Video of ConnectAID SDG Book Launch "Tomorrow's People and New Technology"

Gaelle

ConnectAID organized their first SDG Book Corner launching the new book “Tomorrow's People and New Technology”  by Felix Dodds, Carolina Duque Chopitea, and Ranger Ruffins.

The video can be watched here. Ysa and Gaëlle  interviewed Carolina Duque Chopitea and Felix Dodds.

As we witness a series of social, political, cultural, and economic changes/disruptions this book examines the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the way emerging technologies are impacting our lives and changing society.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterised by the emergence of new technologies that are blurring the boundaries between the physical, the digital, and the biological worlds. This book allows readers to explore how these technologies will impact peoples’ lives by 2030. It helps readers to not only better understand the use and implications of emerging technologies, but also to imagine how their individual life will be shaped by them. 

Ysa

The book provides an opportunity to see the great potential but also the threats and challenges presented by the emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, posing questions for the reader to think about what future they want. Emerging technologies, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, big data and analytics, cloud computing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, the Internet of Things, fifth-generation wireless technologies (5G), and fully autonomous vehicles, among others, will have a significant impact on every aspect of our lives, as such this book looks at their potential impact in the entire spectrum of daily life, including home life, travel, education and work, health, entertainment and social life.

Carolina

Providing an indication of what the world might look like in 2030, this book is essential reading for students, scholars, professionals, and policymakers interested in the nexus between emerging technologies and sustainable development, politics and society, and global governance.

"The world has committed to the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, which civil society and multilateral stakeholders had strongly advocated for. This is the decade of action, which will decide whether we can secure a sustainable future for humankind and our planet.

In Bonn, we have known Felix Dodds as a long-term ally in the engagement for sustainable development and also a great visionary. With Tomorrow’s People and New Technology, he and his co-authors have created a very inspiring and simply good read about our potential future world in 2030 –

Felix

a world with blurring digital, physical and biological boundaries. The positive vision of emerging new technologies is a valuable instrument that can help us recognize and embrace opportunities and potentials to achieve a sustainable development for our societies while leaving no one behind.

I hope that this book, which is also an invitation to take a pro-active approach, will attract a large number of readers. Given our commitment to a fair and liveable planet in 2030, it is great motivation to have this vivid and captivating image at hand – and in the back of our minds."

Katja Dörner, Mayor of Bonn, Germany’s United Nations City