Both sides of my family tree comprise diaspora scots. My mother grew up in Bombay while her dad sir kenneth kemp mediated dialogues with Mahatma Gandhi dircted towards independence of the quarter of the people of the indian subcontient.
My dad Norman Macrae was home schooled in Britieh Emabassdy's including Stalin's Moscow to age of 13. His father had been doing graduate studies in heidelberg when world war 1 broke out. Speaking German he became a british envoy of intel especially the wrongs of Hitler and Stalin. Dad went on to spend his last days as a teenager in allied bomber command Burma campaign. You could say this gave him google maps of pacific and indian coasts and much of the old world a geeration ahead of other historians or futurists let alone professional systems designers
Surviving world war 2 he enjoyed 3 extrardinary mentors- last class of keynes cambridge (see eg last chapter of general theory of employment, money & interest), sir geoffery crowther who had just finished editing the centeeary biography of The Economist and Von Neumann. Dad met von neumann in Princeton while seconded to New York for a year by The Economist. Von Neumann asked dad to mentor Economist journalists in the most balauble question evcer asked - what Good will peoples do with 100 times more tech every decade 1930s to 2020s. (In those days before the emwpoerment by neumann analytic tools, economists slide rulers could not manipulate many numbers- so probably most economists were for good philosophers. Would economist be chnaged for better or for wirse?
This later question might be quite consequential for species sustainability. If the exponeneial growth of applying Glasgow's engines had been a root cause of world war 2 between the 8 financially biggest empires of 1939 it seemed important to design systems by 2020s so that 8 billion beings were freed from wars and the basic constraints of life that history has so far led many children to be born into. It wasnt until age 39 that The Economist let dad ssign one annual survey. So in the 1950s his reporting as only journalist at Messina bort of EU was anonymous. Dad chose to make his first 10 surveys from 1962 focues on peoples whose freedom he sought: Japan Russsia, latin America ... South Africa. There was huge joy that Japan 1962 had discovered rising models relevant for all of Asia and seconded by JF Kennedy. Immediate opportunities for freeing other peoples were not so clear , still norman made checklists of what needs to happen and how the rest of the world's people need to seize future windows of opportunity so that tech for good means sooner retahrer than later every next birl of boy born enjoys a quality chance at life. Erath has abundant diversity. There's quite enough natural assets for every child to thrive if we unite peopels in positive emotional inteligence instead of hate that media histiries and tech leaps have previously been prone to.
Actually I was born in 1951 and soon after my bitrth my parnets left for new york. My gayhgetr was born in 1997 the year the clintons started an annual millennials cheering event called microcreditsummit. I was interested to finnd out what the connections were between von neumanns work, my dad's work and that of women empowered networking which has been the greatest human development miracle since 1970 across tropical asia particularly bangladesh and tropical china. In 2007 my data had started to die of cancer but picked up an advance copy of dr yunus social business book. We sampled 2000 copies to students and 10000 youtube style dvd interviews of yunus leadership team. Dad hosted his ast public birthday party at The Royal Automobile club - a last chance for journalists and youth to work out how women empowerment fitted into the goods of von neumann alumni searches.
What I discovered was somewhat sad. Yunus had got too close to the inspirational story telling that buoys up the us democratic party. It had iondeed helped him win the nobel prize. But it had angered bangladesh prime minister whose father founded the nation. She made sure yunus forfeited his bank - there was a government rule than bank directors had to retit=re at 65. Meanwhile you might hope university professors or at least public broadcasters like the bbc had got the right end of the curriculum of how a billion village mothers networked to end the extreme poverty that had arisen from no access to electricity grids but which from late 1990s became a game of leapfrog partnering with solar and mobiles. not onw western university, and certainly none of 100 i interviewed (as part of sponsoring yunus) offered the real knowhow the greatest good in population terms ever generated. If you have any doubt look at the top 30 cooperation platforms. which we have filed details on after 16 visits to Bangladesh and studying how 12 years before Grameen Bank'soeiudnance a former shell oil ceo sir fazle abed had started devoting 50 yerar to empowering women to build last mile health microfranchises, local agriculture to end starvation, sch0ols and much more.
Of course now we are hurling into post covid 2020s. Do you think knowing the reality of asian women empowerment helps the reality of how to help Antonio Guterres lead digital roadmapping Un2.0 .Its flabbergasting that in the 70+ years of trying to mediate what to do with 100 times more tec/decade the UN has become the first major western gov institution advancing this good. Perhaps every gov can learn from UN2.0 if we the peoples all help guterres now and web3 freedoms never yet webbed nor mediated
