While the World is Getting Better, There are Still a Lot of Big Problems

The following is adapted from Super-Entrepreneurship Decoded by Fabrice Testa.

For the past 14 years, we’ve been in what’s referred to as the age of exponential acceleration. Our technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), 3D printing, genomics, blockchain, robotics, energy, and more, are developing and advancing at unprecedented rates.

This rapid technological progress follows Moore’s Law, an observation of historical data that came about when Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel and a pioneer of the modern semiconductor industry, observed that the number of transistors in a microcircuit doubled every two years. Now, Moore’s Law has been extended to explain how technology is doubling in capability and performance at defined intervals.

In many respects, all this rapidly advancing technology is making our world better. We are able to do things that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

With each passing day, bold and innovative entrepreneurs — whom I refer to as “super-entrepreneurs” or “superpreneurs” — are finding new, radical, seemingly crazy solutions to complex problems. And they must, because humanity’s problems are accelerating as quickly as our technology, and those problems are posing more and more challenges of extraordinary complexity.

Our Environment is Under Pressure

Some of the most complex and pressing challenges facing us today center around the environment. Before this century is over, we will have exhausted virtually all of our mineral reserves. And that’s not all, or even the biggest, problem: our climate is in crisis, natural disasters are getting worse every year, and right now, one billion people across the planet have no access to clean water.

On top of that, and certainly adding to the pressure our environment is under, is the fact that our world is still highly dependent on fossil fuels. Only slightly more than a quarter of the world’s total electricity is generated from renewable energy sources.

Over the past decade, we have seen super-entrepreneurs harness radical new technologies to solve these problems. And they have made incredible breakthroughs — far too many to list here — in the fields of renewable energy and clean technology. They have also significantly advanced our ability to capture and sequester (or repurpose) carbon dioxide.

But, even with all the innovations we’ve seen over the last 10 years, we still are only scratching the surface of what must be done. Given the intensity and scale of the problems facing us, we need many more radical and massive solutions — and bold, radical entrepreneurs are the ones who will find them.

Education and Literacy Remain Major Challenges

The environment isn’t the only problem we’re facing today. Education and literacy remain major challenges in many poor countries. According to UNESCO, while the global literacy rate is high, in many poorer countries, less than half of the population can read or write. And, without new solutions, that won’t change.

That’s not the only challenge facing education. With the world evolving at such a rapid pace, educational programs often can’t keep up. And that means that many children aren’t receiving the information and teaching they need to succeed in today’s exponentially accelerating world.

In many instances, this can be mitigated by giving students access to more cutting-edge technology, such as tablets and computers that enable them to access the internet. However, a lack of funds hinders many schools from employing such solutions.

However, in this age of exponential acceleration, this is a problem that can be solved. Thanks to newly available, less expensive technologies, disruptive solutions, like creating very cheap tablets on a large scale, allow children and other learners access to the internet. At the same time, these innovations help students get comfortable with using technology, making them more competitive in today’s job environment.

Health Challenges Abound

The COVID-19 crisis highlighted another huge problem facing the world. As we saw with the pandemic, health systems are desperately in need of cures for life-threatening diseases. The World Health Organization reports that diabetes, cancer, and heart disease are collectively responsible for over 70 percent of all deaths worldwide. The “corona crisis” has also made it clear that our supply chains are not as resilient as they should be.

But even here, the technology we have is allowing us to find solutions. In the past, developing a vaccine could take 10 years or more. With COVID-19, that changed: because of the progress of artificial intelligence and other technologies like computing power, a vaccine was developed in a fraction of that time.

This is the kind of bold, disruptive solution we need to solve the health challenges facing people around the world. And yet, as necessary as it is, it takes a super-entrepreneur to come up with this kind of bold, crazy solution and then bring it to fruition.

To cure cancer or eliminate diabetes, the world needs people who are willing to look at ways to combine existing technologies in novel ways, or to embrace and create new technologies. But finally, and maybe for the first time ever, that’s exactly what super-entrepreneurs can do, because of the benefits afforded by the age of exponential acceleration.

Tapping Into the Age of Abundance

I believe that it’s imperative that all of us, but especially entrepreneurs, start thinking about future generations. We must build the world and the future we love, and we must do it now.

Luckily, the age of exponential acceleration is also an age of abundance. With technological advances, the marginal cost to produce additional units of a good or service is declining. This in turn allows businesses to reduce the price of their goods and services.

Look at Netflix, for example. For a small monthly fee, you have access to a multitude of programs. Or, take Elon Musk’s idea of the Hyperloop, which is a high-speed train running at more than 600 miles per hour. When it launches, it will allow commuters to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 35 minutes, and the fare will only be around $20.

The same holds true for all the big, radical solutions to the world’s problems. Not only has the age of exponential acceleration given us the technology to come up with those solutions, it has also made those solutions affordable. So, if you’re an entrepreneur, think about what problem you want to solve. Sure, you can build the next big social app, but why not instead spend your time coming up with disruptive solutions to some of these big problems?

We have seen that it’s possible. We have seen that there’s a need. And, most importantly, we know that the resources — the funding, the technology, the people — are out there. Now, all that remains is to take action.

For more advice on how to utilize the age of exponential acceleration and bring your radical, disruptive idea to life, read Fabrice Testa’s book Super-Entrepreneurship Decoded, #1 Amazon Best Seller.

Fabrice Testa is an exponential thinker, innovator, serial tech entrepreneur, business angel investor, trusted advisor, public speaker, bestselling author, and highly sought-after mentor. He has successfully founded, co-founded, or participated in the launch of multiple companies that created hundreds of jobs and generated multimillions in revenue. He is the creator of the Superpreneur Blueprint framework and has developed a set of cutting-edge strategies and tactics that enable super-entrepreneurs to materialize crazy ideas, build breakthrough ventures, and solve the world’s biggest problems. After helping more than 100 companies excel in their fields, Testa is making this proven methodology publicly available in Super-Entrepreneurship Decoded to help super-entrepreneurs everywhere transform our lives — and the planet.