 And now we get the comfy chairs, huh? Okay, I Think we're also going to take questions from the audience. So if you have any any objectives and push back or comments positive ones only of course Do anyone to start us off if not? I've got a question for you guys Anyone want to begin? Yes a little girl at the front What I wanted to say is Is that mainly we shouldn't try to make robots that are like us because of cybers and hackers and We should try to make other people who might not be able to code Help them to code All right. Thank you. That's a great comment. I totally agree with you You know, I always say we should we should make robots that help us to be more human And we should not make them more human so that they can replace us Yeah, of course, that's a fine line as to how exactly that would happen clearly Thank you one thing that we can learn from you is How actually we need to interact at all levels and we talk about diversity and I I just want to applaud a little girl that coming in to talk to us about that important subject of Humanist behavior within this world of technology and I think we all need to think about it from that perspective And I know that I've got some of my youngest and brightest in the room here And I think they are the ones that are changing our thinking faster than anyone else. So thank you for the question Hello, hello So where are you? I'm over here. Okay, so Kind of growing up and having various conversation with my friends as teenagers The idea of having microchips in your brain was kind of the conspiratorial line that everyone decided that Okay, that would be too far irrelevant of the opinions So Considering this is the first time that I've heard someone speak about Elon Musk and the Neuro link with The edge that it isn't a definite thing we should run into What do you think it is about either the presentation of it or the timing that it's come that seems to kind of Haze that obvious opinion that it shouldn't necessarily be something that we jump straight into or that It's more than just about regulators saying whether it's safe enough in safe enough in terms of like The idea of mass adoption and it's potential if everybody did adopt it in mass Yeah, I have a lot of concerns about this. I think that You know, it's one thing if you're sick and you can use technology to get well or to get over it So if I lose both legs, I can get prosthesis, you know, that's one thing But it's another thing to say I'm gonna use the same technology become superhuman because I have a lot of money and Then I'm gonna sell that technology car and have more money, right? And then after I've sold enough, I'm gonna leave the planet because the planet is messed up Mean that is some bizarre logic, right? You know that most people in Silicon Valley are now having buying houses in New Zealand Just in case everything goes south in America. They can take their jets and go to New Zealand and live a sheltered life You know, so basically a lot of these things are building a world that they will not actually live in Like Zuckerberg owns the entire block on you on What is it Broadway in San Francisco? He bought one house. Then he bought a few other houses Now he owns the whole block in the argument for buying all the other houses, which are empty was that he wants his privacy So he wants his privacy with the other houses, but we don't get any of that on Facebook You know, we get we get the digital jail. So Yeah, I think I Agree with you. This is a complicated truth because we don't want to pull out the baby with the bathwater, you know But somehow we have to decide on the limits and we have to decide on what's fair and Currently we have done pretty much whatever we can Just because it was technically possible So one thing that I've learned working with some of the startups that these innovators and entrepreneurs once they've got hooked on the idea of Entrepreneurialism they want to do more and the more that they grab the more they want to give So there is a little bit of you can see that and Elon Musk and some of the other entrepreneurs They don't sort of stop at the small goals. They go for bigger ones So I think we need to embrace those bigger goals that they may bring to us and then go with them Yeah, I think this is a You know depends on where you are in the exponential scale Yeah, if you're in the beginning of the scale like I was with my internet companies in the 90s You know, we were at the very beginning of the of the exponential curve And we were doubling 0.01 to 0.02 0.04. It was still all useless basically, right? It didn't work. But when you at 4 You leap to 8 16 32 I go 30 steps from here to the wall or 30 steps exponential. I'm on the moon, right? So when I when I live in an exponential world like we do today The scale is just so much bigger So if Elon is saying that we're all gonna have these interfaces and he should think about what the consequence of that is I Mean never mind that it may be good on I don't know but but I have my judgments I mean my reservations about that being a solution to the human problem. It sounds like a giant business opportunity to me But maybe the regulation comes by people being close to the technology and understanding how to apply it other ways Yeah, I'm not I'm not generally in favor of regulation. I mean, I I ran startups I know I live in Switzerland. I know how hard it is when you have too much regulation You know, but I'm only concerned about remaining human And if we want to remain human we have to protect what makes us human Otherwise we can sell that out. Yeah, and then we you know, we will be very soon We'll be at the black mirror place, you know where we can say, yeah, you know, we are very functional, you know Good. Thank you very much. I come from the business community and to you Paul. I Listen, you are some massive massive questions there, which got me. Yeah, I'm sure and everybody here thinking hard the Some of the big one of the big questions that comes to me is and Paul you refer to it in your presentation about Business being seen as the solution not as the problem around if you talk about climate change You always talk about I think the other danger you outline was around technology and how that can be poisonous as it were Do you think that the the responsibility lies with whom is it with the larger businesses is it with You know civil society, you know Governments and national governments. Where do you think the solution is because there are lots of problems and challenges you've thrown out there But where do you see the the route to to solutions? Yeah, I think you know first we we have a lot of the tools that we need already Like we can solve climate change and energy and water and food with technology, right? I mean and that is imminent, you know But technology will not solve social political or cultural problems and one of them is inequality