Preface

"You would make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense."

—Napoleon Bonaparte, 1803

"There must be portions of the human frame that will ever remain sacred from [the knife's] intrusion – at least, in the surgeon's hand. That we question."

—Sir John Eric Erichsen (president of The Royal College of Surgeons of England), 1873

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

—Thomas Watson (Chairman and CEO of IBM), 1943

Traveling through history, humanity has carried with it innumerable misconceptions. We have at times been stuck in intellectual dead ends for thousands of years. The most respected experts have been wrong in their own fields time and again. Why would this situation be different today, in a world that is transforming faster than ever before?

I side with those who believe the digital age has just begun, and that in our thinking about technology, the world is still flat.

We are moving towards fundamental tipping points. Artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, biotechnology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics are converging in many different ways. A small step forward in one field might lead to a breakthrough in another. Things could suddenly move very, very fast.

Our traditional ways of thinking are not suited to today's new universe that we are about to enter. Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and others knew that the old ways of thinking would not suffice. Ahead of their time, they introduced radical ideas that led to quantum leaps in our knowledge of the world, in our imaginations, and in the possibilities for the future. The world's population has almost quadrupled in the last hundred years, while the number of students going to university has increased more than four hundredfold. Does it not make sense that soon we will have more geniuses like Einstein? More polymaths like Galileo, who will come up with ideas that will turn our understanding of our world upside down with one brilliant idea? More Newtons who will take us to crucial tipping points, not only in terms of science and technology, but in our values and how our societies work—in our entire way of life?

Will this progress help to solve the most critical questions of our time? Will it enable us to build bridges that will close gaps between rich and poor, black and white, men and women, young and old, or will it make society worse? Are we headed towards a utopian or a dystopian future?

Many of the questions and challenges we face know no borders as the world moves forward at a faster pace than ever before. Will we be able to reach a global agreement on ethical and moral standards? Or will a few countries and small elites control the entire world and all its resources?

One of humanity's greatest strengths is its imagination. Still, we cannot envision many things. We would love to answer all the questions right away, but we do not know how. In a radically changing world, the answers are not as simple as yes or no, true or false, black or white; there are countless shades of grey. These questions are usually not about what we know but what we believe.

For years, I have wanted to write a book that addressed these types of thoughts and questions. Until now, I did not have time to take on this passion project. I was busy 24/7 running a digital-marketing agency that I founded with my eldest brother. We sold the business in 2017, and I left the company at the end of 2018, closing that chapter of my life. I took a one-year sabbatical to travel the world with my wife and our two children. I also wanted to think about the future and what I wanted to do with my new life.

I visited creative hotspots and benefitted from fascinating conversations with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and other inspiring people. All of this helped me to hone the idea of this book. In what you are about to read, you will see plenty of references to places my family and I visited and people we met during our journey.

We returned home in February 2020, just before Covid-19 began to change the world significantly. This extraordinary stroke of fate influenced some of what I had been thinking about, and added new ideas to my initial concept for this book.

The Covid-19 crisis showed that what used to be unimaginable could become routine within just a couple of days. This led to questions like: What type of changes might be possible if something even more momentous than the Covid-19 pandemic occurred? How long would it take for humanity to learn its lessons? Will this ever happen?

In human history, wars and crises have often led to fantastic inventions that turned tragic events into the beginnings of better, more prosperous times. With the possibilities inherent in today's technology, the widespread level of education, and all the knowledge we have accumulated on a global scale, future challenges could provide the necessary conditions for an unprecedented explosion of innovation. Crises to come could be the starting point for a new era that transforms society and the world in ways we haven't yet imagined.

This book is not intended as a scientific, fact-based prediction about our future. Instead of writing another specialist book about technology, transhumanism, or posthumanism, I wanted to combine some challenging facts, developments, and ideas from today's world with utopian, dystopian, and science fictional elements to create a fascinating and thought-provoking story. Catch-42 is a wake-up call to think the unthinkable, make the impossible possible, and create a future worth living in for all. Most of the technologies and tools we need to achieve this ambitious goal are already within our grasp. We just need to use them properly.

I want to encourage as many people as possible to think—from radical new perspectives—how humanity, technology, the economy, and our society might develop in the future. Even better, I want people to think about how they want our world to change, and how each of us can contribute our tiny piece to the larger picture—keeping in mind, of course, that all we really know is how little we know.

Thank you for the trust you have shown in purchasing this book, and even more for the time you will invest in reading it.

Felix Holzapfel
March 2021