Rep. Baird Looks Ahead — To 2025

Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) gets all wonky about the possibilities of the Internet in a YouTube video filmed at the World Economic Forum.

Baird, asked after attending a discussion on different visions of the global economy, environment and technology in 2025, said that the Internet has the potential to lead people in opposite directions.

“On the one hand, one can immerse themselves in narrow-mindedness, paranoia, and divisiveness, that is happening politically,” he said. “On the other hand, it allows you to communicate with people in new ways. If we used the hyperlinked world to open our minds, to communicate messages of tolerance and improve our understanding, it might help us get to the multipolar world.”

Baird, speaking at the forum in Sharm El-Shaikh, Egypt, goes on to talk about the need to do more about the environment and recognize the need to protect natural resources.

Watch Baird below, and read more about the “hyperlinked,” “sustainable” and “multipolar” worlds Baird talks about here. (The positive visions of the world, put forth by forum organizers, have garnered some skepticism from McClatchy reporter Hannah Allam.)