Societal Challenges

Return to GC Chapters Societal Challenges List - See Institutions
Decisions must be made in context to the Societal Challenges and try to avoid unintended consequences. See Sustainable Development Goals

ENVIRONMENT

1. Climate Change

• SDG 13: Climate Action

2. Managing Natural Resources

• Air - pollution, emissions, air quality
• Water - rivers, oceans, waste, microplastics etc. SDG Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation - SDG 14: Life Below Water
• Land - forests, grazing, wildlife, agriculture - SDG 15: Life on Land
• Fossil Fuels - oil, coal, natural gas
• Rare earth

3. Agriculture - Food Production

• Immigration
• Regenerative Agriculture
• Factory Farming
• GMOs, Organic, use of fertilizers, pesticides, weed killers, antibiotics,

4. Materials

• Packaging
• Waste Disposal
• Recycling
• Plastics
• Building Materials - Steel, cement, etc.

5. Manufacturing & Production

• SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Manufacturing - SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
• Supporting Infrastructure
• Supply Chain

6. Buildings

• Windows, thermostats, heat pumps, green roofs
• Insulation, builing automation, LED lighting
• Infrastructure
• Homes, Offices, Retail space, Manufacturing, Warehouses, etc.

7. Transportation

• Public Transportation - SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Autos
• Air Transport - airports, etc.
• Infrastructure - Roads & Bridges
• Trucking & transportation of goods and services
• Logistics and deliveries
• Autonomous vehicles, drones, etc.

8. Energy

• Renewables - SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy - Wind, Geothermal, Solar, Hydro
• Oil, Gas and Coal
• Production and Distribution - SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

JUSTICE, SAFETY & SECURITY

Humanity, Dignity, Privacy,
9. Systemic Racism

• Also called institutional or structural
• Reparations - slavery, Jim Crowe, Mass Incarceration

10. Mass Incarceration - Criminal Justice System (I)

• Jail Involved (20 million people)
• more people with criminal record than college degress - Tight Rope
• Convicted Felons getting work
• Recidivism
• Drug Possession
• Addiction

11. Equality (I)

• Equality under the law
• Freedoms & Liberties SDG 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions* Racial Discrimination
• Gender equality - SDG 5: Gender Equality
• Sexual Orientation

12. Safety Net --> Enablement Net (I)

• Food Stamps
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
• Worker's Compensation
• Unemployment
• Social Security disability benefits (SSDI)
• Medicaid & CHIP
• School Lunches
• Housing & Utilities support

13. Public Safety (I)

• Policing
• Law enforcement
• Fire
• Emergency Medical Services

14. Guns

15. Crisis Response (I) ,br>

• Economic Crisis
• Global Pandemic
• Natural Disasters

16. Consumer Protections (I)

• Products,
• Transportation
• Banking
• Home Loans
• Credit Cards
• Food production

17. Homeland Security (I)

• Homeland Security - SDG 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
• Cybersecurity
• Domestic Terrorism
• National Security - Military Threats

18. Retirement Security

• Retirement Income
• Social Security System (I)

DIGITAL

19. Digitalization

• Data privacy
• Digital monopolies
• Surveillance Capitalism & Surveillance Authoritarianism - shift from these use cases to societal challenges
• Online security
• Hacking
• Algorithmic bias

20. Data Resources - Data Infrastructure

• The new oil - most important resource to address societal challenges
• Accurate & Timely Data Feeds
• Data Rights - who owns it?
• Data Privacy vs Insight
• Research & Discovery & Insight
• Data Science Infrastrure
• Passive Data Collection (i.e., what we have today) vs. Active Data Collections to improve ML Models
• Data Creation - i.e., need to collect the 80% - social determination of health
• Need labeled data - we need to shift to AI first data strategy - what data do we need, then get it created
• Data Standardization - i.e., social determinants of health - collect data for

21. Digital Infrastructure

• Broadband
• 5G and latency

22. Digital Media

• Disinformation and sowing discord
• Social Media - how do we keep people safe and free? Section 230
• Streaming Media - news, music, games, movies
• ML Algorithms that drive attention, engagement, find things, sell things
• Hacking Algorithms - Facebook Feeds, Viral tweets, Google Search/SEO, Tic-Toc, You Tube
• Digital Fakes - Made Up News, Videos, Photos
• News - traditional, lack of local news
• Fact bubbles - Public company reporting, Facts and narratives (including predictions/forward guidance)
• Narrative bubles - news fits into a narrative

23. Digital Divide

• Access & Competencies
• Telehealth - lack technology and skills
• Education - lack of computer, broadband
• Ordering Food, Medicines & Consumer goods
• Cell service
• Broadband
• Satellite
• Cable
• Quality smart phone, digital subscriptions (NY Times, WaPo)

