Will Societal Transformation Boosted by Digitization Make the World a Better Place?
— education and health are good places to start
We are living through an era without precedent. Truly, we have had technological revolutions before. Only this time, we are moving faster, and the scope of the societal transformations involved is far more comprehensive. This is the digital revolution, and you are part of it!
We are not talking about changing or improving the way we produce things only. With digital technology, we can pull together information and knowledge from different sources and create new knowledge. What comes out of this process has the power to change all spheres of life on our planet. That includes our physical world, our biology, our behavior, and the ways we perceive nature, life, and humanity.
The visions on what the future could bring are many. But, what is the best we can put in motion here and now using digitalization? Can it help us address the huge problems of inequality that afflict us? Can it help us fast-track development?
Digitalization is irreversible
Digitalization is central to the transformative change that modern society is going through. However, the full implications of the digital revolution are still to unfold. What we know now and what we expect is certainly only a small part of what is likely to come. We need to decide what we want to make out of this revolution.
The optimists envisage a future with improved productivity, reduced costs along production chains, and enhanced opportunities for human development. Society can become more effective, the outcomes can benefit more people, and save the planet. The Industrial Revolution was a quantum leap for human society, and the Digital Revolution will further enhance our possibilities.
Others are pessimistic and fear that the disruptions caused by digitalization can cause social unrest and marginalization of large populations. The loss of jobs already creates tensions and is a major source of concern. The knowledge and social gap are increasing, and the welfare gains of many decades are under threat. Rather than create more welfare, the digital revolution could increase the gaps between the rich and the poor, creating a digital divide.
The crucial point is that digitalization is not an option. It is not something you can choose to embrace or not. It is here to stay and to change the world, starting with our everyday lives. The pandemic accelerated the digitalization process and broke barriers while enhancing acceptance for the new world order. For example, it showed new ways to organize work, education, and human interactions. It also showed that digitalization could enhance the resilience of society.
The pandemic served to speed up digitalization and this could be the start of something new. Despite all suffering, it did not change the world in profound ways yet — most people are just waiting to get back to normal life. Yet, the inequalities and vulnerabilities of our society have become more apparent. Digitalization has been pivotal to addressing the crisis, but also to creating social and political unrest, and threatening freedom and democracy.
Our society has accumulated deficiencies, inequality being a major one. Digitalization brings new challenges on top of that. But, it brings also opportunities to address some of the deficiencies.
Digitalization to reduce inequality and enhance resilience
When people take the first steps into the digital world, it seems practical and modern. Yet soon, navigating the digital world may become complex and challenging, not least due to the pace of change. The new reality is out of reach for many either because they cannot afford to enter it or lack the knowledge to be part of it. Many cannot afford modern life. Many feel overwhelmed.
You need to be digital to book an appointment with your doctor, to get a job and your paycheck, to pay your bills, to read the news, to get entertainment, to travel, to learn, and communicate. Yet, this is the good part of it all — this is what is making our modern life more flexible and effective.
What if digitalization could also bring education and health services to millions, enhance inclusiveness and reduce the inequality gap? That is when we could start talking about digitalization bringing prosperity for all.
We have agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)— they reflect a global common understanding about the right to water, energy, and a livable environment for all. They also reflect the responsibility we have towards our environment. Looking closer, digitalization is not one of the SDGs. Is that a problem?
It does not have to be. We can say that digitalization is crosscutting or transversal, that is, it is important to support the achievement of many other goals. It is a common denominator. Yet, I am not so sure it was smart not to highlight it. What we don’t measure is often forgotten or treated as less important. What is not monitored becomes invisible and doesn’t receive enough attention from policymakers or researchers.
Energy too used to be been seen as a common denominator — energy access was considered essential to achieve development. But it was in the SDG7 that access to modern and clean energy was spelled out as a universal goal and a right. We still have a long way to go to achieve full energy access by 2030, but things are happening now that we have made the problem visible.
