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The future belongs to tech leaders
In a quest to discover positive new trends in politics, the writer has found several that seem especially significant and could have a major impact in the years ahead. The digital world — innovative and fiercely competitive, driven at high speed and risk intense — requires a different type of leadership. When it comes to power and influence in the tech industry, who rules the roost or who has changed society the most? Here are some of the names, projects and their impact on the world.
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A Facebook employee walks past a sign at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., US, March 15, 2013. (AP/Jeff Chiu)
T
he world is shocked at the prospect of the demagogue Donald Trump taking over as leader of the free world, given some of his contentious foreign policies.
In a different part of the world, Rodrigo Duterte, a man who during his campaign pledged to kill tens of thousands of criminals and joked about raping an Australian missionary, was elected president of the Philippines.
In a quest to discover positive new trends in politics, the writer has found several that seem especially significant and could have a major impact in the years ahead. The digital world — innovative and fiercely competitive, driven at high speed and risk intense — requires a different type of leadership.
It will demand extraordinary leadership. Leaders born from this industry will change the face of politics in the next few years, as millennials familiar with much of their work will support their ideas.
When it comes to power and influence in the tech industry, who rules the roost or who has changed society the most? Here are some of the names, projects and their impact on the world.
In April, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, unveiled Facebook’s grand 10-year plan. The plan does not only focus on Facebook itself but includes technologies like connectivity (drones, satellites etc.), artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality.
Zuckerberg has always been passionate about using technology to connect people. In his vision for 2026, the entire world has internet access and he aims to connect the planet’s 7 billion people, one at a time.
Facebook would help provide internet access using its solar-paneled plane to beam down data.
We also have Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Google founders. They announced Alphabet, a new corporate structure, as the new home for Google’s search engine and related businesses — including Android, Gmail, YouTube and others.
Alphabet will empower Page and Brin to pursue a wide range of interests, with Google providing the cash to fund out-of-the-box experiments like Google’s Calico project that is concerned with extending human life and reversing the onset of aging or Google’s AI program that successfully defeated a Korean grandmaster at the complex board game of Go in March.
Elon Musk, the iconic entrepreneur behind SpaceX and Tesla Motors, is known for his vision of merging science with science fiction. Musk has built the world’s leading electric car company, Tesla Motors. Musk also funded and runs aeronautics company SpaceX, which is developing the technology to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars.
Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in a book describes what he calls the fourth industrial revolution, an era characterized by a range of new technologies that fuse the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries.
As the revolution begins, people like Zuckerberg, Page, Brin and Musk are the gentlemen behind the gun with all of their inventions. The revolution is set to bring forth enormous advances in productivity and solve challenging and previously intractable problems in every industry.
Moreover, as the tech world becomes home to the planet’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, these young billionaires are also united in wanting to do more than acquire material riches.
Microsoft’s Bill Gates has started with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which since its founding in 2000 has dominated tech-funded philanthropy.
Now, a new wave of philanthropists is coming. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Skype founder Nicklas Zennström in Europe, PayPal cofounder and head of Tesla Motors Elon Musk, and Napster cofounder Sean Parker are investing their fortunes in the hope of making a dramatic difference.
Leaders in the tech industry have also begun to share their views on issues far outside their remit. Top tech executives are discovering they can use their considerable influence to promote a cause and demand political reform.
And their deep pockets ensure that their voices are heard. For example, Zuckerberg cofounded FWD.us, an advocacy group that gave him a platform during the US immigration reform debate.
Tech leaders today are some of the most respected individuals, and some are celebrated as icons, not only in the US, but in the world.
As technology changes the way we live our day-to-day lives, it is fascinating to imagine what the future will bring. We may also like to imagine who will be in charge in the world of tomorrow.
To answer these questions, you may want to watch the biggest names in the tech industry today.
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The author is a lawyer at a law firm in Jakarta.
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