Shift Change
How slight shifts in perspective will improve the quality of life for humanity.
History is filled with examples of how simple shifts in perspective changed everything. One person’s slightly off-kilter insight has, time and time again, changed the world.
- A model of the solar system showing that earth moves around the sun. (Galileo)
- A car that everyone can afford (Henry Ford)
- A camera made for anyone, not just trained photographers (George Eastman)
- A handheld music player that holds a 1000 songs (Steve Jobs)
In many instances, the thinking of these pioneers was different and potentially dangerous. In fact, in Galileo’s case, since his views went against the church, he spent his last years under house arrest. Yet these ideas shifted the tide of history and, in many cases, improved the quality of life for humanity.
The internet has provided us with a massive foundation for change; a platform for shifts in perspective. It has enabled a new level of communication and connectedness on an unprecedented scale. But, I’d argue, we haven’t seen even a glimmer of what it will ultimately enable.
Today, we search and find anything in a matter of seconds. We connect with our friends from high school, college and work. We send posts, pictures, and updates about what we’re eating or drinking, where we’re playing or partying, or what we’re buying and selling. We change policy decisions and overthrow governments.
Progress, yes. Interesting, yes. But it’s all just the tip of something much bigger. The banality of social media we’re currently experiencing is fine. It’s our kindergarten playground, our first steps in being connected, and an introduction to a larger, more useful and productive connectedness that is right around the corner.
So, what’s next?
1. The internet disappears. It doesn’t go away, it becomes like electricity. It’s there, but we won’t have to deal with logging on, connecting, browsing, loading, bandwidth, passwords, downloads and uploads. We will always be connected (unless we don’t want to), we’ll get information as we need it based on where we are, what we’re doing and what we are going to to. And it will, for all intents and purposes, be instant.
2. We have one “App.” Right now I have 75 apps on my phone. They all, for the most part, exist as little silos of information. My Yahoo weather app tells me about weather, I can stream music from my Spotify app, I can check Facebook, get movie info and hangout with my friends. I can also watch a movie, check out pictures and see how far I road my bike. I have apps like Sunshine and Google Now that provide glimmers of how information is coming together. These apps pull information from my calendars, email, twitter, Google and LinkedIn accounts and try to keep me up to date with things.
We’re going to see more of this and Apps will become services, hidden in the background, integrated into back end infrastructure and devices. These Apps as services (ApaS) will interact with each other, APIs will talk to APIs, and surface information as we need it, without having to ask or initiate anything. They’ll do trivial stuff like provide directions and update us on flight changes to re-book us to get home on time. They’ll also do really smart things like collect and analyze disparate information from various “connected things,” look for patterns and make recommendations or alerts, to say, prevent a heart attack or alert us of an impending disease.
3. Chaos Ensues and Everything Changes. The result of an always on, interconnected world with APIs that talk to each other will be accelerated change and, from a lot of people’s viewpoint, chaos.
Established institutions will be turned upside down, scrapped and reinvented more quickly than ever before. There will be pushback and resistance from the establishment; from the entrenched and those who cling to the status quo.
We’ve witnessed the rebirth of the music industry. News and media are undergoing thrashes of change and the payment space is transforming with services like Square and Bitcoin. We’re witnessing the emergence of a new way to fund companies that will accelerate innovation. We will see a new model for healthcare delivery emerge from the fringes relying on big data ,the crowd and “retail healthcare” delivery. We’ll also see new models for insurance utilizing the crowd. Education as we have know it will disappear and become more decentralized, efficient and effective.
The changes we witness will be simple solutions formed from tilted perspectives and history will once again be redirected, because after all, Earth Moves.
Email me when mark smillie publishes or recommends stories