Lets get started with a really interesting picture ...
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| Now do I have your attention ... |
We live in a very dynamic day and age and despite what many a doomsayer may say its probably one of the most important times our species will undergo. It is a very exciting time for that matter, because regardless of whatever expertise or profession any of us (and I am referring to all of us) may claim very few of us could actually put a finger on, or know with less than absolute certainty what will happen in the next 10 to 15 years, maybe even 5 years for that matter. What's this? Is SonOfTerra92 resigning to the 2012 doomsday group, on the contrary my friend I'm here to preach the exact opposite.
Take your typical TED conference for example, you have a gathering of dozens of our planets' leading doers and thinkers, experts on everything from building rockets to expressing human creativity, but sincerely in my opinion, if you ask any of those people what the world will look after the next 10 to 15 years it would be a near impossible feat to get a similar answer from any two people, be it a Computer Scientist and Biologist or a Musician and Philosopher. We all have different visions of what 2025 will look like.
What I'm trying to nail home here, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters is that the ebb and flow of the workings of our planetary culture have as much to do with Social Science as they have with physics , art , philosophy and human empathy. "Planetary socio - cultural mechanics" my own personal buzz phrase for "how the world works"
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| We've all probably listened to countless numbers of TED talks but are these really the Ideas that will shape our tomorrow ? |
I believe it is an age to be optimistic about, not because of what we have done but because of what we have yet to do. Sure the year is still young, 2012 is less than a month old but there appears to be much promise for the future if 2011 had provided us the slightest peek as to what challenges and achievements may lie ahead.
Let me elaborate through a more "down to Earth" perspective ...
Now I'm an engineer in training , and despite what many people think about our lackluster demeanor and ours single mindedness towards solving problems, my field isn't without its philosophy. The principles of engineering are set in a non ideal world, its rooted in the inspiration that everything needs to be changed (save for the laws of physics) and everything can be changed. This is why engineering schools typically start off with a steep learning curve putting all the good stuff at the end, to teach us to be adaptive. "You don't get to Radar Systems and Analysis without doing Circuit Theory". students would usually cry out "But why do I have to learn all of this when I can just put my hands on it myself, at the end of the day what matters is if it blends right ?" or " but wait isnt this Maxwell Bridge thing ancient tech ...". I myself have fallen prey to this type of mindset occasionally, but that's a topic best left for another entry ....
The point is, problems are soluble and people even more so. So I figure whatever future may come would also be malleable at the hands of the current generation be it the poets, artists ,politicians , video bloggers , scientists or engineers alike.
Today we are aware of the tremendous benefits that high technology and sustainable development can provide for the human race the and the Earth in general but are we truly ready to face the consequences of a landscape marked with ever changing paradigms. Futurist Ray Kurzweil calls it "the Singularity", the day when we transcend our current human limitations for the unimaginable potential that technology has to offer. The birth pangs of Human Type 1 civilizationhood. There will no doubt be a great deal of sufferimg involved before we get there and the changes will non the less be very subtle at times but if its one thing that humanity has shown throughout its 200,000 years of meandering its way upon the face the Earth it's that "quis enim est quod potest a lapide ingressus" I'll leave you to run that through Google translate ...
It's been used thousands of times already but I just have to say it ...
"With great power comes great responsibility"
But if I were to amend that, it will be "With great power comes the need for great humility"
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| Are we really ready for the "Singularity" |
If we are to truly progress to a higher level of sophistication regarding our technology particularly with open ended development platforms (such as the internet) then we have to learn to accept the deprovincialization and demarginalization of said technology to anyoneyone with a computer amd will to act, and once we've done that we realize that last years Arab Spring and this years SOPA/PIPA debate aren't that much worlds apart after all ....
The internet belongs to everybody ...
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| Everyone you ever met, every person that had ever effected any amount of change for tomorrow, lived there ... minus the hand of course |
And so I end this entry with a quote from Ghandi (why does it always have to be Ghandi darn it)
"Be the change you want to see in the world"
I wont say anything more, I'll just leave you to make of it whatever you wish to make of it. Sometimes that is what sparks the beginning of great things to come.