I mean so on the one hand we have all these powerful tools We could solve pretty much almost everything in the next 20 years and on the other hand, we don't we don't agree on any of it So so we have all the power here and then the the money power is concentrated now Basically for the first time ever the top 50 billionaires in the US have gained like 800 percent of of money In the last 10 years, so we have that all on one place So it comes down to will and decision-making and wisdom and Collaboration to use the tools, right? That's what it comes down to The tools are good So my view is that it's all there. We just have to do the right thing with it Yeah, but nothing that the business question for me is that if a company really has a sense of purpose and acts in the way that their purpose is set It goes back to some of good points. I think it creates this more sustainable future for the business Well, certainly seeing I mean clearly today if you if you pack your business and you map your business to the new world, right? which is the the Codruple bottom line, right in five years. This will be the new normal Like today if you don't care about all of those things you can still make money today Facebook does right Facebook makes a hundred sixty five million dollars profit a day And none of these principles are part of Facebook in five years That will not happen So if you're a startup and you you're going to business if you're doing something in the airline industry You're gonna have to figure out how to use other fuels, right? And to the point that we look at this beautiful aircraft. We know it's one of the most polluting aircraft the world has ever seen So we know there's other supersonic aircraft on the blocks and we're beginning to question ourselves Do we ever want to be helping someone build that aircraft if our principle is a Sustainable future for the generations to come. That's what's going to give us growth not by building 14 of these So we're gonna have to make some hard decisions. Yeah, I mean it's quite clear that you know you're looking at The next 10 years. I mean the next five years. We're going to dramatic Measures on on co2 and climate change so mandatory carbon tax for airplanes mandatory reduction of cattle No more binge-flying and what I'm doing right that will be essentially also off the table join me on the train Yes, I'll come along on the train or maybe I just go virtual. I don't know but and and no cars and cities I mean, we're going to see stuff. That's basically totally anti-capitalist Right. It's not this is not the free market. We're talking about here when the farmers have to reduce their livestock by 50% Yeah, but these are going to be emergency measures and on the positive side Some people say we're going to have a hundred million new jobs on sustainable energy a hundred million We think about all the tech that bring on the need for this and see you do to a decarbonization Absolutely, and I mean this yeah loads and loads and loads of opportunities. Yeah, the good I worked in a little company called Rolls-Royce produced these engines and that was on the board of the The joint venture with snack ma and we came up with ideas that we took to our board and said we could make something far better than these engines of today We could put hydrogen in them. We could put other fuels, but actually we've got a whole business that's producing kerosene burning engines Do we want to do that just now and kill our business? That's a conundrum, and I think that's that the obligation is now on us to question ourselves And that's a difficult place to be but you know this usually doesn't happen inside of industry You know Spotify came out of left field Using the music like water idea was partly outlined in my first book in 2004 And the record label said this is terrible a terrible idea now music like water We hate this idea because music is going to be cheap We want music to be expensive, right and what do we have now? Does anybody in this room still buy CDs? You know there's a whole new music business Yeah, and the same thing is going to happen with energy with food with climate We're going to invent our way out But we do have to have the political and the cultural intent You know to actually make it work, and you need to build a coalition around that of people Look what's happening in the US now right after Trump We have Senator Warren Elizabeth Warren coming up with this audacious plan for for healthcare for everyone and Climate change and I mean it's like night and day. Here's the really like the evil guy and he over over there It's like wow, you know, I think it can be done But it takes a different paradigm and different thinking and I I imagine a world where the young girl and my kids can fly and A plane that produces water out the back Rather than kerosene burning co2 not just gases. Yeah, that's why I'm not so much for Regulating too much. I just want to regulate the most important thing which is that we can stay human And I don't want companies to take that away from us because they can make money with it You know, I don't want companies to destroy democracy because they can sell ads, you know, and that sounds like a stupid idea Yeah And I would like people to spend more time on figuring out how to make it better for us and to make it better for you Know some corporate ownership. I think we had a question over there. Yes. Thank you first of all an amazing day an amazing keynote speech to finish I To come from the business community and it's brilliant to take a day out in Bristol with our peers to think about Really strategic issues and not the usual topics that that we're faced with Over the last three years. So thank you. It's been inspirational My question plays to the inequality piece that you've touched on girl. I was brought up in Northern Ireland through the heart height of the Troubles and It was a highly polarized divisive community my biggest fear and I see this growing exponentially in the world is that divisive polarized behavior is becoming endemic across the world and Obviously a lot of what we've looked at today can be looked at through a very negative land lens. I Look back to the likes of the work that Nelson Mandela did in South Africa and the wonderful story Unfortunately for England you didn't get your wonderful story But it's a brilliant story for South Africa to have their first black captain given where he came from and His childhood and how there can be positive change in the world Where do you guard see light happening in terms of the ability of Defeating this polarized toxic them and us world that if they get hold of technology, there's only one outcome Yes, well, I would say right now. It probably has to get worse before it gets better Like you know, this is how this is how we're gonna address climate change because now we're actually saying it's actually a real