During his keynote address at the opening "Government Summit 2026"/ Al-Gergawi: The greatest transformation in history is taking place today within man himself, and the most dangerous thing that may happen is that governments lag behind man
Dubai, February 3, 2017 – His Excellency Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of the World Government Summit, stressed that the era of transformations that we are living in today represents a historic opportunity for governments, and it is an opportunity that requires governments that understand that their first and last role is to serve humanity.
His Excellency said: “We are accustomed to asking about the future: What will technology do to the economy, jobs, and services?… My question is: What will governments do to humans after they change humans? Because the most dangerous thing that may happen is not that governments fall behind technology, but that they fall behind humans.”
This came in His Excellency Mohammed Al Gergawi’s keynote speech during the opening of the World Government Summit 2026, today in Dubai, which continues until February 5.
At the beginning of his speech, His Excellency welcomed the participants in the summit, which is being launched inspired by the sound vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, “may God protect him,” and with the generous patronage and follow-up of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, “may God protect him,” to contribute with an exceptional message and a strategic vision aimed at anticipating the future and shaping a more advanced reality for humanity through its international dialogues that answer the pivotal questions that will be addressed. The path of human evolution in the coming decades.
His Excellency said, “Although our written history as humans appeared in the last 10 seconds of the last day in the universe, the transformations that occurred in it are very large. However, the greatest transformation in human history does not occur in laboratories, factories, or technology centers. Rather, it occurs within the human being himself. Today we are not living through industrial or technological changes. We are living in a moment of redefinition of human capabilities.”
His Excellency Mohammed Al Gergawi added that the history of humanity has witnessed great leaps in the concept of knowledge, and every leap came with fears. For example: Socrates warned against writing because, in his opinion, it might weaken memory…but history has proven one thing, that humanity has never retreated due to fear, but rather advanced when it became bold and learned how to adapt…but today the world is facing a completely different stage, a stage in which a person’s capabilities are measured by what he acquires, develops, and enhances.”
His Excellency stressed: “When we say that man is entering a new phase, we are not talking about a theoretical idea, but rather about four forces that make man today closer to what can be called a human being enhanced with unprecedented capabilities. These are four main forces that change the nature of man himself. The first force is: artificial intelligence that doubles mental capabilities. Man has been making tools for thousands of years, and today we are facing a different moment, in which man creates a tool that produces tools, thinks, analyses, builds, and learns… Artificial intelligence is no longer an assistant, but rather a partner in thinking, and it is expected during “In the next ten years, the computing power of artificial intelligence will increase by about a million times.”
His Excellency added: “We say today that artificial intelligence is a partner, but we all know that the partnership may be temporary, and with it we will move from intelligence that helps to intelligence that participates, and perhaps to intelligence that decides. This means that we are not adding a new technology to our lives, but rather we are adding a new component to the human cognitive structure… a way in which he thinks, learns, and decides.”
His Excellency Mohammed Al Gergawi said that the second force is advanced medicine that prolongs healthy lifespan, not just life. The cost of sequencing the human genome has fallen from $100 million to less than $600, and may reach less than $100 over the next 10 years. This means personalized medicine and early detection of diseases years before they appear. The average global life expectancy has more than doubled over the past hundred years. His Excellency asked: “How much will human lifespan double over the next hundred years?” What impact will this have on governments, jobs, pension funds, and public finances?
His Excellency added that the third force is brain science that will redefine learning and cognition. Today we know more about the universe than we know about the human mind, but the next discoveries will not be in space, but rather will be the discovery of new capabilities in the human mind itself, and with the entry into the stage of enhanced intelligence, artificial intelligence will not work in place of the human mind, but rather will work with it. Neuralink, a company that develops chips implanted in the brain to enable direct communication between the brain and the computer, announced several days ago that it has 21 participants in the experiments, some of whom control the devices with their mind or with their thinking. Just as the Internet in its beginnings was just an email, today’s brain interfaces may be just the beginning. The question is, will the next investment be in the capabilities of the human mind, as we previously invested in communications networks?
His Excellency Mohammed Al Gergawi pointed out that the fourth force is the digital environments that expand human existence itself. Man has moved from a village where he knows everyone to a world where everyone is competing for his attention, time and feelings. Man is no longer tied to one place, one job, or one identity. Today, there are more than 5.5 billion people connected to the Internet, and this means that every individual lives in the middle of the world, is influenced by it, and influenced by it.
His Excellency added that the rhythm of life is also changing, as a person’s focus is shorter, his distraction is greater, and his sense of identity is changing, as he is no longer a single person, but rather multiple copies on multiple platforms.”
His Excellency stressed that these four forces combined create a human being, mind and thought different from everything we have seen during the past 40,000 years. His Excellency presented the most important question: How will governments deal with this human being?
His Excellency Mohammed Al Gergawi said: “Man today has extraordinary abilities, but governments are still dealing with him using the tools of the past. By 2040, some expectations indicate that GenZ will constitute about 40% of the global workforce. It is a different generation, raised on the ‘now’, and wants to serve now, learn continuously, and live a life with balance and meaning, not just a job and a salary. GenZ also influences daily pressure on public decisions everywhere in the world.”
His Excellency stressed that the role of the government at every pivotal stage in history was evolving with the development of mankind… With the industrial revolution, governments redesigned work, and with the age of electricity, they redesigned infrastructure, and today, with the evolution of mankind itself, we need to completely redesign the concept of government.
His Excellency Mohammed Al Gergawi presented before the World Government Summit a fundamental question: Are governments in the world today designed for the people of yesterday, or for the people of tomorrow? His Excellency pointed out that the role of the government is shifting in an accelerating world, from managing reality to designing the future, from rigid laws to legislation that can be automatically updated, and from institutions burdened with bureaucracy to institutions that serve humanity.
His Excellency stressed that history is clear on this point, and in every major civilizational transformation, there are governments that led, governments that waited, and governments that disappeared, and history does not remember those who waited.
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