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Is humankind on the cusp of a second Renaissance?

How do we win in this time of acceleration, a time categorised as much by risk as by opportunity? 

What lessons can we learn from the first Renaissance to navigate the second? 

These are the critical questions posed in Age of Discovery, a formative work by South African-born author Ian Goldin, a director of the Oxford Martin School at Oxford University and a former vice-president of the World Bank, and Chris Kutarna, a consultant, entrepreneur and fellow of the Oxford Martin School.

At the recent USB Executive Development (USB-ED) and finweek We Read For You (WRFY) event, André Roux, economics professor at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB), shared some of the deeper insights in the book, drawing parallels between the first Renaissance and what is taking place today, in our globalised world and at home in SA.

The first Renaissance

The advancements in exploration, science and art made by the pioneers and the great thinkers of the past – from Columbus, Copernicus and Da Vinci to Gutenberg, who invented the printing press – hurtled medieval man through an age of enlightenment and into an era of knowledge, literacy and understanding. 

The original European Renaissance, beginning in about 1400 and lasting almost two centuries, was a time of advancement, but also of great upheaval.

The “rebirth” led to the questioning of long-held values and beliefs and heralded a fresh approach to learning and thinking.  

The second Renaissance 

Fast forward to the present day: We’ve gone from Gutenberg to Zuckerberg, and from Venice and Antwerp to Wall Street and Dubai – and our world is arguably witnessing a similar explosion of intellectual innovation. We are more connected than ever before. 

In fact, in our globalised existence, we have become integrated and tangled together. 

In a time of unprecedented trade and global opportunity, there’s also the social friction and upheaval synonymous with the first Renaissance. 

Medicine is gaining nature’s power to design life and prolong it; engineering is going beyond what was previously thought possible; and the global flows of commerce, finance, people and ideas are redefining economies and communities. 

But where there are positive gains, poor political and social choices are placing more and more people at greater risk.  

We’re on the precipice, hovering between the bright and dark sides of discovery. 

As we go through this evolution and the Fourth Industrial Revolution takes hold, the question is: What we can take from the past to inform our decision-making today? 

The authors argue that now – in the information age, where human health, wealth, literacy and education are flourishing – “is the best time to be alive”. 

But as in the time of the Renaissance, we are living in an anxious and divided world. 

While we are evolving as a society through scientific gains, more of us are being alienated – stressed by social disparity, political division and the unintended consequences of our modern  discoveries and the rapid pace of change.

Within this context, our all-too-connected and disrupted world does not offer guarantees – but it does present possibilities, and as Goldin and Kutarna point out, it is up to each of us to realise them. 

To navigate the future, we must learn from our past.

How do we become winners in the second Renaissance? 

Roux believes Age of Discovery encourages people to become smarter risk takers. 

To survive and thrive, we need to be open to ingenuity and prize the generation of ideas, support the arts, reconceptualise smart cities, and have the means of offering sustainable safety nets for the dispossessed. 

Ultimately, Roux argues that the onus is on the individual to take ownership of the future. 

And, while we need to learn from our past, we also need to become outward-focused future gazers: we each need to act decisively in order to adapt. 

Above all, we should reignite the idea of the “Renaissance Person” – the polymaths who collectively enhance the emerging opportunities, and mitigate the potential risks, by taking a multi- and interdisciplinary view of the world. 

This means having more than a working knowledge of science, medicine, botany, economics, the fine arts, music, psychology, and the like. 

Collectively, we need to be agile. With these high stakes comes the opportunity for humanity to give of its best and leave a positive legacy for future generations.

finweek is the USB-ED’s media partner in its We Read For You series. The next event will be held on Friday, 13 April 2018. Carl Kies, CEO of Reutech, will discuss The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. To register, click here. Admission is free. 

This article originally appeared in the 12 April edition of finweek. Buy and download the magazine here or subscribe to our newsletter here.

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