Nicholas Haan VP of Impact & Faculty Chair of Global Grand Challenges at Singularity University interview with Matt Bird at Humanity 2.0 (Vatican City)

HIGHLIGHTS

• How can we use AI to solve the world’s biggest problems?
• Renewable energy will be key to helping solve climate change 
• There is an appetite for revolutionary change in our food system

FULL COVERAGE

• Watch complete coverage of the Humanity 2.0 Forum

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: Nicholas Haan, VP of Impact & Chair of Global Grand Challenges at Singularity University with Matt Bird

Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 00:00    

Welcome back to the Traders Network Show and our coverage of the 2019 Humanity 2.0 event broadcasting worldwide from the Vatican. I’m Matt Bird for Equities.com and our affiliate partners. And my next guest is Nicholas Hahn. Nicolas, welcome to the show. Thank you for taking the time. Now, you are the vice president of impact and facilities chair of global grand challenges for Singularity University. Is that correct? That’s a mouthful. But that means it’s your report. Uh, so listen, we’re both here. We’re both in the Vatican. We both crossed the ocean to get here for this, this Epic event that’s happening. I saw Matthew Sanders opening statements and open comments. Uh, you’ve been inside a little longer than I have been, been here like, you know, covering and do some interviews. Can you give our audience a little bit of a kind of a up to date kind of feedback on what’s been happening inside so that we got the kind of insight from where you stand?

Nicholas Haan – VP of Impact & Facilities Chair of Global Grand Challenges, Singularity University: 00:53            

Well, what we heard about was the importance of maternal child health care. And how all of us, seven some odd billion humans around the world have this shared experience in nine months of the wound. And how that is the nurturing launch pad for all of us and why that’s a priority for Humanity 2.0 and we heard from thought leaders and we heard from practitioners talking about real world solutions to make that experience in maternal child health care more healthy and nourishing for all of us. 

Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 01:23

That’s amazing. You know, um, now you’ve got some social impact initiatives that your own that tie into what’s happening here. It’s all symbiotic. Tell us a little bit about that. 

Nicholas Haan – VP of Impact & Facilities Chair of Global Grand Challenges, Singularity University: 01:47            

One of them is in my capacity at singularity university, um, I work with technology thought leaders who talk about the future of technology with this exponential growth curve. Meaning it grows really fast. It accelerates year in year out, whether it be artificial intelligence or digital biology or robotics, et. and how that can be used to solve the world’s biggest challenges through different innovation mindsets and create a world of abundance. So it ties into here because to solve maternal child health care, we’re going to need to leverage new technologies like artificial intelligence and sensors and to get the cost of hardware down to the point where it can be accessible anywhere in the world. 

Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 02:17

You know, uh, I, I think you really nailed the innovation side of it. There’s always been that debate of what happens when we overpopulate or overuse and we have current limitations or infrastructure or criminal invitations to our ability to renew. The reality of it is, as you know, necessity breeds invention. And as we get to the point and that we are at the point now where technology is innovating faster than it’s ever been before and that abundance, the statement of abundance is, is really tangible today. It’s a difference between like dial up and ISD and then converting, you know, data to packets and moving video faster. And I mean, it’s like there’s many, many layers and layers to it. I met some very simplistic, simplistic analogy.  Where do you, where do you see the next layer of abundance, innovation, and the sustainable world or the impact space?

Nicholas Haan – VP of Impact & Facilities Chair of Global Grand Challenges, Singularity University: 02:44            

For me, one of the biggest challenges, and it does tie into maternal child health care as well in terms of the environmental conditions that make that experience a nourishing is climate change. It’s a massive challenge that we are, we have a shared problem here on planet earth on breakthroughs and the, a couple of breakthroughs in the technology side, which is going to help address climate change is renewable energy. The price performance of solar energy is dropping rapidly and its exponential downward point to where it’s disrupting fossil fuel energy and we need to get off fossil fuels very quickly. So technology is helping in that regard. Technology is helping with our food systems. Um, just last week a company that offers protein-based meat products called beyond meat. I, I’ve went public IPO. Just a few years ago, if you’d said that a vegetable beef product would be successful in the United States, you’d think I was crazy. Well wouldn’t you know it beyond meat. It’s serving the impossible burger in burger Kings throughout the entire United States and their IPO. Last, last week I had the most successful IPO financially since the year 2000. So there’s an appetite for revolutionary change in our food system.

Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 03:45    

Well we, we are equities, we are the equities network and we cover emerging growth. And I tell you as, as I saw that coming off the wall street journal and any of the front page of myself, where was I on this idea? I did just do a double take on this one but it’s pretty phenomenal and I love, that’s a great analogy. Listen. Um, as we wrap this up, cause we got to cut to commercial break in a minute. What, where do you see the future tie in between singularity university and what you’re doing and the initiatives here?

Nicholas Haan – VP of Impact & Facilities Chair of Global Grand Challenges, Singularity University: 04:42            

Cause they haven’t got a lot, a lot of initiatives that they want to tackle. They got the right people in the room to do it. You’re a good company with Google and Cisco. We, I think the president of Malta is, is coming through if she hasn’t already arrived. Um, where do you see the future of this all going? So humanity is at a massive transition point right now. We’ve never experienced anything like this where so many of our social systems and resource systems are going through radical change right now, largely driven by exponential technologies, but also globalization in the light. But we have to offer is to help change the mindset of leaders into this exponential curve so that they don’t miss the next IPO and that they’re actually creating it. And with this mindset of abundance, it’s a very different way of thinking. You and I grew up in a world of scarcity mindset. And actually, energy is abundant. Water is abundant, creativity is abundant. And we need to change our mindsets and think about creating an abundant world, not a scarcity.

Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 05:26    

You know what? And it’s going to take innovation to do that in growth, in technology. And I think we’re going to get there. Well listen, Nick, thanks for joining us in the show. The executive director at a senior sorry, faculty chair. Listen, we’ll be right back after this commercial break. Uh, we’ve got some more great guests coming along.