HEALTH

25. Public Health

• Global pandemic - including protecting front-line workers health and finance (i.e., paid sick leave)
• Research, vaccinations, education (alcohol, tobacco)
• Worker safety standards, school nutrition
• Track Disease outbreaks, pandemics
• Promote guidelines and legislation (Smoking bans, air quality, seat belts) based on science.
• Supply of water and sanitation, housing, protection from natural disasters, occupational safety, education, air quality, road safety, agriculture policies, food safety, racial justice, vaccination, infecteous disease control, licensing of medicines and devices, tobacco control
• All of Us - Potential AI model of human health

26. Substance Use

• Drug possession crimes vs drug treatments
• Addictions - Opioids
• Alchohol, Prescription medications

27. Mental Health

• Depression, Anxiety, Stress
• Suicide - Deaths of Despair (Suicide, Drug Overdose, Alcohol-related)
• Parity - Mental Health vs. Physical Health
• Adverse Childhood Events (ACE)

28. Individual Health

• Individual health - SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• Life Expectancy
• Manage chronic conditions - obesity,

29. Healthcare System

• Affordability - Cost
• Access to primary, specialist and hospital care and affordabile medicines, adequate number of trained healthcare professionals.
• Healthcare Insurance
• Coordinated
• Mental Health parity & treatments

30. Health Intervention Outcomes

• Preventitive medicine
• Treatment of disease throughout life course, pallitive and end-of-life care
• Health Outcomes
• Non-medical interventions - social determinants of health

31. Food

• Food insecurity - SDG 2: Zero Hunger
• Food deserts
• Nutrition

COMMUNITIES

32. Social Capital - Conceptual

• Social Capital (Alienated America)
  
• Churches
• Social Organizations

33. Community Resources - Physical & Conceptual

• Safety
• Parks
• Schools-
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Food
• Utilities - water, sewage treatment, electricity, phone, internet
• District Heating
• Essential Services - Food, Consumables, Hospitals, Doctors, Mental Health
• Infrastructure

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

34. Research

• Basic Science and Innovation - SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Climate Change
• Health - Cancer treatment discoveries
• Non-Randomized Real World Evidence (RWE) vs. Randonimzed Control Trials (RCT)

35. Human Knowledge

• Libraries
• Wikipedia
• Studies, Journals
• 2 million new journal articles published every year

INTELLIGENCE & AUTOMATION (I&A)

36. Digital Intelligence (Contexua) - feeds Automation & Cognitive Assistance

• AI or ML use cases
• Rules
• Data Science

37. Automation

• Intelligence Automation
• Autonomy - Autonomous Vehicles
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA), IPA
• Robots
• Citizen Developers

38. Cognitive Assistance - AI & Human Collaboration

• Use of One Billion ML Models
• Digital Twins and Digital Phenotypes
• Use of Algorithms, ML Models in decison making - loans, prison sentences, job applicants
• Transparency & Explainability
• Ethics
• Biases

39. Artificial Intelligence

• ML, DL, RL, AGI
• Narrow AI
• Citizen Developers

TRANSFORMATION

40. Disruptive Technologies

• Deployment
• Unintended Consequences
• Human disruption

41. Disruptive Change

• Social Change
• Aligning with Change
• Adapting to Change

42. Societal Transformation

INSTITUTIONS

43. Taxes

44. Political Polarization

• Us and Them
• Functional Legislature - lack of collaboration
• Populism & Cancel Culture
• Political Cartel
• Fact & Narrative Bubbles - mask wearing, fair elections, climate change
• Gerrymandering - create threats from extreme left or right of party
• Political Cartel - keeps moderates out, prevents collaboration from happening

45. Democracy - Self Governing

• Elections - fair
• Open Elections
• Representitive Government
• Mission and Goals - reflect the people

46. Institutional Trust

• Public trust
• Fraud, Waste and Abuse
• Political corruption
• Leadership - appointment based on meritocracy vs. Aristocracy

47. Institutional Effectiveness

• Efficient
• Effective

48. Family & Marriage

49. Religion

GLOBAL

50. Immigration

• Human Migration
• Citizenship
• Worker Visas
• DACA

51. Globalization

• Governments Stability vs Values (i.e., Middle East, China, others)
• Global Conflicts
• Election Tampering
• Domestic Supply Chain
• Cyberseurity

ECONOMIC CAPITALISM

52. Economic Growth

• Population Growth - fertility rate (often highest in poverty) and immigration (polarizing)
• Productivity - requires investment, innovation, good bets & bad bets
• GDP and Jobs, etc. - SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• US GDP by industry
• Competitiveness - monopolies
• Efficient
• Effectiveness

53. Economic Sustainability

• Depletion of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels, metals, and minerals
• Enough food, water and energy – that can support a human population
• Aging Population - Enough young to care for the old
• Workforce - farms, etc.
• Pandemic Disruptions

