15 Biggest things to think about at this moment of the 21st century
If you are wondering about a lot of things going on in the world lately I want to direct your attention to a particular set of things that need to be thought of by you and all your fellow citizens around the globe. With the changes in decisions, behaviors, models, patterns and lot more of the whole world is on a shift every minute of the time making the previous ones totally obsolete. This obsolescence is one of the major reasons to wonder about a lot of important things that should be thought through both to lead a good future for yourself as well as for the coming generations.
1. Startup Bubble — Where on one side there is a fear of crashing the tech industry because of huge burns outs of cash with false valuations, while on the other side are the innovations and acquisitions taking place solving every little or large problem one after the other constantly. The most important thing to think about here is either minimizing the risks of fall when the bubble bursts or just turn that bubble into a strata of solidarity that it never bursts (I mean it might be possible). The first thought should be to self fund and bootstrap the startup if it is possible and in accordance with the idea more than blindly thinking about raising money.
2. Rise of Cyber Crime and Cyber Security — I know this is not what we like to think more often but then people lose their livelihoods everyday while we are complaining about losing our socks, we need to think about our secured online presence while this is just the beginning of the cyber warfare. Don’t keep your passwords like “12345678”, “password123”, Name123, etc. its silly. Install security check at every sensitive thing you possess or deal with in the digital world.
3. Revolutions in Healthcare — Starting from the rise of the heat and widespread of new diseases and cures invented for them, it is time to not only think about how to get cured but also how not to get ill at the first place. Software, apps and websites for finding doctors and cures are on the rise while the rural areas are getting more and more awareness. There are lot of darksides as well. You need to think in the direction of “Prevention is better than cure” more seriously and strongly now. Don’t hesitate to discuss your problems with doctors and get solutions for them. Digital tech is revolutionalizing the whole healthcare industry further with a lot of advancements but still the challenge is distribution and awareness.
4. Adaptation of technology by brick and mortar businesses — Business consultancies and HR especially are been replaced with software and apps very very rapidly so guys operating in the same industry need to start working harder now. Another thing is we humans are selling almost everything that is there in the world to sell now a days. Almost Everything that was supposed to be in brick and mortar structures is connected with the internet world now and is sold online, selling stationery and smaller stuff is a challenge yet to overcome though.
5. India as the emerging superpower — From national campaigns to international affairs, from trade and commerce to employment, from system reforms to revolutionary changes with the power of vast population India is arising soon to become a super power. The pace may fluctuate from time to time as we are changing our old mentalities and methods and adopting new ones. Improving in almost every field and soon to emerge as a biggest hub for Industries and production.
6. Space travel and living on mars — Something that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson and many others are trying to do since a lot of time in the middle of progresses and failures with building such technologies on a consumer level. It is one of my beloved dreams to make it to space at least once in my life time. Would love to check out the Universe ;-) Thinking about it at the moment is phenomenal and encouraging for the passionate ones to bring the solutions to the problems occurring in it to make it possible.
7. Artificial Intelligence and Robotics — Constantly robots and artificial intelligence inventions are being worked upon to make them smarter each day and with that the employment rates are going down. This is not to say that they will take over the world in the future but to think about the fact that their population is rising slowly and steadily every year with the growth in technological progress. At the same time it is been taken too seriously by the people who are in a worry that it will have negative consequences and steps are being taken well in advance with a “prevention is better than cure” perspective.
8. Possible changes/ turnarounds in Education Industry— While on one side the education is getting distributed online through premium/ free course portals there has also been a lot of changes in the way of educating students in schools, colleges, universities and institutions. In this aspect models are being shifted from traditional form of teaching to advanced/ technological form of teaching. Books and pen are being replaced by mobile devices faster than before. Methods like collective learning are being introduced.
9. Environment & Natural Resources — While slowly handful of people have started taking up entrepreneurial responsibilities of restoring what we have taken from the earth over the assumed period of time deforestation and global warming are on the rapid rise and are assumed to start affecting the world in approximately 5 to 6 decades down the line if the depletion of the Earth continues in the same pace. I personally think entrepreneurship ideas deserve to be combined with concepts of restoring nature as well. Check out how this man left his high paying industrial engineering job at Toyota to successfully creat 33 forests within 2 years across India here.
10. Legalities and freedom of homosexuality — Recently America allowed gay marriage rights in the country and before that several European countries allowed same sex marriage and some made it legal in their jurisdiction even before that. Think about the time it might take for other countries to accept this with a broader mind. A growing number of governments around the world are considering whether to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriages. While the leaders are deciding upon the allowance and legality of same sex marriage, the population of the world is divided into the supporters and haters of it.
11. Rise and fall of employment worldwide — Biggest irony is that the advanced software, AI, Robots and machines are being built by the people who are employed and will abandon their own employment with millions around the world in the near future. At the same time a lot of laborers are getting opportunities in the field of delivery companies delivering almost everything at homes and offices. That time isn’t far when most of the traffic on the roads will be filled with uniformed delivery guys trying to deliver their stuff to customers in minutes. With the technological growth, skills are being respected more than traditional degrees and the mindset of the lot of aspirers is changing to become self employed which will affect not only the economies in a good way in terms of decreasing poverty around the world but also will generate interdependency in collectively established models of business & employment.
12. Individual Flying vehicles — These is not just limited to an imaginary concept anymore as it was meant to be 5+ years ago while this technology was being built and experimented upon. While companies like Terrafugia have already built and started working towards taking their flying car to the consumers a lot of other companies are emerging in this space to grab the market share and give the power of flying vehicles to individual consumers. Just wait for the governments to figure out air traffic disciplines, the time will come soon where we will atleast start flying our cars in safe air distances/ areas. Flying bots are already in the market for emergency supplies of medic in the required areas and more experiments are on with food and other deliveries to homes.
13. World population — The projections are for the global population to reach 9 billion by mid-century which is 2 freaking billion more people than today who will be finding their place probably on water if the land gets occupied completely, maybe I am wrong in determining this but studies are projecting scary possibilities every day. If you think our natural resources are lessening and stretched now, then wait until 2050 to see the worst. While there are a lot of initiatives to save millions of lives in the world, it is also looked and worked upon to stop over production of population. Perhaps this can be sorted if we can find a way to live on Mars.
14. Rise of Internet of Things — The concept of making every kind of device intercommunicate with each other has emerged in a world with a lot of scope. Recently a lot of startups have been starting up for creating applications, software, remote devices, etc. around this concept. Even I have been working with talented people to launch products in this space. This is the next big thing that has already set the benchmark in the world and now establishing and growing into multi-billion dollar Industry. Here is an infographic worth checking out.
15. Green Energy — Natural gas will emerge as the second biggest source of electricity after coal by 2016 as forecast by International Energy Agency and discussed in this resourceful article by The Huffington Post. Article says Developing countries are building more wind, solar and hydro-electric power plants to meet rising power demand and combat local pollution problems. And the costs of renewables are falling below the cost of traditional power sources such as coal, natural gas and oil in some markets with high-priced power. Renewable power, including hydropower, is the fastest-growing power generation sector and it is expected to increase by 40 percent in the next five years. Solar fields are also being installed in thousands of places around the world.
I hope this article inspires you to start thinking about making the contributions in your area of interests and expertise from the above mentioned things. There is still a lot to explore in the world to make it a better place. Stay tuned.
