A new Age of Enlightenment

A new Age of Enlightenment

From Antarctica to Artifical Intelligence, a man-made journey between brilliance and madness

by Jochen Werne

When we look carefully at our past, we come across a fascinating and sometimes schizophrenic human history of partial madness and absolute brilliance – not only when it comes to the use of new technologies. Let’s take a look into some of these stories.

1961 HAVANNA, CUBA: The world is on the brink of a nuclear holocaust. A reality created by the effects of the Cold War, political doctrines, hard borders and, not least, technological progress. Only diplomacy and pure instinct for the essence of human existence on both sides prevented the worst.

A story that reflects the precarious situation of the world at that time particularly well is found in Fidel Castro’s indirect offer to the Soviet Union to “solve the problem” and carry the communist revolution to victory by launching nuclear missiles from Cuban soil. His comrade-in-arms Che Guevara even went a step further, saying, “We say that we must tread the path of liberation, even if it may cost millions of nuclear war victims. In the struggle to the death between two systems, we can think of nothing but the final victory of socialism or its downfall as a result of the nuclear victory of imperialist aggression.” In 1962, the former First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, replied in a letter to Fidel Castro that he did not agree with the idea because it would inevitably lead to thermonuclear war and that there was still a need for a world into which the revolution could be carried.

1961 NEW YORK, USA: In the same year, 12 nations ratify a treaty for the joint administration of an entire continent. A continent larger than the United States. A continent that is home to 90% of the world’s freshwater reserves and is of extraordinary importance for the climate of our planet: Antarctica. It is the year in which one of humanity’s most encouraging treaties was signed – the Antarctic Treaty.

OPEN-SOURCE CONCEPT: The treaty – contains several chapters on the exclusively peaceful and scientific use of Antarctica. Along with this, the treaty also regulates the joint use of all research results and data. A concept that seemed revolutionary for the time and which is crucial for finding solutions to the great challenges of our time – such as climate change or effectively combating a pandemic.

2022 PLANET EARTH. Throughout history, we have often underestimated both the positive and negative impacts on society that come from revolutionary technologies. But technology itself cannot be judged in terms of good or bad. Rather, it is how society uses it that must be judged. Today, we are again on the brink of such a societal challenge.

We live in a globally connected world. Technological progress has made data one of the most important resources. The co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, surprisingly stated the following in a New York Times interview in 2017: “I thought that if everyone could speak freely and share information and ideas, the world would – automatically – become a better place. I was wrong”.

It would be easy to get the impression that this phenomenon is new, but Niall Ferguson, professor of history and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, is convinced that today’s technological progress and its impact on society are comparable to the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. The printing press had many positive effects on the progress of mankind and catapulted the Bible to the top of the book bestseller list for 200 years. Unfortunately, the same technology made “Malleus Maleficarum”, also known as the “Hammer of witches”, number 2 on this list for the same period. The book was the basis for the witch hunt and brought death to so many innocent people. Certainly, today the contents of the book would be called “fake news”.

PRESENT & THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

We are all shaping the world of tomorrow today, and our aspirations have already led to much good. Technology and human creativity have, for example, contributed to a massive reduction in poverty rates worldwide. In the last 25 years, more than one billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty.

If we look at the moment, we cannot avoid dedicating a few lines to the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is a global challenge and could be the next story of human brilliance and madness. We will witness tremendous advances in medical research and pandemic response measures thanks to AI-based analytics. But we will also witness a recession, which historically has always been an element for populism and nationalism. All this in an environment of fear and closed borders. In these situations, where many feel helpless, change has always come from progressive thinkers who were convinced of their ideas, from Kant to Ghandi to the thought leaders of today.

In our open society and with machine and deep learning technologies in our hands, we have the opportunity to make the world a better place. We can make a difference in our professions, and we can stand up and make our voices heard against polarising movements and injustice in every way. We can use our creativity and intellect to defend “the progress of thought”, which has always had the goal of “freeing man from his fear”, just as it was one of the goals of the Age of Enlightenment.