The administration of the pandemic and the monitoring of weather conditions are examples of how digitalization can help increase the resilience of our society. Monitoring processes increase predictability, planning capacity, and ability to integrate efforts and respond to the most diverse circumstances, be they weather events or a pandemic. Many countries have mobilized efforts to develop their knowledge base, technological infrastructure, and digital integration of industry and society at large. This is aimed at guaranteeing conditions for a quantum leap and their leadership in this revolution. What are we doing for countries that are still struggling with poverty?
Many other countries remain outside the digital revolution. It can be due to political, economic, or cultural reasons, or due to the choices of their leaders. The contradictions abound. While many people feel confused and encapsulated by a turmoil that is moving faster and faster, others are kept outside by dominant powers.
Concrete opportunities offered by digitalization
The disruptive potential of the digital revolution becomes clearer by the day. The systems we have created to provide goods and services are under profound transformation. The way we harness, distribute and use energy is changing. The way we work, live our everyday lives and create well-being is changing fast.
Still, let’s forget some of the major challenges of digitalization — the infrastructure, the data analysis, security problems, integrity issues, and many others. For a moment, let us think of the opportunity that digitalization brings to overcome the gap of inequality in our society.
Never before have we had the opportunity to guarantee the right to education and health massively as we can do now. Just imagine how we could improve the HDI (Human Development Index) of many countries. Digitalization can open access to good education and health care in places where the lack of physical access to good teachers and doctors has proven difficult. Improving the access to education and health would have an impact on income too. Thus, digitalization could have a huge impact on all three dimensions covered in the HDI — health, education, and income.
If you were to visit a rural school in a poor country, you would most probably notice the modest infrastructure. The school might have books if it is lucky, but it may lack electricity and good teachers — sometimes it lacks teachers at all. Imagine we couple the digital capabilities that we have in our society, with energy and our knowledge about learning. We could bring modern education to the most remote areas and engage communities not simply on the process of digital literacy per se but, most of all, on the very essence of quality education. Likewise, we can bridge part of the health gap by providing basic medical assistance digitally.
Digitalization cannot overcome poverty, but it can help speed up the process to bring access to education and basic health care to poor areas. That would empower people to live their lives fully in a modern world. Most of all, it would open real opportunities for them.
Exploring the synergies
There is synergy among the SDGs and we need to explore them to achieve the universal goals we have agreed upon. Digitalization is not a goal in itself — like energy, it is a means towards improved prosperity and inclusiveness in the development era that is unfolding.
Access to good health (SDG3), quality education (SDG4), and reduced inequalities (SDG10) require access to energy (SDG7) and digitalization (no SDG goal). Clean energy and digitalization are enablers for development. This is not about building infrastructure only. It is about a strategy to overcome inequality gaps here and now, and to include marginalized populations in the future of humanity. We can then say that digitalization will bring prosperity.
Let’s hope we can find mobilization to make this opportunity a reality. It is technically straightforward but we may still lack the political mobilization of the elites to bring it to fruition. If we lose our ethical compass and remain trapped in the aristocracy of the intellect, as defined by Max Weber, we may well be able to rationalize other pathways of prosperity. But, let’s be honest, when it comes to equality and integration, we have been failing quite often. If we use the new technologies only to reinforce the status quo, we will not explore their full potential, and we will most certainly fail again.
“The intellect, like all cultural values, has created an aristocracy based on the possession of rational culture and independent of all personal ethical qualities of man. The aristocracy of intellect is hence an unbrotherly aristocracy.” Max Weber
Maybe it is time to try a new road. Maybe it is time to recapture our fundamental human values and join forces with nature to redefine modern development. It is time we put our new technological revolution to the service of humanity and the planet.
The future is digital —equality is our human duty
Digitalization is already part of our lives. The full implications of the revolutionary changes that it allows are still not clear. What is clear is that we need to act to make sure that this technological revolution also brings the best out of humans.
Can we use digitalization to make the world a better place? We certainly can. We can use it to reduce inequality — access to education and health is a good place to start. We need to use this revolution to repair some of the negative environmental and social legacies of industrial society.
The future is digital. Let us explore it to reduce inequality and environmental destruction. Let us use it to guide society towards a sustainable pathway to prosperity.