You know, I can feel it and it's I mean now we can we can touch it It's hard to touch stuff that's 50 years away Right, so that is happening now And I think we've seen in all the countries that have voted right wing governments Right that essentially hasn't worked out at all. It's none of that has made anything better Like yeah, and especially a temporary situation. I think in five years. We're going to have this new renaissance You know, that's gonna come to conclusions saying, okay, we want a good quality life And we have to do certain things for that And you know, maybe in the US we'll see that swing even earlier now in that whole discussion. Who knows but Yeah, usually people only change for two reasons, right? pain and love That's how government change. That's how people change. That's how companies change you have enough pain You say, oh, what the hell, you know try something else Or you fall in love with an idea or a person, of course And I think that's happening right now people are saying, you know what I think the pain is getting quite clear Brexit also, right? And I fall in love with new ideas and then we can come up with new things and this is how we change So just building on that and going back to the analogy for sport for a moment I was watching the world club final and Johnny Wilkinson did a bit of his great thinking in front of the audience And he said We really need to see some innovation. We need to do different stuff We need to be leaders and go to different places we've never done before and doing that difficult stuff I think is what we're into and taking Gerd's point on board I think this is the time where either people break into polarization or that's they use that to come together And I think we'll find and certainly against the background of the sustainable aviation world We're gonna come together. Well, let's go back to the board. I said in the beginning, right? The future is better than we think. Yeah, and this is not all bad What's happening right now is we will have incredible power of technology to help solve almost every problem But we have to use it correctly. So it's not like we don't have the tools I mean if we didn't have the tools that would be bad And we have the tools to have a completely green energy We just have to make the right decisions Yeah, and so that's what it comes down to this is a process of of democracy and stuff It's not a process of lack of science, you know, we have all the science So when you look at it from that point of view, the only obstacle is our is us It's not that we don't have the tools we have all the tools and there's loads of business I mean again compare the music business, right? 40 billion dollars worth of CDs sold average cost of CD 15 pounds or so, right? Today we have Spotify and other services 120 million subscribers For roughly 10 quid a month, right? If that continues that trend the music industry will be a hundred billion dollars So first it all caved in and it went away pretty much when it's come back in and now it's gonna I think it's gonna be the same with energy with health care with banking with food with water We just have to put it in a place to work and flourish. That's it then Waving us off. Okay. Good. There's one last question. Would you take that one and then close? By the way, you know my book is available in 12 languages, you know, if you should speak German or Chinese You can buy it there as well. Hi, I have a question. Where are you? Okay, um, I love everything you're saying and you often use the word we But who do you mean by we who takes leadership in delivering what you're saying in a global society and global economic system Yeah, well, that's a good question. I think when I say we are usually speak about humans, you know People who want to remain humans. I mean the question of we is always The kind of thing where we are saying, okay, what do we have in common? I think we have a lot more common than we think, you know Every time I speak somewhere in China or South America or the US I realize that you know 99.9% of people want to be human and I mean they they they want Things that everybody else wants. There are lots of difference in how they want it, right? And the other question of we is really that you know, we've done a very bad job of telling the story about the future ourselves We have left that to the technology companies You know, if you talk about, you know, who talks about the future said a con valley in China Do we talk about the future? Yeah, we talk about the future and researchers and those kind of things Yes, like in Switzerland. We do that a lot, right, but the PR behind the future is not ours It's not the human. It's the tech part So on the point of we I think we have to take that back We have to tell more stories. We have to come on the same page And I also think that probably I'm writing a new book on this in 20 years We're going to have a world government, right? Because how are we going to get in the same page? You know, if Brazil burns down the entire Amazon that will be bad for the UK Doesn't mean we should send soldiers there and you know prevent Bolton area from doing that why that's I don't know You know difficult question, but we're going to have a global situation that solves food water energy And all these things like we're kind of edging towards this concept of collaborating. Mm-hmm I just answer it from my perspective the we is in this room. I personally take on risk in my business on a daily basis and For the example on hydrogen It wasn't a discussion in the business two years ago when I joined the CEO stood on platforms talking about what we've taught him Most recently with economic leaders and we're starting to broadcast from within the organization the benefits So if we can believe it and show and demonstrate the technologies there, it will happen And we just got to keep the momentum and build the creation together with other people This is also one of those things, you know where we hear so many bad stories in the media that we don't have a way But we do We also hear so many stories about how the future is bad, right? I mean every single movie you watch the future ends badly. We all die right that that's what movies all about now, right? I mean the only movie that I remember was like Blade Runner. Okay, that ended not as bad But left everything hanging not the last one the first one the good one, you know But or her right the movie her where I can say that's a movie where I can you know understand more But anyway, we have to get off the story of saying it's bad And it's I can't do anything and the future is happening with out me and all this stuff You know, this is like it's fatalistic I think with that optimistic note, I guess that's the last question we've got time for but I'm sure good And I'll be around just for a few more moments and thank you all for your time today