5 BIG IDEAS THAT WILL CHANGE OUR WORLD IN 2022
The creator economy will become undeniable
Are you a creator? If you regularly share content with your community then yes, you are a creator. The creator economy is defined as the class of businesses built by more than 50 million independent content makers and curators including social media influencers, bloggers and videographers as well as the software and finance tools designed to help them with growth and monetisation.
NFTs will shake up the mortgage market
Much of the conversation around non-fungible tokens in 2021 has been around its use in digital art sales, with images of cartoon apes selling for US$24.4 million amongst others. But NFTs — digital tokens that represent ownership of assets and can be traded on blockchain exchanges — are set to infiltrate many more areas of our lives and shake up our understanding of ownership.
Take the mortgage market globally. Decentralised mortgage lender Bacon Protocol recently issued its first seven mortgages as NFTs, collectively worth US$1.5 million, offering investors and borrowers a new entry into the housing market.
Using NFTs allows lenders to bypass big banks or other intermediaries, along with their associated costs. This can help reduce mortgage rates. And the use of blockchain-based “smart contracts” can automate the approval process, setting borrowers up with loans more rapidly.
A blue foods revolution is coming
With the global population estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050 and climate change adding layers of uncertainty to our food production system, a food crisis is looming. “Blue foods” — fish, aquatic plants, mussels and algae — may offer a key solution.
“Blue foods” offer both nutritional and environmental benefits, making them an ideal potential source for future food needs. Algae’s protein content, for example, is higher than conventional sources such as meat, poultry and dairy products; and it can be cultivated without fresh water or arable land. Seagrass is capable of capturing carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, can transform abandoned salt marshes into flourishing habitats and can even be used as an alternative to rice.
The pandemic’s next act will focus on mental health
In 2022, the world will need to reckon with the trauma the pandemic has left in its wake. Life may be normalising, but many people are still grappling with grief, depression and anxiety. But the demand for mental health services is outstripping supply. With the world facing an extreme shortage of clinicians, many of whom are grappling with their burnout, digital platforms will take centre stage, even beyond the current apps linking patients and therapists.
Big Tech will shape the global order
Nation-states had been the primary drivers of global affairs for nearly 400 years, in charge of conducting war and peace, providing public goods, writing and enforcing laws and controlling flows of information, goods, services and people. No more. Tech giants like Meta (Facebook), Google, Amazon and Alibaba are increasingly acting as sovereigns, rivalling states for influence over our lives.
As more of the world becomes digitised, these companies’ control over the goods and services needed to run a modern society — including election integrity, telecommunication networks, cloud infrastructure, logistics capabilities, payment systems, space exploration and even national security — will deepen. Think about what happened on January 6. After rioters stormed the US Capitol, it was social media companies — not law enforcement, Congress or the judiciary — that sprang into action to punish those responsibly.