Paris Talks 2023 Theme: What We Don’t Know Yet
I and a billion others,
Are excited to know
What the enticing future holds for us,
Because all we can think about right now is the future,
The future, the future…
One thing I really hope for,
Is that when the future arrives,
I’ll still be here.
Aged maybe,
And if not, some of my descendants shall be.
Because I need my questions answered
For what I don’t know yet.
See, the future I talk about,
Is not tomorrow,
Or it could be tomorrow,
But tomorrow is not the tomorrow I am talking about.
Are you following?…
That tomorrow I speak so highly of is fifty years and more from now.
That tomorrow when the kids,
These kids that are in kindergarten,
Will have known what it is like to pay the bills,
Pay taxes (not that I have anything against taxes- but is it really necessary).
That tomorrow that will provide answers
For what I am yet to know.
I pray for the tomorrow of science,
When Covid 19 will just be but another virus.
When its claws will finally be clipped.
When it shall just be history
Because I long to see a world that is free of that menace. Don’t you?
And then science will have done it again.
But we in the present
All we can do is hope
That science will make it possible.
The possibilities of that happening,
We don’t know yet.
I pray for the tomorrow when technology
Will yet surprise us with superior operating systems
Because today I can bet you
That this is the future that Charles Babbage dreamt of.
I am sure he dreamt of this technology we have now.
And if I am wrong I can shut up, but not before saying that,
If he were around to see the technology we have
He’d be blown away.
He would look at the technology and marvel at the brilliance it spews
And that is the same tomorrow we hope for and more.
But are these just hopes?
Is it possible for technology to advance a hundred times of what it is now?
Do you think it’s a possibility?
We don’t know yet
I pray for the tomorrow when humanity
Will help us appreciate the future we hoped for.
I hope humanity will be strong against science and technology.
I hope the average human being will appreciate them but resist the urge to be controlled by them.
I hope that our values then will have spiked a notch higher
And maintain the human side of the future generation.
I hope there will be less killings.
I hope there will be a society that will come together as one
Not a society that hides behind their screens
And give more power to their keyboards.
And I hope, for all its worth,
I hope meaningful conversation will be appreciated.
I know I am not the only one hoping.
And I ask you
Is it possible?
We don’t know yet
I pray that tomorrow
Trees will be revived,
Oh my bad, do you know what they are?
You may not even understand their use now
Because I am sure we left nothing of that behind
Google “trees” and follow the procedure for planting them.
Don’t expect them to sprout immediately.
You gotta be patient with them.
Please revive the beach,
I know you have pools at your houses.
But for the sake of marines,
For the sake of the aquatic animals
Please revive them
If that is even possible.
We don’t know yet.
I pray for the tomorrow of education.
Academics that will be skill-based
Not exam-based.
For an education system where instructors
Don’t need to force parents to help them raise an all-rounded child.
An academic system that will put more emphasis
On all cognitive aspects of a learner.
An academic system that produces artists, innovators, problem-solvers
Instead of problem causers.
Do you think it is possible?
We don’t know yet
……..
This poem is a way for the Paris Talks curation team chose to introduce the Paris Talks 2023 ideas festival theme.