Looking back at the events of the past decade, one can’t help but wonder:

  • What will the future look like for us as individuals?
  • Where is our society headed by 2050?

The Technological Tides That Shape Us

Human history has been continuously shaped by groundbreaking inventions. From the printing press to gunpowder, each innovation disrupted the status quo, leaving an indelible mark not only on its creators but on the entire world.

The past two decades have been dominated by the rise of information technology—transitioning from dot-coms to cloud computing, from telephones to mobile devices, and now to wearables. Unlike earlier innovations that took time to spread through communities and countries, today’s advancements spread at the speed of light.

Take ChatGPT, for instance: an AI tool available to anyone, anywhere in the world. The globe has truly become a village, connected in ways unimaginable before.

The Growing Grip of Big Tech

This hyper-connectivity has its downsides. A handful of tech giants now wield unparalleled power. For instance, companies like Google and Meta (formerly Facebook), though headquartered in the USA, operate globally, from Europe and Asia to Africa and even Antarctica.

Their scale enables them to invest in massive research and innovation, creating barriers for smaller players or startups. As a result, the global market risks turning into a monopoly controlled by a few corporate giants.

Governments in some regions, being over powered by them, have opted for partnerships between big tech and local players. For example, Google and Meta have invested in Jio in India, leveraging its local presence to tap into the vast consumer base.

The Ripple Effect on Society

The effects of centralization extend far beyond technology:

  • Education and Learning: Traditional knowledge-based education systems are losing relevance in a world where information is instantly accessible. The challenge now is to equip individuals with skills that foster critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and the change. (4 Cs).
  • Agriculture and Automation: With advances in robotics and drone technology, farming could become fully automated, leading to cheaper produce. However, this would displace small-scale farmers and render large sections of the workforce economically redundant, shifting their roles from producers to mere consumers.
  • Economic Inequality: Capitalism, while driving innovation, has concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. This profit-driven model risks alienating the lower strata of society, turning them into pawns in a centralized, monolithic economy.

A Call for Decentralization

This isn’t a battle against technology or corporations—it’s a challenge to the centralization model that further worsen the inequality and discards grassroots participation. For more ore inclusive future, we must:

1. Break Centralization and Embrace Decentralization

Promote businesses and solutions that are decentralized by design, fostering diversity and resilience in the economy.

2. Champion Open Source and Open Architecture

Support open-source initiatives that prioritize transparency and collaboration. Open architectures encourage innovation by allowing contributions from individuals and communities worldwide.

3. Encourage Local Production

While locally produced goods may be costlier or lack uniform quality, supporting them is a responsibility. It sustains local economies and reduces reliance on monopolistic global supply chains.

4. Raise Awareness and Build Skills

Decentralization is not the easy path—it requires effort, grit, and an understanding of its importance. Education plays a vital role in raising awareness and equipping individuals with the skills needed to thrive in a decentralized world.

Finding Balance

The goal is not to reject progress but to ensure that technological advancements coexist with respect for humanity and equity. True progress lies in balancing innovation with compassion, enabling every individual to lead a meaningful life.

The nationalist approach to addressing this issue is straightforward in theory: clone, adapt, or learn from the global giants and reverse-engineer their solutions to fit the needs of a specific nation. However, this is far easier said than done. The global market operates on systems that have evolved organically over time, rather than being explicitly designed. As a result, reverse-engineering these complex structures is highly challenging and requires significant talent and resources.

The decentralize models is beyond a nation even suited for Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam.

अयं निजः परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम्।
उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्॥

The future is ours to shape—let’s decentralize it.