Sources:
https://www.plattform-lernende-systeme.de/home-en.html
http://www.niallferguson.com
http://antarcticblanc.com
https://www.ats.aq/index_e.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/technology/evan-williams-medium-twitter-internet.html
Photo source: https://pixabay.com

Handelsblatt Blogbeitrag: EIN NEUES ZEITALTER DER AUFKLÄRUNG

Von der Antarktis zu Artifical Intelligence, eine von Menschen gemachte Reise zwischen Brillanz und Wahnsinn

Autor Jochen Werne – Ein Blogbeitrag für die Handelsblatt Jahrestagung Restrukturierung

Bei sorgfältiger Betrachtung unserer Vergangenheit stoßen wir auf eine faszinierend und teilweise schizophren anmutende Menschheitsgeschichte von partiellem Wahnsinn und absoluter Brillanz – nicht nur, wenn es um den Einsatz neuer Technologien geht. Werfen wir einen Blick in einige dieser Geschichten.

1961 HAVANNA, KUBA: Die Welt steht am Rande eines nuklearen Holocaust. Eine Realität entstanden durch die Auswirkungen des kalten Kriegs, politischer Doktrinen, harter Grenzen und nicht zuletzt technologischen Fortschritts. Nur Diplomatie und der reine Instinkt für das Wesen der menschlichen Existenz auf beiden Seiten verhinderten das Schlimmste.

Eine Geschichte, die die prekäre Lage der Welt zu jener Zeit besonders gut widerspiegelt findet sich in dem indirekten Angebot Fidel Castro an die Sowjetunion, „das Problem“ zu lösen und die kommunistische Revolution durch den Abschuss von Atomraketen von kubanischem Boden, zum Sieg zu tragen. Sein Kampfgefährte Che Guevara ging sogar noch einen Schritt weiter, indem er sagte: „Wir sagen, dass wir den Weg der Befreiung beschreiten müssen, auch wenn er Millionen von Atomkriegsopfern kosten kann. Im Kampf auf Leben und Tod zwischen zwei Systemen können wir an nichts anderes denken als an den endgültigen Sieg des Sozialismus oder seinen Untergang als Folge des nuklearen Sieges der imperialistischen Aggression.” 1962 antwortete der ehemalige Erste Sekretär der Kommunistischen Partei der Sowjetunion, Nikita Chruschtschow, in einem Brief an Fidel Castro, dass er mit der Idee nicht einverstanden sei, weil sie unweigerlich zu einem thermonuklearen Krieg führen würde und dass es doch noch eine Welt bräuchte, in die die Revolution getragen werden könnte.

1961 NEW YORK, USA: Im selben Jahr ratifizieren 12 Nationen einen Vertrag zur gemeinsamen Verwaltung eines ganzen Kontinents. Ein Kontinent, der größer ist als die Vereinigten Staaten. Ein Kontinent, der 90% der Süßwasserreserven der Welt beheimatet und für das Klima unseres Planeten von außerordentlicher Bedeutung ist: die Antarktis. Es ist das Jahr, in dem einer der ermutigendsten Verträge der Menschheit unterzeichnet wurde – der Antarktis-Vertrag.

OPEN-SOURCE-KONZEPT: Der Vertrag – beinhaltet mehrere Kapitel zur ausschliesslich friedlichen und wissenschaftlichen Nutzung der Antarktis. Damit einhergehend regelt der Vertrag auch die gemeinschaftliche Nutzung aller Forschungsergebnisse und Daten. Ein Konzept, das für die damalige Zeit revolutionär erschien und das für die Findung von Lösungen für die großen Herausforderungen unserer Zeit – wie Klimawandel oder die effektive Bekämpfung einer Pandemie – von entscheidender Bedeutung sind.

2020 PLANET ERDE. In der Geschichte haben wir oft die positiven wie auch die negativen Auswirkungen auf die Gesellschaft unterschätzt, die von revolutionären Technologien ausgehen. Doch kann Technologie selbst nicht mit den Begriffen gut oder schlecht beurteilt werden. Vielmehr muss beurteilt werden, wie die Gesellschaft diese nutzt. Heute stehen wir wieder am Rande einer solchen gesellschaftlichen Herausforderung.

Wir leben in einer global vernetzten Welt. Technologischer Fortschritt hat Daten zu einer der wichtigsten Ressourcen gemacht. Der Mitbegründer von Twitter, Evan Williams, erklärte in einem Interview der New York Times 2017 überraschenderweise das Folgende: „Ich dachte, wenn alle Menschen frei sprechen und Informationen und Ideen austauschen können, wird die Welt – automatisch – zu einem besserer Ort. Ich habe mich geirrt“.

