Deep Tech meets Deep Human: with my ex-Apple colleague and dear friend of over 30 years Dr. Kai-Fu Lee at The Asia House Asian Business Leaders Award Dinner 2018 honouring him as the recipient of the award for his book on "AI Superpowers" and his global thought leadership on AI. Deep Tech / AI is where a lot of action is right now - but where we really need to go with a greater sense of urgency is Deep Human: we need Deep Tech plus Deep Human.
Our planet, our world faces many unprecedented challenges. Alongside growing prosperity and accelerating technological advancement, we have population explosion, poverty, hunger, violence, cultural conflicts, wars, a widening chasm between the have and the have-nots – the 1% vs. the 99%; we have global warming, environmental degradation and ecological devastation. We also face an epidemic of diseases of the modernized society, diseases of both the body and the mind: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, autoimmune, autism, ADHD, chronic stress, anxiety, and depression. Sadly most of these diseases are man-made and self-inflicted. Somehow, somewhere in this unbridled pursuit of economic development, wealth creation and hyper consumption without restraint and consideration for the larger impact that it has on our environment, our society and our own wellbeing, we have gotten ourselves into a real mess. We seem ever more disconnected, unhappy and in greater disharmony with our planet, our environment, with each other, and with ourselves. We are materially wealthy but spiritually poor.
The current reality is clearly unsustainable; the need for a new approach is clear and urgent. We need a new way of thinking, a new mindset – to bring about a kinder, gentler, more inclusive world – one based on thinking less for oneself and more for others. Instead of just me and myself, we need to consider the larger we. We need to rediscover who we truly are as human beings – to return to the source – to a time and place where our planet was not merely seen as free resources to be exploited for selfish gains and endless human greed, without consideration for the greater good – where conscious consumption replaces hyper consumption – where collective consciousness replaces individual thinking – where we live as one, in harmony and in unity with our environment, our planet and with one another. We need to reawaken our deep humanity – the Deep Human – in each of us.
This reawakening requires that we plant new seeds – of love, compassion, courage, curiosity, calm, tolerance, generosity, gratitude, kindness, joy, and hope – in ourselves and in others. That's why I started the Deep Human Movement, with the Deep Human Institute to follow.
- Yen-Lu