Ben Hammersley editor-at-Large for Wired magazine and guru of the digital age points to the realities we must face as a result of the impact of Moore’s Law. For example he discusses the impact of disruptive innovation and the Kodak example of inventing the digital pictures but not seeing how the initially substandard technology would grow to eliminate film photography.
If you see something coming down the line and you are dismissing it because it is not very good it is going to kill you in 10 years time. The inevitability of the tides of Moore’s Law make this so.
Hammersley argues that this very rapid rate of change puts us in a position of alway having to prepare for a future that we won’t be able to fully imagine. This rapid change is a fundamental force that is driving society forward. He offers the following example and challenge:
These weird fundamental forces are of the fact that every time you get a new phone it is out of date, every time you get a new laptop it is out of date… this is a fundamental driving force for the future of humanity. For those of us who understand it or learn to understand it, it is our responsibly to go out to other people, to go to our friends, colleagues relatives and specifically go to our politicians and our elected officials and tell them about these changes in the way we have to think.
These fundamental forces of change are part of our present reality and Hammersley argues that we are not doing a good job of preparing for the future because most of our leaders are confused by the present. His closing statement summarizes this challenge that we face:
“Right now, we have entrusted our future to those who are confused by the present and that is no way to go forward into the future.”
Are you doing your part to warn those in your sphere of influence about these fundamental forces of change? Are they listening?
