Human population growth is our principal 21st century challenge. Our consumption, our pollution, climate change, work opportunities, all are predicated on the demographic trending that we can see happening near-term as well as into the remainder of the century.

Automation has always redefined the workplace. Jobs have disappeared throughout the Industrial Revolution. What has to change in the 21st century is the way we educate young people to meet the job opportunities that will remain available to them in light of increasing automation. This means developing training, financial instruments and social programs that ensure generations of youth are not left without hope for a sustainable future. The youth challenge is particularly felt in the Developing World but we can see it here in North America as well.

For closed societies like Japan with a population about to plummet because it is so heavily skewed to the elderly, automation will dominate with robots becoming the care givers, that is, unless Japan alters its immigration policies to allow non-Japanese on mass into the country.