The Quantum Twins
William Gibson — ‘The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed, yet.
Surfing that wave has been our experience at immedia over the past three decades, a philosophy that has shaped our approach to both the world and our work.
Open your eyes and see: the future surrounds us, and it is differential.
I have a strong affinity for fractal patterns and quantum behaviour as a way of interpreting information and trying to predict the future, seeing the world for it’s particle and wave nature — part of us resonating in place while simultaneously propagating over distance and time.
We live in the past, the present and the future and we live here, there and everywhere as individuals and communities of humans.
With the next technology revolution upon us, who represents the future, who embodies the present, and who is already in the past? How “quantum” is their behaviour?
There are products and parts that make up those products. Who owns the products? Who makes the parts?
When I look across the landscape, two titans already live in the future and are about to lead the charge to distribute that future to the rest of us. Build and WWDC are coming over the next few weeks and these thoughts are part of a series I will share over this time.
Meet Apple and Microsoft — the quantum twins.
Born from the same fire, out of the transistor and then IC revolution, they have been intertwined in a passionate interdependence of love hate dizziness for almost half a century. They lead a vanguard with a sense of service to humanity, setting them apart from the wannabes and making them the dominant players in the new world.
The world is transitioning from a time of institutions to a time of platforms, and human lives, loves, and opportunities will be regulated by them.
Some ethically, many unethically, more than a few — toxically.
Apple and Microsoft, however, approach the future like public service institutions. Their deeply ingrained cultures, value systems, and integrity propel them toward an inclusive, empowered humanity.
This is not necessarily all a conscious intent — the fractal patterns that define them increasingly lead to the same resonance.
Thus, their commitment is more than a marketing statement — they truly see themselves as serving all of humanity and all that this duty entails.
Bound in this common purpose, they are beginning to Velcro themselves to each other as they seek to integrate to bring a managed order to human affairs built on trust, privacy and ethics across the spectrum of our work and personal lives.
Looking for partners like themselves, who they can trust and who above all, bring efficiency and integrity to their service, at the scale of humanity’s aspirations, they find each other.
The exponential Cambrian explosion of opportunity is not going to come from one or the other but rather the tighter integration, fusion almost, of their systems, services, devices and data in a way that others can build and scale on and unlock the intimacy economy rising.
The true AI moment will come when everyone realises that it wasn’t a deal between Apple and OpenAI, but rather the Quantum Twins bonding again in another spark of their eternal dance.
