Game-Changing: Together Tackling the Challenges of the 21st Century

A virus turned our lives upside down and shook our societies at the foundations. While every one of us was affected, the young, the elderly, women, and the destitute were disproportionately impacted, in some cases drastically so. The virus has forced us to face the music that scientists and philosophers have been hearing for some time now, that we are an interdependent species reliant on not only our fellow human beings, but every living organism in the biosphere.

This is a book full of hope. It’s a call to take action in community with others because alone we are nowhere near as strong. What if the only thing keeping us from taking better care of ourselves, others, and the planet was finding the right set of learning to do so? Coming across the right information? What if we could renew the legacy of Athens and the Enlightenment—democracy, debate, and education—to build a more inclusive, more global, more ecological New Enlightenment that would better equip us to preserve our precious planet for future generations?

Drawing inspiration from real-world examples where collective intelligence has fostered collective action, François Taddei invites us to imagine a future in which we can share knowledge freely across the globe, exercise our civil rights, and craft the world the way we, the people, want it.

In 1997, reigning world-chess champion Garry Kasparov lost in a match against IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. “It is a depressing day for humankind in general,” noted The Guardian. Twenty years later, Kasparov hammered the point home, saying, “Unlike in the past, when machines replaced farm animals, manual labor, now they are coming after people with college degrees.” Right now, we are living through a major evolutionary transition. Developments in artificial intelligence and discoveries in genetics are presenting challenges that our species has never had to face before.How can we make sure that education and research keep pace in this rapidly evolving world? What role do humans play in a world of machines? How can we work with technology to develop both our individual abilities and our collective intelligence?

François Taddei makes a case for (r)evolution in knowledge. He takes us through the inner workings of the brain—our best friend and at times worst enemy when it comes to learning—and explores the best ways to start asking if not the right questions, then at least good questions. Taddei likewise calls on us to create learning societies in order to face the major transitions underway. He investigates ways we can learn with one another through cooperation, drawing on how living organisms have cooperated since life began. Close to home, this means creating learning communities and learning cities while on a global scale he calls for the advent of a learning planet.

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