54. Entrepreneurship

• Small Business
• Business Start-ups
• Venture Capital

55. Competition

56. Investment

57. Labor

• Laborforce
• Skills match with jobs

58. Abusive Capitalism

• Rent-seeking
• Monopolies
• Fraud & leveraging insider information
• Crony capitalism - thrive based collusion between business class and political class rather than free enterprise
• Price gouging
• Insider trading

59. Shadow Economy

• Black Market represents Average of 32% of all nations economies - 8.3% in US GDP
• Illegal economy - illegal drugs, human trafficking, endangered species, human organs, antiquities, and stolen goods
• Unreported economy - to avoid taxes

MERITOCRACY

60. Merit - rewards based on talent, effort, virture & achievement

• Merit - Accomplishments - Enablement
• Brett Cavanaugh vs Sonia Sotomayor
• Talents and Virture
• Addressing the non-winners or those
• Choosing the best and brightest
• How do you define merit?

61. Priviledge

• Wealth - access to resources, less barriers
• Connections and proximity to decision makers (same school, country club)

62. Corruption

• Corruption - acquire illicit benefits of abuse of power for personal gain
• Nepotism
• Patronage
• Bribery and embezzelment
• Corruption is most common in kleptocracies, oligarchies, narco-states, and mafia states.

- exists in democratic, autocratic and socialist systems

INCOME & WORK

63. Jobs

• Future of Work
• Job creation

64. Working-Class Jobs

• Income Stagnation
• Minimum wage
• Hourly work with no time off or benefits
• Working Class Jobs - High School or Less, Some College
• Perform physical or low-skilled work for a living - while they develop skills (construction work), they are typically paid low-skill wages

65. Middle Income Jobs

• Good Paying Jobs - SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Between the working class and the upper class within a socio-economic hierarchy.
• Professionals, managers, and civil servants
• Typically college or some college or education - fire fighter, police officer,

66. Self-Employment (no unemployment insurace or benefits)

• Entrepreneurship
• Contract work, temp work
• Gig work - via platform
• Not classified as an employee, 1099
• Domestic workers (serve multiple households), home health assistance

67. Employment Protections

• Paid leave - Family, Sick with Covid-19 and need to come to work, can't go to doctor or take family member to doctor
• Gig Work - Employee vs. Contractor - need new classifications
• Workplace environment
• Workforce protections - discrimination, harassment, etc.

68. Workforce Disruptions

• Job Loss
• Career advancement
• Job Disruptions (Change, AI, Automation, Robots) - global pandemic
  • Retrain, redistribute, Universal Basis Income, reduce hours

69. Workforce Training

• Apprenticeship
• Job training
• Trade schools
• Retraining and reskiling
• Certificates - Nearly 30 Percent of Workers in the U.S. Need a License to Perform Their Job

70. Labor Force Participation

• Labor Participation

71. Child Care

• Affordable
• Convenient and flexible

EDUCATION

72. Early Childhood Education

73. Primary Education

• Cradle to full-time employment -SDG 4: Quality Education

74. College Education

• Student Loans
• Financial Aid

HUMAN FLOURISHING

75. Senior Living

• Nursing homes vs home care
• Affordable Adult Care & Automation
• Medications

76. Homelessness

77. Housing

• Affordable
• Home Loans

78. Poverty

• SDG 1: No Poverty

79. Income and Wealth Inequality

• Individual - SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
• Entrepreneurship - start a business, seed a startup
• Home Purchase

80. Social Equity

• Fairness of opportunity and social policies
• Addressing the non-winners (harshness of Capitalism, Meritocracy, Democracy, Crimal Justice system)
• Addressing environment (people that didn't win the parent lottery)
• Fairness & Equity
• Equality is impossible
• Equity vs. Equality - equality is equal under the law, equity is having similar repesentaion under the law (i.e., expensive lawyers)

81. Social Mobility "aka American Dream" Enablement Opportunity (Individual)

• #1 Upward/downward mobility - American Dream
• #2 Intergenerational mobility
• #3 Structural Mobility - attributable to changes in society as a whole - everyone can't be above average
• SDG 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
• Income mobility
• Raj Chetty - 2014 study on income mobility

82. Deaths of Despair

• Not happening in other European countries

INDIVIDUAL WELL-BEING

83. Personal Basic Needs

• Health - Physical and mental health
• Financial
• Family, Friends & Support
  • People to help - in time of need, find jobs, resources, etc.
  • Social Network

84. Personal Flourishing Needs

• Purpose and Meaning
• Love and Connection
  • Friends & Family
  • People to enjoy spending time
  • Lack of Loneliness
• Competence and Control
  • Dignity

85. Human Enablement