Let’s do a self assessment shall we. Are we qualified to predict the future? I would like you to try to qualify your perspective on advancing technology. “Qualify my perspective,” you ask? Yes, I want you to qualify your ability to comprehend the present to predict the future:
qual·i·fy
/ˈkwäləˌfī/
3.
make (a statement or assertion) less absolute; add reservations to.
Everyone seems to think they’re qualified to scoff at an “expert” or well researched perspective these days. But what’s about to happen over the next few years with emerging technology will affect everyone in increasingly negative ways if we don’t all start to put our own perspectives... in perspective. We need to be aware that we may not currently posses the tools to immediately comprehend the gravity of the ‘whens and why fors’ of the future. So here’s a simple test. It takes a little imagination, and being honest with yourself is the only way this it’s going to work.
Imagine it’s December 31st, 2006. This year Blockbuster Video is still king of home entertainment, a little start-up just launched their widely unknown social networking service called Twitter, and the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket ended in failure. If that version of yourself had to predict when something like the iPhone would arrive, which hadn’t become public knowledge at the time, would you have said 10 days? No? How about 10 weeks or 10 months? How about 5 years?
Now digging a little deeper. At the time, were you following mobile tech trends. Were you paying attention to the advancement and convergence of touchscreen, mobile battery, and cellular data technology? Were you following the companies looking to gain mobile market advantages, partnerships, and/or acquisitions? Believe it or not, this information was publicly available at the time. Finally, what was your perspective on the growing digital culture at the time?
Whatever your answers, it stands to reason that if you couldn’t predict the advent of something like the iPhone, you would have had a harder time predicting its impact on our world and our culture over the years following it. This is not meant to dismiss the value of your perspective. Only to show that the quality of your predictions are directly linked to your area’s of focus. Why is this important? If you want to prepare for the big changes ahead, you’re going to need a holistic perspective on all the systems at play. Inspired by Ted Talks, Facebook arguments, and dinner table conversations, Mindfully Augmented curates perspectives on this continuously advancing world. We collect the desperate tools we all need to predict and plan for the future.
Today, we are in the middle of an even more significant convergence of automation, antiquated infrastructures, ideologically and fiscally divided society, an increasingly global market, and a tech culture incentivized to advance and disrupt at all costs. It is imperative that we all pay attention, communicate, and help aim this rocket of progress in the most beneficial direction for all. Because the consequences on our lives will be farther reaching and more immediate than anyone can predict alone.