Yalta European Strategy: NEWS
Children Will Lead the Way in “Planetary Revolution” - Michio Kaku
Our children, already used to the concept of global communication and growing up using new information technologies, will lead the way in a “planetary revolution” that will cause qualitative shifts not only in technology but in the structure of human civilisation. This was the thinking put forward by Michio Kaku, a world-famous physicist and futurologist, and Professor in Theoretical Physics, at the City College of New York at the 10th Annual Meeting of Yalta European Strategy, on Friday September 20.
“Current civilization should be known as ‘zero-type civilization’, Michio Kaku believes, “because we still get energy from dead plants. But, we are witnessing the beginning of ‘first-type civilization’ – a high tech civilization. We can see it everywhere. The Internet is a prototype of ‘first-type technologies’. English and Chinese (Mandarin) are languages of ‘first-type civilization’. Football is a sport of ‘first-type civilization’. We are witnesses to the beginning of this civilization.”
According to the American futurologist, our children are leading the way in the transition to ‘first-type civilization’. “They don’t play with their neighbors. They play with people from Australia, Russia, or Borneo. They think in the same way ‘first-type civilization’ people will think,” the futurologist continued.
As a part of this revolution, new technology will not only change reality but also challenge civilization with a number of complex issues. Information will become the basis of people’s tangible wealth. Because of this, education will become even more important, , to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to earn their living by information processing. In the near future, when you will be able to print a deadly virus from a bioprinter, the issue of biological safety will be as important as the issue of cyber-security. AIDS, the physicist thinks, will be capable of being transmitted via human airways, threatening 98% of the population. Laser generators will be accessible to all, in the near future, and climate change will leave many cities (including the largest in the world) without fresh water.
Nevertheless, Michio Kaku is optimistic about the future. “The good news is that children will lead the way in this revolution. They want to be participants of planetary civilization. And they will create it.” he said.
The 10th Yalta Annual Meeting is streamed live at korrespondent.net and
yes-ukraine.org in English and Ukrainian on September 20th and 21st.
Live Webcasts will also be available on the websites of ICTV (ictv.ua), Channel 5 (5.ua), «Kommersant» newspaper (kommersant.ua), as well as the online edition of "Ukrainska Pravda» (pravda.com.ua).
The official Twitter of the 10th Yalta Annual Meeting: @yes_ukraine, hashtag: #yalta2013
Special Partners of the 10th Yalta Annual Meeting include:
DTEK
ALFA-BANK (UKRAINE)
Partners of the 10th Yalta Annual Meeting are:
Shell
Smart-Holding
DCH
Visa Inc.
International Renaissance Foundation
State Agency for Investment and National projects of Ukraine
Media-partners:
Euronews
Korrespondent
Korrespondent.net
ICTV
ERA FM
Yalta European Strategy (YES) is the largest social institution of public diplomacy in Eastern Europe, providing an open and equal dialogue on global issues affecting the European Union, Ukraine, Russia and other countries. This non-partisan organisation was established in 2004 by the Ukrainian businessman and public figure Victor Pinchuk.
The YES Annual Meetings held in Yalta’s Livadia Palace have become an open platform to discuss and look for new ideas and views on paths to European, Ukrainian and global development. Every year these meetings bring together over 200 politicians, diplomats, statesmen, journalists, analysts and business leaders from more than 20 countries. The dialogue on global challenges broadens the vision on the situation inside Ukraine and the prospects for the country’s development in the modern world. It is also an incentive to find common ground between countries, common interests and values.
At the YES Annual Meetings the world's top opinion leaders present their visions of current and future trends which impact all spheres of life of society. In 2010, 2011 and 2012 the events were opened by Presidents Viktor Yanukovych, Bronislaw Komorowski, Shimon Peres and Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. YES Annual Meetings key speakers have included Mykola Azarov, Kofi Annan, Egemen Bagis, Carl Bildt, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Richard Branson, James Wolfensohn, Newt Gingrich, Herman Gref, Arkadiy Dvorkovich, Robert Zoellick, Bill Clinton, Paul Krugman, Alexei Kudrin, Leonid Kuchma, Yuri Milner, Condoleezza Rice, Lawrence Summers, Radoslaw Sikorski, Javier Solana, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Shashi Tharoor, Strobe Talbott, Niall Ferguson, Vladimir Filat, Joschka Fischer, Stefan Fule, Gerhard Schroeder, Muhammad Yunus and many others.
Official website: www.yes-ukraine.org
Victor Pinchuk Foundation is an international, private and non-partisan philanthropic foundation based in Ukraine. It was established in 2006 by businessman and public figure Victor Pinchuk. Its goal is to empower future generations to become the change-makers of tomorrow. To achieve this, projects are developed and partnerships are built in Ukraine and worldwide.
in people, to boost human capital;
in society, to promote social responsibility;
in the world, to foster a more integrated world.
The projects of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation include, among others: the network of neonatal centers Cradles of Hope, the largest private scholarship programme in Ukraine, Zavtra.UA, the WorldWideStudies scholarship programme for Ukrainian students studying abroad, the centre for contemporary art PinchukArtCentre with its biannual prizes Future Generation Art Prize and PinchukArtCentre Prize. The foundation also hosts the Davos Philanthropic Roundtable and Davos Ukrainian Lunch organized each year at the occasion of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum and supports the international network YES (Yalta European Strategy) to foster Ukraine’s European and global integration, as well as a startup online platform for fostering philanthropy in Ukraine, the Philanthropic Marketplace. The Foundation is a member of the European Foundation Centre and the Ukrainian Grantmakers Forum. It cooperates with the Clinton Global Initiative, the Brookings Institution, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Peres Center for Peace, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, and other nongovernmental organizations.
Official website: pinchukfund.org
Contact information for Media enquiries:
Tel.: +380 44 494 11 48
