Resistance to innovation
In a future plagued by stagnation, the Philippines finds itself trapped in a quagmire of resistance to innovation.
Despite the pressing need for progress, institutions such as the government and private companies remain steadfastly opposed to change. Efforts to implement crucial solutions, like a unified digital identity system, languish in a bureaucratic morass, stifled by archaic laws, bureaucratic red tape, and a lack of investment. And even as the world moves towards cleaner, more sustainable energy sources, the Philippines struggles to break free from the grip of fossil fuels. Traditional energy companies, clinging to outdated practices, vehemently oppose any transition to cleaner alternatives. Political debates ensue, with voices clamoring to maintain the status quo, arguing that the country cannot afford to abandon its reliance on fossil fuels.
Amidst this landscape of resistance, the Philippines finds itself mired in inertia, unable to embrace the innovation needed to propel it into a brighter future. As other nations forge ahead, the Philippines remains shackled by its reluctance to change, condemning its people to a future defined by missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential.
The Philippine government has banned international cryptocurrency platforms, allowing only local ones to operate in the country.
As towering giants of traditional energy loom over the Philippine landscape, renewable energy companies find themselves trapped in a labyrinth of bureaucratic red tape and vested interests. Despite the allure of clean, sustainable power, their efforts to penetrate the market are thwarted by the entrenched influence of fossil fuel behemoths. Hindered by regulatory hurdles and systemic inertia, the dream of a greener tomorrow remains tantalizingly out of reach, shackled by the iron grip of the status quo.
Selected Quotes
Now, the the Internet, by its nature, is a borderless technology...Because...it doesn't matter what country you're in, you can still access the same websites, roughly speaking, except if you're in Afghanistan, Iran, or conflict areas, whatever. But the problem is that the world is nothing but borders. They have different laws, different jurisdictions, different power structures. So the Internet is inherently incompatible with the world itself, because we we are nation-states that want to govern ourselves, and we disagree with each other...And...things like cryptocurrency are another kind of form of incompatibility, because again, they are also borderless. Crypto gets better the more people use it, the more people use it across the world. But you know we have different laws here in the Philippines...crypto companies have licenses here; they need to be regulated...Lots of different reasons, right? And every country will kind of approach this differently. So we're kind of in this interesting state where our technology...was designed for all of the world, in a kind of...everyone gets access to it [way]. But our governance is not. Our governments, [and] our institutions are not. They're not designed for that; they're meant to be local. So you've got all sorts of technologies being created that are global, and then you've got nation-states that are inherently local. And that part will continue to create these messy situations where...[there's] this interesting pattern conflict between how far technology can advance, without the whole nation-state paradigm getting stretched to its absolute limit. But this stuff is super interesting to watch also, right? Because you know, as tech gets stronger and stronger, governments have to start making...compromises because they can't [don't have absolute control]. It's not the 1970s anymore; people have choices.
Well, right now, educational systems are also becoming more online. So again, the answer to this is also that there will still be no change. So that is my pessimistic view of it, because there are already innovations being now...I mean, I have no idea, but I'm assuming that there is, because sometimes I see such [edtech] innovations being done at some schools. So...it's happening, but it's not being spread [or] shared with everyone, to the point that...the [educational] system remains chaotic, and it'll be kept at its current state, because it's what currently works. So [the people in charge] are not going to change it. But because technology keeps updating itself, it will become outdated. Therefore, the system [will remain inadequate] because it did not adapt [to] what the current situation is in 2040...
...[What is] probably the [technology] that needs dire help, and I feel like we'll eventually [and] hopefully improve [on] with is the digital identity. I mean, that's been such a hot topic. As you probably know...there's no one source of identity in the Philippines. It's really frustrating that there's no one card, or one digital identity...and it's because of stupid laws, really poor governing, the fact that they don't want to put money into that...it's really bad. Like it would be good [for the Philippines], because if you look at like Singapore...as a good example, like they use that digital identity and it's so smooth, like even during COVID...if you get a vaccine, it would be attached to your digital identity. Yes, that may be a little bit creepy, but like...you [already] do your taxes through your digital identity, [and you] do a lot of things your healthcare, right? And just imagine if [doing all that] was seamless, especially in the Philippines...it'd be game changing.
[Then for] electricity, I think you would probably see a lot of like political stuff happening between regular electric companies versus green electric [companies] for sure. I mean, you already see it in the States that they want to still keep doing coal...or oil for cars instead of just going right to electricity. So it's still definitely political.
Look at the First World countries. They have hollow medicine...[which is] AR [and] VR for visualizing organs. So they don't have to operate on patients just to see. Oh yeah, they have all of these things...they have AIs to predict hospital bed crunch. So one of the problems when we had COVID was that our hospitals were filled to the brim. Because people would come in and come in, and nobody would come out. Here [in Singapore], how it works is [that] they have an AI model that predicts the length of stay of patients, and that predicts when exactly the bed occupancy in the hospital will become full. And based on that prediction, they use that to deploy manpower. In addition to being able to deploy manpower, you're also able to route patients coming in. Because [you would] already know that this hospital for the next two weeks would be full. [So] don't bring this patient who is likely to stay for two more weeks at this hospital, bring them to a hospital that's not full. So we don't have stuff like this [in the Philippines]. So you can see how far behind we are already in the present. If we don't bring in people to actually elevate our healthcare system through tech, we're done for...we're missing out on so many on so many possible innovations that can help our country, simply because we're too ignorant to explore them to begin with.
The pessimistic future is...how [Filipinos] think is: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So right now, we have dinosaur tech, right?...Imagine if it ain't broke, don't fix it [is still our mindset] 20 years from now. The rest of the world is like...if we're 30 years behind now, if we keep up with our mindset, in 20 years, we'll be 50 years behind. And then we'll be 70 years behind. And then we'll be 90 years behind...It's like the rest of the world is already in another league, already doing all of these new things, and we're still like: "Yeah, okay. It's still good."
