孟晚舟援引华为智能经济报告研究指出，“数字经济对全球总体经济的贡献份额在不断地攀升，预计到 2025 年，大约 55% 的经济增长将会来自于数字经济的驱动，全世界都在拥抱这个机遇，170 多个国家和地区都纷纷制定了各自的数字化战略。”在她看来，无论是当下还是长远的未来，数字化的旋律一旦奏响，便穿透企业的边界，连点成线，连线成面，共同创造产业互联网的新时代。孟晚舟表示，“明者因时而变，智者随事而治，数字化是共识度最高，也是当下确定性最高的话题。数字化已经成为越来越多国家企业和组织的共同话题，数字化技术将驱动生产力从量变到质变，并逐渐成为经济发展的核心引擎”。此外，华为战略研究院院长周红也发表“建设智能世界的假设与愿景”的主题演讲。周红提到，“我认为需要考虑 AI 的目标如何与人类一致、并且正确和高效地执行。除了通过规则和法律来加强 AI 的伦理和治理外，从理论和技术的角度看，要达到这些要求，目前还面临三个重要的挑战：AI 的目标定义、正确性与适应性、以及效率。”

Beyond its substance, though, Future Shock resonated just as much for its style. Taking a cue from the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, whose ability to deliver big concepts in snappy sound bites was obviously an inspiration, Toffler made the medium the message. His tone is equal parts alarmed and energized, professorial and breathless. He speaks of a “fire storm of change,” the “electric impact” of new concepts, populations “rocketing”; his language emulates the propulsive speed he’s describing. He shares catchy terms like ad-hocracy; he makes the future the most spectacular show on Earth, and you’d be foolish to look away. Even when Toffler depicts the potential dangers of accelerated change—offshore drilling accidents, for example, or decision-making algorithms—and proclaims the necessity of regulation, he believes that solutions must come from a thorough orientation toward future transformations. “The power of the technological drive is too great to be stopped by Luddite paroxysms,” he writes, and the book, despite its occasional cautionary tone, intoxicatingly sets the terms of its own worldview. “Is all this exaggerated?” he famously asks, before answering his own question. “I think not.”

The chief strategy for combatting future shock, according to Toffler, was to double down on the future itself. He called for government committees to fund large-scale future studies, for science-fiction writers to bring more methodical forecasting to their stories, for American schools to teach future-oriented courses (as a counterpoint to history classes). “To create such images and thereby soften the impact of future shock,” he wrote, “we must begin by making speculation about the future respectable.” This was not a new challenge; even H. G. Wells had taken pains to emphasize that the systematic attempt to project potential futures based on contemporary data could be a science, not mere fortune-telling. But Toffler’s book pushed futurism into the mainstream, not just in the realm of militarism (i.e., the type of nuclear-scenario planning pioneered at the RAND Corporation) but also in the “soft” spaces of everyday life, from “politics and playgrounds to skydiving and sex.”

Live Voice Conversations Embedded EverywhereIn this mature phase, we will see live conversations embedded on every single webpage, article, and beyond. Using APIs, these social audio conversations will be available as users read articles, watch shows, play games, and traverse the physical world. Imagine reading an article, then choosing to listen to experts discuss the content in real time or hear opinions recorded from your trusted circle. Users could leave voice messages or recorded conversations in physical locations, like the geocaching community leaves physical items.