You cannot hide from it, when you check the news, watch some video on YouTube or even on other social media platforms such as TikTok or Instagram, emerging technologies are talked about everywhere, every day. Technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Metaverse, blockchain and cryptocurrency are going to change the world, but the real question to me is, will it be for the better? Just because we can develop something which from a scientific perspective is amazing, does that mean we should from a societal perspective?
First of all, there is no denying that these technologies indeed have the potential to better the world as well as make our lives more enjoyable. That is not the point of this blog. The point is that these innovations are deemed as a panacea for today’s problem, overlooking negative aspects and (better) alternatives.
Starting with the most prominent (and promising) of all, Artificial Intelligence. In 2024, 252.3 billion USD was invested in AI by corporations around the globe (Kariuki, 2025). Often with the promise to solve every problem we cannot solve now. In comparison, eliminating extreme poverty worldwide by 2030 would need around 70–325 billion USD each year (Summer & Yusuf, 2024). As stated by Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, “AI is not the universal problem solver and having a clearer idea of what AI is, and isn’t, will be critical to move beyond solutionism” (Wanger, 2023). Solutionism refers to the mindset that assumes having sufficient data allows machine learning algorithms to be the panacea to any challenge humans face (Wanger, 2023). Consequently, these massive AI investments may fall short of addressing grand challenges like extreme poverty or climate change.
What about the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchains? The promise of these technologies is to democratize the authority to regulate money held by central banks and other financial institutions (Siripurapu, 2024). The market attracts significant investment with a total value of more than 1 trillion USD (Siripurapu, 2024). Nevertheless, according to a recent ECB publication, the promise is underdelivering (Panetta, 2023). In addition, there are the environmental costs. A couple of facts about Bitcoin mining, from a United Nations study by Chamanara, Ghaffarizadeh and Madani (2023):
- between 2020-2021, if considered a country, Bitcoin’s energy use would rank 27th worldwide, surpassing a country such as Pakistan;
- offsetting this footprint would require planting 3.9 billion trees, covering an area similar to the Netherlands, Switzerland or Denmark, or about 7% of the Amazon rainforest;
- in the same period, almost 70% of the electricity used for mining came from fossil fuels.
Finally, there is the Metaverse. According to Momtaz (2022), the Metaverse could help create a more sustainable and equitable society by reducing the depletion of physical natural resources and by mitigating social biases in offline human interactions through mask effects (Momtaz, 2022). While intriguing, they do appear relatively naïve and escapist to me. Instead of facing and solving our problems in the real world, we try to tackle them in a digital world without addressing the underlying causes.
So what is the alternative? There is no denying that innovation will play an important role in continuing economic growth and solving problems. However, the fact is that the technologies needed to solve humanity’s biggest challenges are already here (Voola, 2023). They do not have to be invented. We keep thinking of innovations as ‘the’ solution to all of humanity’s problems, everything that can be possible if we just figure out this technology. In my opinion, this is the wrong mindset. We should focus on what is necessary, not skipping directly to shiny innovations, but tackling the problems in front of us right now. As Adade (2018) states, the main barriers to progress are not technological but mainly cultural and political. Therefore, the real challenge is not to come up with more tools, but to find better ways to collaborate using the tools we already have.
What do you think, are we chasing futuristic promises at the expense of solving today’s problems?
References
Adade, M. (2018, March 14). The secret to solving global issues? Fewer secrets, more collaboration. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/03/the-secret-to-solving-global-issues-fewer-secrets-more-collaboration/
Chamanara, S., Ghaffarizadeh, S. A., & Madani, K. (2023). The environmental footprint of Bitcoin mining across the globe: Call for urgent action. Earth’s Future, 11, e2023EF003871. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003871
Kariuki, N. (2025). Chapter 4: Economy. In AI Index Report 2025. Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. https://hai.stanford.edu/assets/files/hai_ai-index-report-2025_chapter4_final.pdf
Momtaz, P. P. (2022). Some very simple economics of Web3 and the metaverse. FinTech, 1(3), 225–234. https://doi.org/10.3390/fintech1030018
Panetta, F. (2023, June 23). Paradise lost? How crypto failed to deliver on its promises and what to do about it. European Central Bank. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2023/html/ecb.sp230623_1~80751450e6.en.html
Siripurapu, A. (2024, January 17). The Crypto question: Bitcoin, digital dollars, and the future of money. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/crypto-question-bitcoin-digital-dollars-and-future-money
Summer, A. & Yusuf, A. A. (2024). New estimates of the cost of ending poverty. UNU-WIDER. https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/new-estimates-cost-ending-poverty
Voola, R. (2023, June 27). Can marketing be a force for good in the world? Sydney Business Insights (SBI). https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/can-marketing-be-a-force-for-good-in-the-world/
Wanger, J. (2023, October 23). We need to move beyond the idea that AI is the solution to everything, expert says. World Economic Form. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/10/move-beyond-idea-that-ai-is-the-solution-to-everything/
