Technology has evolved to the point where we see more and more companies utilizing a variety of the previously mentioned technologies to solve real-world problems. The power generated by this convergence of technologies is enormous. And what it requires is massive collaboration. Modern technology research and development increasingly relies on two inputs: a massive capital investment and a large-scale team collaboration. This is increasingly advantageous for large companies and countries with abundant capital and talent.
According to the MIT Technology Review, the most important research areas in the next 20 years are concentrated in the fields of life sciences, information science, and materials science. The main factors to consider in judging the development prospects of technology include: how many practical problems the technology can solve? How much economic and social impact can it have? How fast is the technology maturing and commercializing? What is the scope for development of the technology?
In short, human beings always seek to transmit, process, and store more information with less energy.
With the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, certain international trade disputes, and, more recently, localized military conflicts, there has been a tendency of decoupling internationally. Cutting off overseas imports will eventually force a country to switch to more domestic production. This is not only a waste of global resources, but will lead to shrinking international markets and a deterioration of the global economy in the long run. The global political situation will also become more unstable.
I have always believed that technology is global and evolves with the times. In today’s world, some major disruptive technological innovations are creating new industries and new business models, all of which require extensive international cooperation. Information technology, biotechnology, manufacturing technology, new materials technology, and new energy technology have widely penetrated into almost all fields, driving a group of major technological changes characterized by greenness, intelligence, and ubiquity. New-generation information technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and mobile networks are integrated with robots and intelligent manufacturing technologies, resulting in faster technological update and achievement transformation, and accelerated industrial upgrading. All this is driving the transformation of social production and consumption from industrialization to automation, intelligence, and digitization.
Tech for Social Good
On January 20, 2018, Tencent Research Institute held a T-Meet conference at 751D-park in Beijing, China, officially launching the Tech for Social Good (T-SG) project.1
Tech for Social Good is a multiparty platform for research, dialogue, and action. This program hopes to address the major issues brought about by the evolution of technology faced by the public, inviting government, business, and academia to make all parties in society truly aware of the many problems brought about by technologies to society. It aims for seeking consensus and solutions on the largest scale, and guiding technologies and products to magnify the goodness of humanity to achieve benign development, and using technologies to alleviate the pain of digital society.
Technology should not be used as a weapon to provoke disputes between countries, because the problems facing humanity today, such as environmental pollution, climate change, data privacy issues brought about by the digital economy, and the challenges of artificial intelligence for human beings, are all global in nature. I hope that technology as a tool will continue to benefit mankind and strive to solve the social problems brought about by human development.
The advancement of science and technology should serve all mankind. Because there are many problems facing human beings today, such as environmental pollution and climate change, data privacy issues brought about by the digital economy, and the challenges of artificial intelligence for humanity, all of which are global in nature. I hope that science and technology, as a tool to continue to benefit mankind, strive to solve the problems brought about by the development of human society.