Originally published in: 14/02/2026
Dear One World Friends,
Increasingly, you are going to see articles like this one that appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal, where the mainstream media and the public attempt to absorb the concepts we have been discussing here for several years in our tech and AI class:
Brace Yourself for the AI Tsunami
While the public will increasingly talk about AI and its impact, few, if any, really understand how profoundly the wave of technological transformation is reshaping our world.
In 2003, Sir Martin Rees, the former President of the Royal Society of Science (a post previously held by Issac Newton), explained in his book Our Final Century, that we are living at the most important time since the Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago!
The reason is clear, for those of us alive today, the universe has thrust a very heavy burden on us as the next 2 decades will be the most consequential in human history.
If we use the tools we have inherited from the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions wisely, we can create a post-scarcity world of universal high income. If, on the other hand, we use these new tools for war or violence, that will be the end of human civilization as we know it.
It was this idea that led Oxford professor Derek Parfit to write these words on the final pages of On What Matters (2011) that, “We live during the hinge of history. Given the scientific and technological discoveries of the last two centuries, the world has never changed as fast. We shall soon have greater powers to transform, not only our surroundings, but ourselves and our successors. If we act wisely in the next few centuries, humanity will survive its most dangerous and decisive period. Our descendants could, if necessary, go elsewhere, spreading through this galaxy.”
In his inaugural address of January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a similar point: “The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.”
Our goal at One World is to do everything in our power to improve the chances that we eliminate poverty while increasing the chances we bring an end to war.
To that end, we have worked hard to provide K12 educators and students with a guide as to the state of humanity today via our first online book.
The Very Real Potential to Bring an End to Poverty, Hunger, and the Need to Work
These were the conclusions we reached after extensively researching our first online book: The Great Transition to Sustainable Super Abundance: Uniting Humanity for a Future Where Everyone Thrives.
We concluded that dramatic advances in accelerating technological change have provided humanity with an unprecedented opportunity to create a post-scarcity, solved world where we bring an end to hunger, poverty, disease, and the need to work.
While we believe this era of Radical Abundance is technologically feasible, it seems highly unlikely we will be able to successfully transition to this post-scarcity world of universal high income without finding ways to bring humanity together as never before at both the global and local levels.
To that end, we are organizing two projects that we believe can help increase the chances of bringing an end to poverty.
Solution 1: A Global Conversation on the Future of Humanity
To address the needs and challenges on the global front, One World will be launching a Global Conversation on the Future of Humanity on February 28th. Our focus for this conversation will be High School and university students and educators but all are welcome.
Please click here to learn more about the Global Conversation we are looking to generate: THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
Solution 2: Communities 2050
We are also creating a platform to encourage K-12 educators to take a future-ready leadership role in their communities with a view to rallying their communities around a vision for the year 2050.
For more on this effort, please click here: Communties 2050 Final
We hope you, your students, and your friends can participate in one of these two projects. Our goal is to initiate conversations across the globe and within your community that we hope will lead to a world of Sustainable Super Abundance.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Joe
