2032: Five Technologies That Will Reshape the World in the Next Decade
This site showcases the knowledge, opinions, and experiences of graduate students and fellows at Harvard University who completed the elective HBS course, “2032: Five Technologies That Will Reshape the World in the Next Decade.”
Shikhar Ghosh, a professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, developed and taught the course which explored the management and application of artificial intelligence in the business world. Emerging technologies have the potential for improving health, education, and economic prosperity at an unprecedented scale. They have the power to solve some of humanity’s most intractable problems and existential risks such as climate change, inequality, destruction of the environment, and the fragmentation of civil society. Paradoxically, the godlike power for good also gives them the reach to cause existential harm. Our institutions, business models, and social norms have not been reset to address their power and reach.
A serial entrepreneur, angel investor, business advisor, and Faculty Co-Chair of the HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, Ghosh taught the popular and practical, “Founder’s Journey” elective course at HBS for over a decade. Today, nearly every industry is leveraging AI with increasing frequency. How will the widespread application of ubiquitous technology with godlike power affect our roles as managers, leaders, investors, customers, and private citizens? Will humans be able to apply technological solutions to solve the challenges and crises, like climate change, that emerge over the next 100 years? As new technologies evolve at an exponential rate, Ghosh created the course “2032” to encourage future leaders to explore the commercial and ethical choices humans face as emerging technologies become widely adopted and increase their potency. The course was supported by research associates Marilyn Morgan Westner and Shweta Bagai; faculty support specialist, Susan Backus, and advisor Liang Wu (HBS Class of 2018).
“2032” began as an intensive, limited-enrollment seminar, capped at 30 participants, in the spring of 2022. But the content resonated with students beyond the HBS campus on the first day of class, nearly 100 students and graduate fellows affiliated with various Harvard schools and MIT packed into the classroom. When registration closed, 45 students—33 MBA candidates and 12 cross-registrants—were accepted into the inaugural cohort.
We examined five major areas: ubiquitous networks; AI and deep learning algorithms; neuroscience; synthetic biology and gene editing; and applications of the blockchain. Throughout the semester, we weighed the benefits each of these technologies presents against any moral or ethical dilemmas it may generate. We had 29 guests—experts, leaders, and pioneers in synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, ubiquitous and exponential technologies, blockchain, NFTs, cryptocurrency, ransomware, and the metaverse. Students were asked to create an AI companion on the Replika app, and to experiment with Roblox to get a sense of the metaverse. To gain some familiarity with decentralized autonomous networks (DAOs) students were encouraged to propose actions and vote on the Class DAO, created and built by Liang Wu and Timmy Galvin. As part of a collective final project, students were asked to reflect on one emerging technology and to predict how that tech might impact the world in a decade. The result was captured in an NFT, “The Class of ’22 Shares Insights on How Technology Will Affect Us by 2032.” This site was designed by Marilyn Morgan Westner to showcase students’ work on the collective NFT, select research projects, and capture the content of the course. It is organized into broad categories based on topics that speculate on the future of emerging tech on democracy, the economy, the future of work, health care, biology, ecology, and social interactions, and humanity as we know it. In the spirit of the class, we used an AI application, WOMBO Dream to generate artwork for each section based on written prompts.
Acknowledgments and Thanks
Throughout the semester, we invited experts and thought leaders from various fields to join our class and share inside perspectives on their experiences “in the trenches.” We extend special thanks to the following individuals for selflessly sharing their expertise and time. Their involvement enriched the class immeasurably. They are listed below in order of appearance during the semester.
Renee DiResta, Research Manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory
Dave Balter, co-founding CEO of Flipside Crypto
Prof. Rama Ramakrishnan, Professor of Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management
Matt Bridges, EiR at Delphi Digital
Prof. Sandy Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts & Science at MIT and Director of MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory and the MIT Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program
Dr. Sek Kathiresan, cardiologist and geneticist who founded and is CEO of Verve Therapeutics
Karim Beguir, co-founder & CEO of InstaDeep and Google Developer Expert in Machine Learning
Zohra Slim, co-founder and Chief Digital and Visualization Officer of InstaDeep in Tunis
Emily Leproust, co-founder of Twist Bioscience and a pioneer in the high-throughput synthesis and sequencing of DNA
Steven Kokinos, CEO of Algorand
Paige Fetzer-Borelli, Chief of Staff to the CEO, Algorand
Eric Calderon, Founder and CEO Art Blocks
Ham Serunjogi, co-founder and CEO of Chipper Cash
Sam Altman, CEO Open AI
Tyler Ward, co-founder of BarnBridge and co-creator of the Universe protocol
Christoph Lengauer, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Thrive and partner at Third Rock Ventures.
Alexis Borisy, serial entrepreneur (Foundation Medicine, Blueprint Medicines) and partner at Third Rock Ventures.
John Wu, President of Ava Labs
Joe Pace, Head of Business Development at Asics
Abhishek Chandwani, CEO of Metaphi Inc.
Dr. Reshma Shetty, co-founder, Chief Operations Officer, and member of the board of directors of Ginkgo Bioworks
Dave Baszucki, founder and CEO of Roblox
Anthony Lee, Managing Director. Altos Ventures
Reza Satchu, Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurship Management Unit at HBS
Dr. Austin Burt, evolutionary geneticist and biologist at the University of London’s Imperial College
Dr. Diabate Abdoulaye, medical entomologist and head of Target Malaria in Bana, Burkina Faso
Dr. Natalie Kofler, strategic advisor for the Scientific Citizenship Initiative at Harvard Medical School
Christopher Ahlberg, CEO of Recorded Future
Fred Wolens, General Counsel at Recorded Future
Audrey Tang, Digital Minister of Taiwan
Special Thanks To
Soichiro Chiba for coordinating the interview with Audrey Tang.
Timmy Galvin for building out and serving as community manager of the Class DAO.
Caitlin Leksana, Timmy Galvin, Joshua Fields, Kim Cordova, Garen Scribner, and Andrew Kosc for their time and brainstorming efforts on the Class NFT.
Mary Sauer for her time and creative effort in designing the Class of 2022 Replika photo.
Caitlin Leksana and Timmy Galvin for minting the Class NFT. Without them, it would not exist on the blockchain!