What do you think are the megatrends currently dominating the world? Would your answer be Artificial Intelligence? Probably. Would your answer be South America? Questionable. And would your answer be South America in combination with AI? Absolutely not. Under the title "Crossmapping the Future!", the Megatrend Report M8 explores the great potentials of the future, links them and analyzes their opportunities and risks. For Bosch, anticipating and linking megatrends is the source of innovations, new products, and new markets.

Despite all the euphoria about technological progress, the majority of the population - at least in Germany - is sceptical about it. For this reason, ethics and value orientation are important control parameters for researching how to deal with new technologies. This year's Megatrendreport therefore focuses on people's relationship to technology. "Invented for life" - Bosch's slogan - is not just proclaimed, it is lived.

The image of the golden record graces the cover of the new Megatrend Report M8. It is aboard the Voyager 1 space probe that was launched four decades ago to explore the interstellar space. The record on board contains a message, as NASA believed that the space probe could one day encounter aliens.

The message comprises greetings in 55 languages, 35 natural and human sounds (among them a screaming gorilla, the hum of a tractor and a human kiss), a Bulgarian shepherd song and pure Uranium 238.

The Golden Record stands for the aspiration of Bosch's explorative book on the future: The departure to new horizons and the creative and playful cross-linking of new perspectives.

The M8 is intended as an invitation to discuss plausible developments in the future and their foundations that are being created right now.

On the basis of a completely open briefing from an intellectually demanding customer, a sensual prime medium for decision-makers is being created that is anything but just the rational sharing of knowledge.

The Voyager Golden Record is what efforts to explain human intelligence to other forms of intelligence looked like with the technical means available 40 years ago. Today NASA would probably use digital media and algorithms to document our level of development. If one thing is certain, it is that every chosen technology will seem hopelessly outdated in a few decades.

For this reason, for the Megatrend Report we deliberately choose not to use a volatile digital format. Instead, with a sophisticated book we make a lasting and yet clever statement - developed together with pioneering future thinkers and future designers from various disciplines. Stimulating essays and deep insights, art, and illustrations make M8 a compendium for explorers.

The Megatrend Report makes the long cultural and technological trends visible and thus becomes relevant for strategic corporate decisions and for top decision-makers. Developed with pioneering future thinkers and future designers from various disciplines, the report manifests the aspirations of the global innovation brand for a small, high-level target audience.

The result is a strategic manifesto for corporate development. A book that brings Boschs Slogan “Invented for life” to life.