Picture your ideal world. Can you do it? Mine’s quite simple. I want to live in a world capable of dealing with any problem it faces. I want agility, with change coming rapidly when needed, but stability in the face of turmoil. I want rationality married to intuition, with each way of thinking knowing its limits, to be applied across the board.

Do you ever get the feeling that our problems, even the most insurmountable, could be solved with a little creativity and common effort? I know I do. But if you don’t… wouldn’t it be brilliant to live in such a world?

Here’s my vision: every country, every generation, faces problems. There isn’t a culture in history that hasn’t been beset by challenges that dwarf comprehension. But what if, what if, we could equip ourselves to handle whatever the universe has to throw at us. Such a culture would be free, strong, enduring but not rigid. Common sense being common. Wisdom being ubiquitous.

Is this even possible? I’m the first to point out any human system is subject to failure. But we don’t have to aim for perfection. We don’t need everyone dedicated towards a single goal. We don’t need to eradicate selfishness, crime, greed, capitalism, government or any other universally human trait.

Think about democracy. If its goal is to allow governance to continue but keep power with the people, it is overwhelmingly successful. Flawed, angry, violent, petty people hold the power. People who would gladly see democracy burn hold the power. People hold the power. And yet it works. My perfect world is closer to us than our democratic world was to the oppressed. It isn’t just that change can happen, but change must happen. So let’s channel change, again.

The Enlightenment happened centuries ago. Rationality, objectivity and the scientific method have proven their worth a thousand times over in the time it’s taken you to read this sentence. And everywhere that democracy has genuinely flourished, real freedoms have followed. In short, the Enlightenment works. The principles of rationality and freedom it stood for are right.

So why does it have to keep convincing the world of this?

What we need is a new way of operating. This is the 21st Century, maybe it’s time we started acting like it. Governments, companies and morals are functioning under old paradigms, and we won’t be able to cope with the old world, let alone the new, without a change to the system. Enlightenment 2.0. iLightenment. A modern approach to the digital universe.

Ironically, tradition is vital if we want change to succeed. We need the best values from the Enlightenment and religion, coupled to the lessons of history. We need change and progress, but rebuilding society from the ground up would be disastrous. But the values we keep have to be modern. Traditions that strangle us need to be done away with. Charity is essential in the new millennium, yet homophobia is toxic.

So here we are. Change is inevitable, but it can be guided. If we know what we are doing, change can always be for the better, as long as certain immutable values like freedom and sanctity of life remain constant. Don’t fear change. It’s our only way to survive.

Global communications married to mobile computing give us incalculable power. But technology is the least dramatic change the new millennium is offering. We are starting to understand how to deal with human systems. True leaders are starting to emerge, empowered by the new reality we face. True leaders – not managers, not administrators, not politicians, but leaders – are treating people not as assets, not as minions, but as unique, sophisticated resources. And in doing so, they are inspiring change.

People and technology. These are the keys to influence and success in the 21st Century. Ideas are the most valuable commodity, the most potent weapons, the greatest allies, and only through a deep understanding, appreciation and respect for both people and technology can you hope to have and use any ideas worth a damn. Physical commodities are nothing. The new resource boom is mental.

So here’s what we need from ourselves and each other – we need ideas, we need good ideas and we need action. In that order, for many bad ideas are the breeding grounds of the truly revolutionary concepts. And action, real action, is vital. We need 21st Century leaders to take these ideas and harness them through 21st Century technologies to reach and inspire 21st Century people.

Then we need 21st Century action, led first by people with an endless appetite for risk, then by everyone. Petitions and pestering your friends and family is an ancient and outdated approach. We need novel techniques if we want to generate social progress. Do we want to change opinion, or behaviour? The approach must reflect the goal.

Ideas, generated by an endless churning of motivated people and inspired use of technology.

Good ideas, filtered through the potent gauzes of rationality, objectivity and, where appropriate, a touch of intuition.

Action, led by people who believe in the idea, who are willing to be the first of many to stand up and shout from the rooftops. Done right, action will feed back into the people and technology.

If we have the above as a process, we can adapt. We can solve any problem. And we are so close to this I can taste it. We have a critical mass of ideas, endlessly refreshed by technology-enabled people. We have the tools and techniques to harvest the best ideas and bring them to the surface. And we have the true leaders capable of making ideas, realities.

All we need is a spark to get this cycle moving. And then, maybe after the world has been saved, the Enlightenment can be called complete.