We had the pleasure of listening to a talk by George Magnus the other day on the impact on society, the economy and community of our aging civilisation. George is the chap who is widely acknowledged for predicting that the sub-prime crash would lead to a global recession, and is senior economic adviser to UBS. His book is called The Age of Aging.
Amongst the chat were these fascinating factiods: there are more over-65s than under 16s in the UK for the first time, over the next 10-15 years one quarter of the UK population will be over 65, half of all babies in the UK born since 2000 may live to be 100. This all means the economy and society will warp like never before. Housing crashes, pressure to employ a broader workforce, more saving, less spending, and less baby-making.
And of particular interest to us - how future generations will literally evolve from the web. “If there are no other kids around the home, who will children learn from in the future? Facebook?” said Magnus…
As the future family will be long and narrow (many generations, fewer siblings), not short and squat (several siblings but not many oldies), children will learn as much if not more from the social web than from other children. They will be plugged-in, but will have less interaction with peers. George made this assertion partly in jest, but he he was making a valid point. How does a wired society learn when the peer group exists in greater quantity online than in the home? And if the machine controls the online version of reality, what will that create? What kind of learning, media, and consumer culture?
Thanks George for a fascinating talk and to our friends at Albion for the invite to the exclusive event as well and the pic.
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