The quality of a society is determined by how well it recognizes the changes and adapts through innovation. Today I want to talk about opportunity, innovation and changes. At this milestone in your development it is worth thinking about, the source of the benefits that we have all grown accustomed to. It is only in the last 300 years that we in the West have learned how to create societies that are prosperous, democratic and provide a high quality of life for most of the citizens. This unique change in the quality of life for about one-fifth of the human race is a product of innovation that came from the freeing of humans from barriers to their creativity.
Innovation has two components - technological and institutional.
The innovations are a result of human ingenuity and recently most technological innovation has been based on the knowledge from research in science and engineering. Institutional innovations include the social, business, political, financial, educational and legal institutions of a modern society. Our future prosperity and quality of life will be determined by our capacity to continue to innovate and use the fruits of this process wisely. I would like to talk about three aspects of this today. First, the relationship between innovation and prosperity, second, the relationship between prosperity and the quality of life for society and thirdly, the political, social and economic ramifications.