Economics at the TNW conference

So I went to the TNW conference this week. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s one of the biggest technology and digital science conferences in the world. It’s also fairly expensive if you want access to the full conference. I know what you’re thinking: what the hell was I doing there, then? After all, I’ve never really shown explicit interest in either of these topics, and it’s not like I can afford to spend money on this kind of thing…

I decided that I wanted to go because the people that were going to attend have one thing in common: they are agents of change in industries that (will) have an extraordinary impact on the way future human societies will evolve and develop. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to discuss the current state of the world with people that could offer me a different perspective from the economic one. With this in mind, I emailed the CEO of TNW and within a few hours, I was in possession of a full conference media pass, which I intended to put to good use.

My first brief encounter was with Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Strategist at Google. She gave a talk on Machine Learning, after which I approached her to talk about how the methods we are using with AIs could also be applied to our own education. In particular, we discussed how certain feats of Machine Learning could help shape more applied and pluralistic economics programmes. From that moment onwards, I knew I was right where I needed to be.

The gap between the economic and technological approach to the challenges we are currently faced with was evident and often bigger than I anticipated. I noticed that the debate around ethics in technological and digital developments often lacked an outsider’s input. Similarly, it quickly became clear to me that the way we teach and use economics could greatly benefit from the insights and advancements in the tech world.

On my second day, after an afternoon of round-table sessions with more inspiring people, I sat down in the media lounge for a while to write down some of my thoughts on the conference and my place in it. I’ll leave you with those:

Economics at TNW

There is an opportunity here to bring the people attending this conference a new perspective on economics. They are agents of change that have often not been exposed to the depth of neo-classical economics like traditional economics and business students have. The opportunity lies in shaping their understanding of economic goals into something reflective of the current needs of society. Namely, altering their attitude towards growth on a macro-economic level could be a huge step towards creating a more sustainable economy and competitive environment.

Synergies can be achieved in learning and education, where technological developments should be incorporated into our education system. The way we teach human beings can find inspiration in the mechanisms behind Machine Learning. This would spur a shift from theoretical programmes to more practical ones, which could be aided by advancements in AI and VR.

Just as technology can help education and economics, economics has a clear role to play in the development of technology. It would provide a valuable analytical tool by stirring the moral and ethical debate around new technologies, but also by acting as counsel in determining the social and cultural goals of start-ups and larger companies alike.

It appears clear that even small tech companies are aware of sustainability challenges more than the average company in most other industries. Partly because of this, these companies could spearhead the adoption of more progressive forms of economic thinking, given the right access to educational resources about these disciplines. For this reason, I believe that both economic thinkers and the people I am surrounded by here would greatly benefit from cross-discipline conferences. Organisations like Rethinking Economics should seek to speak at and attend events like this, while the tech world should seek to attend pluralistic economics events.

The key lies in the people attending both types of events: they are young, dynamic, ambitious and open-minded. Crucially, they are the ones that are most capable and likely to change the world and inspire others to do the same. In the two days that I have been here, I have met enough extraordinary people to be convinced of the following: although their magnitude is terrifying, the changes that need to be made in order to return to a sustainable model of human society are within reach.

(written on the 25th of May 2018)

Together, we have the knowledge, the drive and the resources to deal with the social and ecological constraints of our future, but only if we start to work together on a global scale. I know I’ll keep attending events like the TNW conference, because the encounters people make here have the potential to instigate real change. If I can contribute to this change, even just by bringing an under-represented perspective to the table, then I will continue doing so. I hope some of you will understand the value in doing the same.

L.S.

27th of May 2018