Once upon a time, not too long ago, say about 20 years back, there used to be a time when dad would come home, buckling under the two tonnes of paper work and documentation that he’d have to drag home in order to “work from home”. Being the loving tiny little tot that you are, you’d rush up to him and wrap yourself around his knees, unable to contain your delight at having him back home. Dad trips, sheets, binder and paper clips take flight; havoc ensues.
Now, fifteen years is not so long ago. Now, you are all grown up and all that you get to bring home is your old, Stone Age office laptop that creaks and groans. How unromantic! So the next obvious question here is, just what happened in such a short speck of time?
Over the last 2 million years, the human brain has nearly tripled in size. What we as a species got gifted with this time around was a few new structures which literally changed human history. One of these structures is the frontal lobe, particularly the pre frontal cortex. Sounds cool? What this means for the rest of us who don’t speak neuroscience is that humans gained the ability to simulate experiences. In essence, we have the ability to dry run (imagine) experiences or activities in our heads before we actually do them. This is something none of our ancestors could really do and something that no other animal can do quite as well. It is this evolutionary boost that literally got us out of the trees and where we are today. That’s a process that took 2 million years to get us to where we are. Driven by that power to imagine, we took the next big leap forward in about 1958 with the Advanced Research Projects Network or ARPANET which led to the big bang called the Internet and the Information Age. The internet acted as a catalyst, to unify our intellects and imaginations into one massive collective.
Just how has the information age changed the way we do business today? Some of the more obvious changes that have resulted from the information boom would include:
a) Continually shorter product cycles:
Since product development and delivery cycles have now become shorter thanks to the many “technological wonders” of the information age, end to end product developments take lesser time with each passing day. What this also means is that an imperfect product, especially in the software business can be released into the market since it’s now much easier to deliver fixes and patches without interrupting regular business flow.
b) Instant communication now drives increased productivity:
Improved connectivity and next to instant communication has pushed the demand for quicker decision making. Unlike the gaps permitted by the earlier slower alternatives such as snail mail, instant messaging and connectivity now makes it critical to react in the blink of an eye to dynamic market forces.
c) The information overload:
It is estimated that we have managed to create as much data in thirty years as our ancestors could pull off in about three thousand. The challenge today is not the lack of information but rather segregating the right information or “mining” in IT speak from the massive troves of data.
Another significant way this has impacted business is that consumers now have the ability to “pull” information towards themselves rather than be “pushed” information in the form of advertisements and other marketing campaigns. This increased awareness and agility amongst consumers makes it critical for companies to continually innovate and back their claims with a strong product delivery.
So where do we go next?
If we are to really let that gift of an imagination loose and envision where technology and the information age is headed, reality might be headed exactly where Ray Kurzweil has predicted it will. In his book titled “The Singularity is Near”, he postulated that by the year 2045, computers will vastly exceed human intelligence and will be able to redesign future generations of themselves. Ray also goes as far as to predict that in the next twenty years, the processing power of an average Desktop PC would equal that of the human mind. Fact or Fiction? Looks like we are already half way there!
3 comments:
brrr. scary.. reminds me of that chapter i had in school.. Nems (men) and Tobors(robots)... wer the highly advanced Tobors take over mankind and make us slaves and all... i never really thought it possible back then... but yea, lookin at wer we are headin now, i guess i wudnt be surprised if my super cool 'napkin-changing-nanny robot' stabs me with a knife one morning.. actually knife is too primitive.. maybe it ll just erase my brains out... and turn me into its personal slave..
Or Arnold Schwarzenegger will come by as the the T101, living tissue over metal endoskeleton (talks in deep brawling voice)and save you. (Ta ding ding ta ding.. ta ding ding ta ding....soundtrack fades away)
Oops! The line 'Evolution at the speed of thought' really took me somewhere else. But i think there's a connection.
I was thinking that what if the human mind really becomes so powerful (like the mythologies, the air benders, the rishis, the lamas) that it can actually change anything just by wishful thinking? Wudn't that be great?
I wudn't be worried about machines then. Bcoz the rise of machines is a result of the fall of our consciousness. Bcoz of our laziness.
In fact i was thinking about the possibilities. Evolution of a world that we really dream of. May be we shud all start exercising our brains towards it, positive thinking, and may be our future generations will finally get that ability. Evolution @ the speed of thought... great thought Vyas...
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