The world in 2016.
Why everything feels out of wack. (#Day40)
Recent news around the 2016 Election has lead to murmurs of uncertainty around many American dinner tables. We can dissect the candidates all we want, but underneath all of this something deeper feels wrong.
Why do many feel this way, at this point in time? Sadly, a lot of this uncertainty (the world in 2016) stems from our collective inability to manage communities, families, and government given all the technologies which have emerged (the internet, smartphones, TV) and are still emerging (self-driving cars, drones, Bitcoin, Robotics, AI, life extending technologies, Nanotechnology, etc.). Why are our divorce rates so high, our income inequality rising, and our college graduation rates so low?
Technology and its accelerating progress, quite simply, are putting a wrench into our social systems.
Finally, in 2016, there is now an increased general awareness in America to help ensure that women, the gay community, and people of color have equal employment rights and income opportunity. Despite this improvement in sociological egalitarian mindset, technological improvement continues to rage loudly.
For one, a higher percentage of children experience social anxiety than have previously. If social media and popularity related imagery replace genuine connection, then teens will have difficulty developing social skills necessary to function in a quickly changing and global workforce.
Additionally, watching copious amounts of television is hurting our ability to converse. In a fight against this, some are recommending removing the television from our bedrooms.
Disruption is inherently problematic. Our legal systems are built to deal with situations involving current technology, not emerging and developing technologies. For example, disruption in accounting and data storage tools by blockchain technology has not necessarily lead to implementation on a mass-consumer level yet, as creating legally compliant products under quickly changing precedents and evolving technological capabilities is not necessarily easy.
In the early 1990’s, American culture began to confront some of these difficult to internalize technological-sociological issues. When discussing large technological “organizations” and their role in our lives, Peter Drucker comments in Post Capitalist Society:
Modern organization creates yet another tension for the community. It must operate in a community. It’s members live in that community, speak its language, send their children to its schools, vote in it, pay taxes to it. They have to be at home in it. Their results are in the community. Yet the organization cannot submerge itself into the community or subordinate itself to it. It’s “culture” has to transcend community.
With technology, there is no escaping from the impact that it will have on relationships, communities, and governments. Organizations such as Apple are at the core of this dilemma.
2016 — what’s in store for the year ahead?
#Day40 , #100DaysOfBlogging
