Trend 10

New gods

The urge to control the environment.

Trend axes

New space race
Engineered evolution
Weather modification
Civilizational challenges

Some figures

+200,000

Dollars paid by the select group of eccentric billionaire technologists and celebrities who travelled to space with Richard Branson.

125,000

Dollars per seat to fly to space in 2024, taking off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an ‘offer’ from the company Space Perspective.

143

Satellites put into orbit in one go by the Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX, owned by tycoon Elon Musk, in January 2021.

500,000

Million: the cost of the Saudi crown prince's dream of building a futuristic 10,000-square-mile city in the desert.

Playing god

Unstoppable technological development increasingly favours human beings, who are playing with modifying the environment for our own benefit. How far will we be able to go?

From the handiest gadgets to the most unimaginable science-fiction fantasies, human beings play, try and test to shape their surroundings to their own needs.

So far, 2021 has been defined by climate disasters, record electricity and oil prices, the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and a desperate effort to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 and stop the variants that threaten to undo the progress made.

However, for a special class of billionaires with delusions of grandeur and die-hard tech fans, this is the year of the space race.

Society is witnessing who can spend the most money and grab the media spotlight, as the Soviet Union and the United States once did. To the stratosphere and beyond…

The temptation to play god is spreading among humans who, driven by technology, hold nothing back in chasing their dreams. But beyond the success of a few, the debate now centres on the need to touch the stars versus responding to the Earth's serious problems. A question of priorities.

Expert view

Xabier de la Torre

Head of Innovation at BBK

“Perhaps 52 years ago human beings began their particular game of becoming God, when they left the first footprint on the surface of the Moon, accompanied by the famous words of Neil Armstrong: ‘That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’. But really, what footprint do we want to leave? Short-termism leads us to think, feel and act prioritising immediate results, without considering the effect each of our small decisions has on the legacy we are building for future generations. We must certainly pursue our individual wellbeing, but not as the only goal, rather as the consequence of having achieved a series of other goals that contribute to the wellbeing of the environment in which we live and work. The sum of many small individual changes can undoubtedly bring about a great global change. And you, what footprint would you like to draw?”

Cases

01 / 05

Zorraquino spotlights

01
Since the beginning of existence, humanity has interfered in the evolution of natural systems, acclimatising and adapting them to its own needs.
02
Equipped with scientific and technological maturity, we are advancing the evolution of our own bodies and their biological processes in a highly personalised way.
03
The principles of engineering and the natural sciences are applied to tissues, cells and molecules of natural systems. Humanity advances through synthesis with technology.

Zorraquino playlist

Pedestrian at BestLynks · 2020
VerdiciuRodrigo Cuevas, Celerina Sound System · 2016
Padam padamÉdith Piaf · 1987

See the whole playlist Listen on Spotify

New gods

Playing god

Xabier de la Torre

Cases

More on the trend

References