A lot of this has of course been said before, but to have all the key issues around humanity, sustainability, economics, leadership and the nature /role of god (no less!) captured in 50 mins from such a young but united cross-section is fantastic.

Plenty here in line with my own principles (shared with Bertie Russell) around (a) be rational, (b) be tolerant, (c) be kind. I resonate most with the curly-haired guy in the middle seat – on two points especially:

“ideals into actions”
“collective humanity is transcendental”

Meaning that agreeing ideals, whether they are academic, human, god-given, etc is just words. And the point on leaders leading comes in here. Leaders need the courage to make the environment supportive of bottom-up action (also mentioned).

On the second point, I got the impression most of the speakers were not theist (there are times when I don’t think Rowan is). But it’s worrying if the human race is floating between blind belief and nihilism at a time when some universal guiding principles would come in handy. I can never see these coming from the sort of Rowan Williams’s unknowable transcendent force, but have huge hope and sympathy for the younger speaker’s appeal for humanity reaching a collective state beyond where we’ve been, but without a gospel-style god involves. Or have I watched too much Star Trek.

Davos sounds like a great bash. I’ve at various times been involved in truly international meetings (not as grand as Davos of course ) , and the same thought ALWAYS struck me each time: If only everyone else could come along too; there would be no wars, etc etc.

Two specific questions btw:

- Is there a specific activity within the Davos proceedings to examine and suggest ways, structures, tools to help ideals turn to reality through actions – apart from the expectation that all these ‘doers’ will make it happen anyhow. Or is the best practice exchange happening over cocktails (not knocking that)?

- On the science and tech front, did anything in particular grab you as to areas where Davos has,is,can make a unique contribution?

(if these covered in your other posts, ignore)

Anyhow, too much to go at here. Off to watch the other vids.

The link above should now correctly point to the final session