Recently, the Cabinet sent the 3rd update of the Dutch Digitalization Strategy to the House of Representatives. The update includes a look ahead to the digital future: Toekomstverkenning Digitalisering 2030 . This publication outlines a number of important digitization trends and images of the future.
The future exploration helps politicians, government, companies, (knowledge) institutions and citizens to discuss the question: what do we want technology/digitization to do for our society? In addition, the exploration describes a number of relevant technological trends. These include digital currencies, virtual worlds and vulnerability to cyber attacks.
Based on the trends described, the researchers formulate 4 different images of the digital future. These images focus on two questions: which actors are leading the digital transition and what purpose does the process of digitization serve. According to the researchers, this long-term perspective helps to make choices that will shape and direct the digital future. "If this does not happen, we risk passively undergoing the digital transition, choices will be made for us, we will run economic and strategic risks, and there is a good chance that we will soon be living in a world full of technology that clashes with our values and norms."
