Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast where we dive into relevant topics and issues
related to the world of business, technology, education and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders, and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
Hey, happy new year, everyone.
2023 is finally here.
We actually just celebrated two new years, the traditional January 1st New Year and the
Lunar New Year on January 22nd.
We hope everyone had a restful vacation and is excited for this new year.
In today's episode, we will be discussing some predictions for 2023.
Lion will start us off with our quote of the day.
Our quote of the day comes from famous author and theologian, C.S. Lewis.
He said,
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
This quote is extremely applicable to the new year.
We all set goals for ourselves and have dreams we wish to achieve.
No matter how big or small your goals and dreams are, they are worthy of accomplishment.
Always strive for growth and progress and not for perfection.
C.S. Lewis is the author of The Great Divorce, The Four Loves, and of course, The Beloved
Chronicles of Narnia series.
He also won the Carnegie Medal in Literature work for his work, The Last Battle in 1956.
Here are some headline news from around the world.
Beating out China, India has now become the most populated country in the world.
India's population is around 1.42 billion people, while China reported a decrease in
population to 1.41 billion people, the first time since the 1960s, according to the World
Population Review.
Speaking of China, after three years, China is opening back up and has approved group
tours to many nations.
Chinese tourists have begun traveling to these countries, including Thailand.
Moving on, New Zealand's Prime Minister has recently resigned.
She was New Zealand's 40th Prime Minister and has served since 2017 when she was elected
at the age of 37 as New Zealand's youngest Prime Minister to ever be elected.
And unlike many politicians these days, her resignation was not due to a scandal, but
rather she is quoted as saying, I no longer have enough in the tank.
After six years of public service and some of those years through the pandemic, she has
cited burnout.
Thank you for the quote in the headline news.
For the first part of this episode, we will be looking at and discussing predictions our
listeners have made for 2023.
Last year, we sent out a survey asking a wide range of questions to ask listeners what they
predict 2023 to be like.
Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey.
Your responses were very helpful.
The first question we asked our listeners was, do you think 2023 will be better than
2022?
The results were very positive.
50% of the participants said yes, 2023 will be better than 2022, while only 9.4% said
no.
However, 40.6% of the survey takers did say maybe.
Since it's only January, we do have a while to see if 2023 will be better than 2022.
What do you think, Linda?
I have a feeling that 2023 will be better than 2022.
Moving on, we asked our listeners for specific predictions they would make for 2023.
We received responses about a wide variety of topics from technology, current events,
and community life.
Let's start from the technology predictions.
A prediction was that quantum computers will break cryptography.
Another listener predicted that Neuralink will... wait, what is Neuralink?
Basically, Neuralink uses a brain chip interface to help individuals with paralysis move and
communicate.
I also read that it may help restore vision, help individuals who suffer from Parkinson's
disease and Alzheimer's, and may assist people who have had spinal cord injuries.
That's really cool!
There were also predictions that advancements will be made in the field of AI and that there
will be new VR headsets.
Someone also said that META, formerly known as Facebook, might go bankrupt.
The final prediction was that Elon Musk's Starship will take a crew of eight civilians
on a journey to the moon and back.
That moon mission is called the Dear Moon Project and is sponsored and will launch during
2023.
These were all fascinating to read and we'll have to see if any do come true.
The next category of predictions was about current events.
A popular prediction made multiple times that Cristiano Ronaldo would retire.
Now, we know that didn't exactly happen, but it truly was an interesting guest.
Someone believes that we may discover new species of whale that will be colorful, perhaps
neon green.
That would be amazing.
I would love to see a neon green whale.
Who knows, maybe we will see a neon green whale.
We also received predictions about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some hope that COVID-19 will have less of an influence on society and we may stop wearing
masks altogether.
On the other hand, others believe that there may be another pandemic or that another virus
will be discovered.
Other predictions were related to tension between countries and conflicts that may occur.
We also received a lot of predictions about our community.
A lot of people believe that our school may renovate more sections and buildings.
An individual predicted that the school will purchase nearby land to transform it into
another parking lot.
That would definitely be very helpful.
Others made more general predictions and goals about relationships, work ethics, and passing
difficult classes.
Okay, thank you for submitting your predictions and answers to our questions.
They were very helpful and interesting to read.
Now, we'll be right back after this PSA.
I have been obsessed with bears lately, so here are some bear facts.
Bears are deeply loyal toward their family members.
They will risk their lives and fight to the death to save a cub or sibling from danger.
Bears also have great eyesight, sense of smell, and hearing.
They can smell food from miles away, and their eyesight helps them see if fruit is ripe.
Bears are one of the deadliest animals in the world, and they are the apex predator
in their ecosystems.
So, remember, if you're ever in a bear attack, remember this rhyme.
If it's brown, lay down.
If it's black, fight back.
If it's white, good night.
Okay we are back with part two of our episode.
Now since we already discussed the predictions our listeners have for 2023, let's talk about
the final question we asked the participants.
Lion will kick us off about that.
There is one specific question in the survey that I find particularly interesting.
We asked, which animals do you think you can beat in hand-to-hand combat?
The choices were rats, cats, dogs, eagles, lions, grizzly bears, kangaroos, and more.
The most popular answers were rats, medium-sized dogs, and house cats.
The least popular answers were kangaroos and elephants.
An interesting fact is that roughly 6% of all Americans believe they can take on a grizzly
bear unarmed, while a whopping 12.5% of ICS students believe that they can take on a grizzly
bear unarmed.
From this statistic, we can conclude that ICS students are more confident in their ability
to fight animals with their bare hands than Americans.
Also shout out to the three people on our survey that said they absolutely love school
food as it is right now.
But Lion, remember what we said during episode 16?
We won't discuss school food in a lot of detail.
So we also decided to research predictions that experts and the general public have made
about this year.
Since we continue to make developments in technology each year, they believe that we
will make great advancements in the field of AI and that it will become more popular.
It is also predicted that the price of Bitcoin will fall to $5,000.
That's a really sharp decrease.
Although global recession is probable, the USA may avoid recession as inflation rates
may seem to be slowing down.
People expect an unemployment rate to slightly rise but still stay low.
Although some people will struggle, unemployment will not skyrocket, which usually happens
during a recession.
According to the Bank of America CEO, there may be a mild recession but it probably won't
be extreme.
I really hope that global economies recover now and that recessions will not be too bad.
We also looked at some more general predictions people have made about weather and space.
A survey conducted by IPSOS that asked more than 24,000 citizens of 36 countries about
2023 revealed some interesting predictions.
18% of the survey takers believe that aliens will visit Earth.
22% believe that an asteroid will hit Earth.
65% believe that there will be more extreme weather events and possibly natural disasters
this year.
57% also said that the weather this year may be the hottest it's ever been.
Honestly, I really hope those don't come true but we never know what climate change.
As we end this episode, we want to thank everyone for submitting their predictions and feedback
on the survey.
Our next episode will feature the ICS Model United Nations team who will be discussing
their upcoming conference.
Remember, you can listen to our podcasts on all major streaming platforms.
This podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international
student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of Pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives
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And we are signing off until next time.
We are Students Incorporated because your voice matters.