Man könnte leicht den Eindruck gewinnen, dass dieses Phänomen neu ist, aber Niall Ferguson, Geschichtsprofessor und Senior Fellow des Hoover Institutes ist davon überzeugt, dass der heutige technologische Fortschritt und seine Auswirkungen auf die Gesellschaft mit der Erfindung des Buchdrucks durch Johannes Gutenberg im 15. Jhdt. vergleichbar sind. Die Druckerpresse hatte viele positive Auswirkungen auf den Fortschritt der Menschheit und katapultierte die Bibel 200 Jahre lang auf den ersten Platz der Buch-Bestsellerliste. Leider machte die gleiche Technik “Malleus Maleficarum”, auch bekannt als der „Hexenhammer“, für dieselbe Zeit zur Nummer 2 auf dieser Liste.  Das Buch war die Grundlage für die Hexenjagd und brachte so vielen Unschuldigen den Tod. Sicherlich würde man heute die Inhalte des Buches als „Fake News“ bezeichnen.

GEGENWART & DIE WELT VON MORGEN

Wir alle gestalten heute die Welt von morgen, und unser Streben hat bereits zu viel Gutem geführt. Technologie und menschliche Kreativität haben bspw. dazu beigetragen, die Armutsquote weltweit massiv zu senken. In den letzten 25 Jahren wurden hierbei mehr als eine Milliarde Menschen extremer Armut befreit.

Betrachten wir den Moment so kommt man nicht umhin der aktuellen COVID-19-Pandemie einige Zeilen zu widmen. Es ist eine globale Herausforderung und könnte gleichzeitig die nächste Geschichte des menschlicher Brillanz und Wahnsinns sein. Wir werden dank der KI-basierten Analyseelemente enorme Fortschritte in der medizinischen Forschung und bei den Maßnahmen zur Pandemiebekämpfung erleben. Wir werden aber auch Zeugen einer Rezession werden, die historisch gesehen immer ein Element für Populismus und Nationalismus war. All dies in einem Umfeld von Angst und geschlossenen Grenzen. In diesen Situationen, in denen sich viele von hilflos fühlen, ging Wandel immer von fortschrittlichen Denkern aus, die von ihren Ideen überzeugt waren, von Kant über Ghandi bis zu den Vordenkern der heutigen Zeit.

In unserer offenen Gesellschaft und mit Machine- und Deep Learning Technologien in unseren Händen haben wir die Möglichkeit die Welt zu einem besseren Ort zu machen. Wir können in unseren Berufen viel Neues bewegen, und wir können gegen polarisierende Bewegungen und Ungerechtigkeit in jeder Hinsicht aufstehen und uns Gehör verschaffen. Wir können unsere Kreativität und unseren Intellekt einsetzen, um „den Fortschritt des Denkens” zu verteidigen, der schon immer das Ziel hatte, den Menschen von seiner Angst zu befreien“, genau wie es eines der Ziele des Zeitalters der Aufklärung war.

Quellen:
https://www.plattform-lernende-systeme.de/home-en.html
http://www.niallferguson.com
http://antarcticblanc.com
https://www.ats.aq/index_e.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/technology/evan-williams-medium-twitter-internet.html
Fotoquelle: https://pixabay.com

Handelsblatt Webinar – Managing Corona

Handelsblatt Managing Corona Webinar
YOU CAN‘T GO AGAINST THE SEA
mit Jochen Werne

Fr. 3 April – 16.30

Register for free at https://veranstaltungen.handelsblatt.com/managing-corona/content-piece/you-cant-go-against-the-sea/

Heading to the sea –
Planung trifft Realität
What to do when the storm hit you –
Vom Lock-down zum Lock-On
Finding new routes
Die neue Realität in einer Welt beschleunigter Transformation

Natalie Turner & Jochen Werne discussing business transformation at the TechWeek Frankfurt

Natalie Turner, Host of disruptive LIVE and Jochen Werne, CDO/CVO of Prosegur Cash Services, Germany in a lively discussion about the different aspects of change in companies and society. The interview touches aspects of fear and consciousness by giving examples reaching from Shakespeare to the Age of Enlightenment and our modern times of exponential technologies and artificial intelligence.

