On “Apps as Skills”
Far too many concepts are either too old to even consider them as concepts anymore, or are getting too old to be further “patchable”.
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The OS/app concept is old. In fact it’s as old as it could have been since it was introduced as integral part of the first “system”.
The app has evolved, yes.
However, it still remains this monolithic entity bound to so many flaws, either inherited by the base (the OS) or triggered by bad initial design.
In retrospect, it’s rather strange that we allowed a so static paradigm to reign our tech world. I guess pseudo-conveniences and lack of faith didn’t render enough innovation and as a result we are still stuck in this loop.
We can do better than that. In fact, we are destined to do better than that.
Innovating is not an option, innovating is inevitable and the sooner we start talking about tomorrow, the less the mistakes we will make.
Enter skills
What if apps were what skills are for humans?
The OS (aka the system) would be the host and skills would tie to it, either on demand or by a “learning” process.
There would be no interfaces, no buttons and no worries on how a skill looks and acts.
Skills would be organic and intelligent enough to inherit properties from the (constantly evolving) system and also to efficiently interact with other skills — and as a result further improve themselves.
The purpose will be to fulfill the User’s needs with the absolute minimum interactions and traction.
Yes, this will be the dawn of singularity (or Skynet), but I am convinced we have no choice but to go there.
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The challenge for us is to disrupt all those archaic paradigms (app, extension, platform) not to make them prettier.
That’s the current case with email, by the way; instead of putting our collective brain power into use in order to start from zero, we opt to start from 10, just because it seems easier.
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We live on the verge of major fundamental changes.
Changes that will redefine our course as a species by releasing our full potential.
We can discuss and work with “yesterday”, or we can go “what if?”.
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What if apps were what skills are for humans?
