Jamie Metzl

As we all know, the pandemic has very significantly shifted our lives from the physical to virtual worlds. The recent announcement by the company formerly known as Facebook that they will be building a new metaverse is just one additional, if significant, step in this process. Read More >

In Jamie Metzl’s 2008 article, he wrote that:

• “Fantasy filled virtual worlds will, like the imaginary world of boar case Scholars, become, for all intents and purposes, real.”
• “When technological developments already in the works transform the virtual worlds of today into more sophisticated and inviting spaces far more capable of capturing the range of complexity and expression in human communication, virtual worlds will, by 2033, have overtaken the two-dimensional internet as the predominant system of non-face-to-face human interaction.”
• “Virtual Worlds will become less a playground of fantasy and more the primary environment in which humans interact under their own identities when not doing so in person.”
• “As these virtual communities become more intimate, the trust requirements for participation in them will in time become even higher.”
• “Within these virtual walls will be found all of the advantages that a community of trust affords – goods will flow freely, people will interact in meaningful ways, and relationships will flourish. Outside, barriers will multiply, navigation will be difficult, and relationships will be momentary and fleeting. To get in, users will need to sacrifice enough anonymity to ensure meaningful accountability and submit to a set of rules that will govern interaction among those inside the walls. They will have to agree about how rules are to be set, who decides if they should be changed, how disputes are resolved, and how common goods should be distributed. In short, they will need to either develop and perform the functions of government, or submit to the rules created by corporations or other entities that can address these needs.”
• “Like developers of gated communities who use walls and guards to establish safe havens in a world fraught with risk, companies that create virtual communities will establish standards for disclosure, transparency, dispute resolution, ethical behavior, and commerce that those who choose to join will be required to accept.”
• “Although It is possible that states could develop and international law of virtual worlds, it is far more likely the government structures will primarily develop from the ground up in response to the real and growing needs of participants in a wide array of virtual worlds, especially if this desire for protection and security is greater or different than a community of discordant real-world states is able to provide.”
• “Geography and governance have been partners for most of human history. Yet as our non-face-to-face lives become increasingly virtual over the next quarter-century, the new societal landscape for virtual space will be shaped and defined less by physical geography, and more by spontaneous, community-driven rules and institutions, realized in virtual worlds.”

Our challenge is that our legacy systems which have evolved over centuries are increasingly not up to the task. We face a fundamental mismatch between the collective, global nature of our greatest challenges and our inability to sufficiently address this entire category of problems.

As we take our very first steps toward living increasingly more our lives in virtual worlds, it would make a great deal of sense to begin a meaningful conversation about governance. If we want to build a virtual world where we can better balancing our individual and collective interests and ensure that our rights are better protected, now is the perfect time to start.
It’s 1776.

Who wants to join me for a Constitutional Congress of the metaverse? Read Less ^

Jamie Metzl has been called “the original COVID-19 whistleblower” for his pioneering work probing the origins of the pandemic, which has been covered by 60 Minutes and in most every major newspaper across the globe. Understanding how the pandemic began has massive implications for preventing the next one, but efforts to just that have been hampered at every turn. In this pioneering talk, Jamie opens up about the epic and ongoing struggle for a full investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and what it will take to build a safer future for all.

The miraculous synthetic mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are just small, early examples of how the genetics and bioengineering revolutions will transform our world. Faster than most people understand or appreciate, our growing, superhuman capabilities to restructure the building blocks of life will fundamentally alter the way we prevent and treat disease, make babies, generate energy, grow food, store data, and create materials. But while this process had already begun before COVID-19, the pandemic has catapulted the biology revolution to a new phase just like World War II supercharged electronics and space travel generations ago. And just like the information technology revolution started small then “ate the world,” the biology revolution is about to change much of everything – and we are not ready. Visionary futurist Jamie Metzl describes how the biology revolution will play out over the coming years and decades and what we can all do on a personal, professional, and global level to prepare and thrive.

The COVID-19 pandemic will fundamentally transform every aspect our lives on the personal, professional, national, and global levels. The crisis has made processes that might otherwise have unfolded over decades arrive all at once. Our future has come crashing into our present. As much as many of us are hoping our previous world will snap back after this crisis abates, that will not be the case. But while it is appropriate to mourn what we have lost and the tragedy of this moment, the foundations for our new lives, companies, and world are today being laid. Those of us who don’t quickly come to terms with this massive shift will spend the rest of our lives waiting for the old world to snap back, mourning what’s been lost, and wandering around reminding people that coffee used to cost a nickel. Going into survival mode to get through this crisis, most people are focusing on their immediate needs, even if they recognize that something bigger is happening around us. In normal times, we can thrive racing forward on the various tracks we are on. But in revolutionary times like these, having a broad understanding of where we are, how we got here, and how we can get to a better place is the most important navigational tool any of us can have, the foundation of our ability to adapt, pivot, and ultimately thrive. Visionary futurist WHO expert adviser, and bestselling author Jamie Metzl places our current crisis in its most essential context and helps communities understand how the world we’ve known is dying faster than we’d thought and imagine our new world emerging faster than we’d imagined.