Find the full interview on DisruptiveLIVE, HERE

Coined Liberty 2.0

Author: Jochen Werne

First published in German at LinkedIn Pulse on July 20, 2019. Please find article and sources in this link. Publication in English language pleas find below

On the role of cash in a modern society between technological progress and freedom

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, one of the most important writers of the 19th century, impressively describes in his works the great existential and spiritual conflicts in which mankind was caught at the dawn of modernity. Not only his observations during the turbulent times of the upheaval of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, but also his personal experiences are an essential part of his work.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky

At the age of 28 and at the beginning of a promising career as a writer, Dostoevsky was sentenced to four years in a Siberian prison camp. The reason for this was his participation in meetings of the Petraschwezen, an intellectual circle that spoke out against tsarist despotism and serfdom. In his novel, “The House of the Dead”, which also describes Dostoyevsky’s own experiences in Siberian captivity, he formulates the sentence that was later much quoted: “Money is coined liberty”. The sentence describes the vital relevance of the possibility of a free exchange of goods in an unfree environment – and this through coined cash money.

More than 150 years have passed since the first publication of the work. Europe needed to go through the age of Enlightenment, the experiences of two world wars and a long cold war to become a peaceful and very liberal place for its citizens. A place which is putting the dignity and freedom of the individual first.

The freedom in our payment options has also multiplied thanks to technological progress. It is part of our everydays life to pay the morning croissant at the bakery, the new monthly ticket for the subway or even the use of public toilets – even without cash. Technological progress, the smartphone revolution and also our user behaviour made this evolution in payments possible. “Digital payments” have become part of our progressive society. However, the aspect of not having money physically tangible sometimes entails interesting and also unwanted aspects.

Society in upheaval

Like Dostoevsky, we also live in a time of extreme social, economic and political upheaval. An age in which exponential technology developments, industries and business models are changing radically and countries competing for dominance in areas such as artificial intelligence. It is a time when transformation is the new normality and an agile corporate culture is the key to success. In these times, for many it became clear that, “Everything that can be digitized will be digitized.” And thus the question inevitably arises whether this also applies to the first “Instant Payment” solution humans invented, one of the earliest and most sustainable achievements of civilization – cash.

Germans love affair with cash

If we look at Germany, cash is still one of the most popular payment methods and – culturally speaking – will probably remain for quite some time to come. According to a survey by the Bundesbank, 88 percent of German citizens continue to regard cash as their preferred means of payment. This cultural imprint can certainly also be traced back to modern history and the personal experiences of the Germans with their money. Beginning with the traumatic experience of hyperinflation during the Great Depression of 1923 and the resulting deep-rooted German understanding of the importance of a central bank independent from politics.

A painful experience, which states even today – like Venezuela – live through again and again and whose causes are often identical. In Reinhard and Rogoff’s bestseller book “This time is different”, this phenomenon is brilliantly explained using an analysis of 800 years of international economic history.

The positive image of (cash) money in Germany was impressively advanced after the end of the 2nd World War. From the currency reform of 1948 and the beginning of the economic miracle with 40 D-Mark, which every German was allowed to hold physically in his hands, to the 100 D-Mark welcome money at the reunification in 1989. These personal experiences paired with a consistently brillant independent work by the German Bundesbank – which always gave the population the feeling of having a strong, stable and secure own currency – are all German experiences, which were literally “obvious” and shaped the cultural reference of the country and its citizens.

The current freedom of our payment options is certainly good, as long as we consumers are free to decide which means of payment we pay with. Discussions about a possible restriction of citizens’ freedom of choice, for example through the abolition of cash, regularly call on intellectuals to take a warning position. The poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger, for example, has the following opinion on the subject of “restriction”: “Those who abolish cash abolish freedom”. Also former Deutsche Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele said at a conference in 2015: “Abolishing cash would hurt consumer sovereignty — the free choice of citizens about their payment instruments“ and “Government agencies do not have the right to tell citizens how they should pay.”

