Originally posted November of 2012, it is an excellent example of disruption. Constructive disruption - the act of productively challenging inherited wisdom or structure - supports innovation by opening up the space to replace what we have with what we might imagine. Not only does disruption simplify the products we use, it also simplifies employment. Each of the older products had people working throughout the supply chain, ranging from engineers to production to distribution to retail sales. Now, we have brought that down to just a small percent that once worked in those industries. Disruption will continue, which makes projecting employment in the future so difficult. Historically we have looked at economic transitions as events. We transformed from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. We transformed from an industrial economy to a technological economy. We are transforming from a technological economy to an economy based on connectivity. Not only in the way we communicate with each other, but connectivity with the devices and machines we interact with. Barring some sort of Dark Age Rebellion, connectivity between man and machine will be the dynamic force that will drive invention, employment , and progress for the next 100 years or more. Connectivity is not an event, rather an ongoing process. It will not be systemic but rather organic in its evolution. You have to go back to the beginning of electricity in the country to get a feel of the effect connectivity will make. We started wiring and bring electricity to people in the late 1800s. For better or worse, electricity changed the way we functioned as human beings. We were no longer bound to the cycle of day and night as we had been since the beginning of time. With Kerosene lamps, and before that, torches, humans had a limited ability of extending the daylight. With electricity we had a continuous supply that never needed refilling, and could be produced in a central location that could be expanded as demand grew. Now we had the ability to reshape the day and night and in that, when humans could worked and rest. Over the 100+ years weve transformed metropolitan areas into cities that function 24 hours a day. Industrial production could now be done on a 24 hour basis as well. Im not debating the semantics of whether its good or bad, simply stating what is. Connectivity will have a similar effect. and the first light bulbs in this era is probably that device youre carrying in your pocket now. With connectivity, you not only have access to human resources, both personal and professional, but to the vast library of all the works of humanity easily accessible in a device in the palm of your hand. You have to go back to the great libraries that existed 2000 years ago to even get an approximation. At that time, the goal was to collect as much of the worlds knowledge in a few places where people could travel to for study and research. A collection of knowledge, not only of the humanities, but in science and engineering as well. Even with all that knowledge available to you today, you are still separated from it by requiring a separate mechanical device to access it. Connectivity will ask and answer the question Would if we could bypass the device? That is the question that will drive invention for the next 100 years.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 17:44:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015