing a new era in the history of mankind: biotechnology, nanotechnology and robotics. He thinks that by the 2040s artificial intelligence will be capable of more than human thinking! Demographic changes are also interesting: with the exception of the majority of Africa, by 2050 the proportion of the 5-14 year old population will be smaller than 15 percent all over the world. In Canada, Europe and the Far East more than 30 percent of the population will be older than 60 years.

What about the global middle class? Ten years ago 1.8 billion people belonged to the group of consumers that can spend USD 10-100 a day. Ten years from now the number of these people will be nearly 5.5 billion, but Europe’s share will be only 14 percent from this instead of the current 36 percent! My advice to those who were there at the club meeting was: let’s debate in the knowledge of the facts, but let’s be brave enough to accept what we don’t know; from time to time, let’s think things over again – because the story continues.