Goldman, Citigroup, Bridgewater Leaders Imagine Markets in 2052

Nir Bar Dea, Co-CEO, Bridgewater Associates LP

Humanity’s most difficult problems have always been solved by collaboration: people sharing information, building on each other’s progress, debating different viewpoints, and working together to shape solutions that are greater than what any individual could accomplish alone.

We’re living in an increasingly polarized world characterized by conflict between and within nations, with trust in the institutions and systems that fostered collaboration for decades sharply degrading.

The most important innovations of the next few decades will be the evolution of a suite of technologies to successfully support an “open collaboration” approach. By “open collaboration” I mean the dynamic where the best thinking is made transparent to people all over the world, so that others can digest it, learn from it, improve on it, and—ultimately, if truth and merit win out—trust it.

Today’s best collaboration technologies are often used to produce the opposite outcomes, which is precisely why their evolution to enable open collaboration rather than polarization is critical. These technologies can enable us to make the most of our collective knowledge and resources in the face of shared problems and have the potential to meaningfully shape not only financial markets, but everything about how we interact, how we work, and how we innovate.

They can serve as a way around the many walls that divide us, allowing people to transcend geographic and ideological boundaries, circumvent mistrusted institutions, and create connection with people outside of our narrowly defined, exclusive circles.

(Image: Courtesy of Bridgewater)