Having “physical power of disposal” over money, i.e. holding the banknote in one’s hands, immediately establishes a much stronger relationship for the value of something than a number on a display. More than ten years ago, the US scientists Raghubir and Srivastava in their essay for the “Journal if Experimental Psychology: Applied” described that the degree of abstraction often poses a problem when it comes to means of payment. They found a correlation between the indebtedness of individuals and the use of credit cards.

In Germany, the trend towards digital payment became apparent for the first time last year. In this period consumers in the stationary retail sector spent more money on checking and credit cards than in cash, as the trade research institute EHI recently announced.

Source: Deutsche Bundesbank

However, this does not mean that customers will soon only pay by card or smartphone, the experts emphasized at the same time. Three-quarters of all retail purchases continue to be settled in cash. When it comes to the highly sensitive issue of “money”, many consumers continue to find it difficult to trust the comprehensive healing promises of an omnipresent digital world.

In order to ensure that cash and book money continue to be equally available, the players involved in the cash cycle, such as CIT companies like Prosegur, ATM operators like IC-Cash, banks like Bankhaus August Lenz et al., are working concentrated to make the provision of cash at all locations even more efficient and cost-effective. Both the providers of cash solutions and those of digital solutions experiment therefore with the latest blockchain and AI technologies to reach the before mentioned goals.

Technological vulnerability and fall-back option

Especially in extreme scenarios, such as catastrophes or other failures of a digital infrastructure due to cyberattacks, natural events or simply technical failure, it becomes clear how cash – by its very nature – proves to be actually the most robust payment method. Ultimately, it is not tied to electricity, digital infrastructures, passwords or other technical features – it is simply available. An interesting recent anecdote occurred in Sweden, which is one of the most advanced countries in cashless payment. A country where even the traditional church collection is now equipped with a card reader. At the Bråvalla music festival 2014, for example, the memory chips on the admission tickets went on strike. Thousands of thirsty fans sat on dry land and had to write out promissory notes for their drinks by hand. An experience that can be observed again and again when paying at the checkout, when the magnetic stripe of a card or simply the card reader does not work and the views of the people standing around in the queue are impatiently looking at the payer and trying to catch a glimpse of the name on the card of the supposedly non-solvent unlucky fellow.

Data Protection Best Practice

In an interview with Rheinische Post in February 2017, Klaus Müller, head of the Federal Association of Consumer Groups (Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentralen), said “Cash is data protection in practice”. He added: “Unbarred figures leave traces of data that can be used commercially to create a consumer profile. This data may be illegally “fished” by third parties.” Now Müller points to nothing new here and opponents of cash, use the argumentation to underline that the supposed anonymity of cash can be used for illegal business and transactions and that the suppression of cash stands above the protection of privacy. But since the first publication of the interview, the introduction of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the recently imposed $5 billion fine against Facebook for the Cambridge Analytica scandal and similar events, the sensitivity of the European population with regard to data protection and privacy has grown substantially.


Financial privacy


In the closing sentence of his speech at the Cash Symposium 2018 of the Deutsche Bundesbank, the former judge of the German Federal Constitutional Court, Prof. Dr. Udo Di Fabio, underlined the probably most important point in the current discussion about cash. He said that in principle it is “not to be underestimated” that every citizen has the souvereignity of the free disposal of his money – of his personal “exchangeable assets”. He further added that this is particularly true when “financial privacy” is considered legally imperative. In other words, a society whose entire assets would be managed in digital form only, could also exercise only limited individual control over its money and would have to ask itself, “whether the state would be entitled via its central bank to carry out a controlled devaluation through negative interest rates, accounting discounts or fees on credit balances”. Prof. Di Fabio further points out that this would then not only be a property encroachment, but as a result possibly also the imposition of a special levy, which is permitted in the German legal system only under narrow conditions.

For young Fjodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky the conversion to book money in the Siberian prison would have meant the withdrawal of his individual sovereignity over money, so that he would not have had any more the fortune of using cash for the exchange of goods and other things. He describes the quintessence of this situation as follows: The suffering of prisoners who don’t have money is 10 times greater.

Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the intellectual serious discussions about cash and civil liberty rights would delight Dostoyevsky, with his experiences in an unfree society.


Our open and liberal society is characterised by the fact that we have and continue the discussion about “Coined Liberty 2.0” at this level.