The COVID-19 pandemic is permanently transforming the healthcare industry. Trends that might otherwise have emerged over years and decades are now arriving in weeks and months. The future is crashing into the present. The shift to telemedicine we are seeing now, for example, will not go away once the pandemic recedes. AI will also play a more central role in every aspect of care from the interpretation of at home diagnostics to guiding complex interventions, the use of the precision medicine tools of genome sequencing, big data analytics, and targeted gene therapies to treat cancer and other diseases are paving the way for a system of predictive healthcare where prevention becomes as or more valuable than treatment. These revolutions are fundamentally transforming our healthcare system, but health professionals, the business community, and society at large are not ready. In this provocative and mind-expanding talk, Jamie Metzl explains the trends and technologies transforming healthcare, explores where things are headed and what is at stake, and lays out key principles for how health industry professionals and the business community can prepare for a revolution that is coming  far faster than most people recognize. At its best, technology can help us become more human healthcare providers – but only if we start building that future now.

Most everybody knows we should exercise, eat well, build meaningful communities, and reduce stress to live healthy longer. But the revolutionary new science of human life extension is creating enticing new possibilities for using technology to extend our lives far beyond what nature intended. While the quest for immortality has been the stuff of fairy tales, the new science of life extension will soon be pushing the limits of aging and unlocking human potential in ways our ancestors never could have imagined. Technology futurist Jamie Metzl explores the latest breakthroughs in the science of human life extension that promise to gain us more of life‘s most precious commodity: time. Jamie explains what individuals, companies, and governments must do now to prepare for this revolutionary future that will fundamentally reorganize our societies and global economics.

The transition from today’s system of generalized medicine based on population averages to the new model of precision healthcare based on each person’s individual biology is already well underway. But the use of the precision medicine tools of genome sequencing, big data analytics, and targeted gene therapies to treat cancer and other diseases are paving the way for a system of predictive healthcare where parents will know and begin responding to their children’s future risk of developing hereditary disorders like early onset Alzheimer’s and coronary heart disease starting before their children have even been born. In addition to predicting these types of health outcomes, genetic analysis will also enable us to predict and ultimately influence the genetic components of broader human traits like the IQ, athletic ability, and personality style of our future children. The overlapping genetics, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology revolutions will fundamentally transform our healthcare, but health professionals, the business community, and society at large are not at all ready. In this provocative and mind-expanding talk, Jamie Metzl explores where things are headed and what is at stake, and lays out key principles for how patients, doctors, health industry professionals, and the business community can prepare for a revolution that is coming far sooner than most people recognize.

Converging political, geopolitical, and technological revolutions are making now the greatest moment of global change at least since 1945 and possibly ever. With nationalism rising around the world, the post-war international order in rapid decline, China significantly expanding its global influence, and the AI, genetics, blockchain, and other revolutions shaking the foundations of the world we’ve known, the pressure is mounting for individuals, companies, and countries to either understand and quickly adapt to these converging super-trends or pay a massive competitive price. In this talk spanning the wide range of factors transforming our world at lightning speed, geopolitical expert and technology futurist Jamie Metzl paints a vivid picture of where we are heading and outlines key principles for how individuals, companies, and countries can best position themselves to ride the rising tidal wave of revolutionary change.

The overlapping genetics and AI revolutions are transforming our healthcare, the way we make babies, and how long we live. This revolution will be the greatest opportunity of our era, and also the greatest challenge – and it will have massive business implications that will increasingly define organizational success and failure in the 21st century. Read More >

Corporations have struggled for decades to build open and inclusive workplaces comfortable to people of all races, nationalities, genders, ages, and sexual orientations. In the fast-arriving genetic age, companies will need to figure out such issues as how to deal with predictive health information, whether to cover egg freezing, embryo selection, and embryonic gene editing for employees,  and how to help employees prepare for longer than expected lives. While this may seem like science fiction, this future is already here. The genetics revolution will alter our perception of workforce capabilities and potentials and challenge even the most forward-thinking of corporations. It will upend traditional notions of equity, diversity, and inclusion. It will change much of everything.

But are you ready? Read Less ^

After four billion years of evolution through the Darwinian principles of random mutation and natural selection, our species is about to take control of our evolution. The genetic revolution will allow us to eliminate genetic diseases which have plagued our ancestors for millennia, live longer healthier lives, and transform how we make babies and ultimately the nature of the babies we make. The genetics revolution will be the greatest opportunity of our era, and also the greatest challenge – and it will have massive business implications that will increasingly define organizational success and failure in the 21^st century.

In this exciting talk, Jamie Metzl explores the latest technological breakthroughs in the science of human life extension and their implications on the personal and societal levels. While the quest for immortality has been the stuff of fairy tales, the new science of life extension is very real and will soon be pushing the limits of aging and unlocking human potential. Jamie, a rare combination of science expert and science fiction writer, brings the science to life and explains what people can and should be doing now to prepare for this revolutionary future that will fundamentally reorganize modern societies and have monumental implications for businesses and other organizations.