Yep, last post for this blog about technology. The slide show is the sum of all the fun I’ve had with my e-mail distribution.
The past months, I’ve spent a lot of time gazing into the technological crystal ball. I see that Ray Kurzweil is mostly right, the only question is his timing. Moore’s Law is still valid and it is the enabler of change. Bio-Tech, Nano Tech and Info Tech will dramatically change our view of our world and ourselves. The next 5 years will see more change than the last 50 to 100 years. Then it will accelerate.
The issue I have not heard discussed and I think will be the problem is this: Compounding increases in productivity drive decreasing labor requirements. I think and believe that is why unemployment remains historically high. Things are getting done with fewer and fewer people. The nature of human beings is static while technology is developing exponentially. What is our social and economic role when we’re not needed to produce the goods and services we need? While we are freed to be entirely human, the current economic models and perceptions of self worth simply don’t work. I think this is and will be our central social and economic problem beginning, about now. Or I could be really wrong. We’ll see. My children will see for sure.
