This is my attempt at painting a path for technology to solve (in the near-future!) the big problems like world hunger and even politics and war. And then, finally we can all have fun with AR + VR!
I spent Friday night writing an essay to enter the David Carr Prize for a free SXSW ticket. :D It’s been a long while since I’ve had the chance to write a 1615 word essay. Due to time limits till 11:59 pm “end of day”, very unfortunately, I had to submit something that still feels like a first draft to me. I do hope that the idea and my vision for such a potential survive.
This was the prompt:
The piece should cover what is exciting (or unnerving) about life in the coming years in 2,000 words or less. For example: Do you want to live on Mars? Do fully-functioning, AI-powered robots fill you with hope or fear? Will the next generation of social media apps make us more likely to behave with kindness rather than vitriol? Can engineers succeed where politicians have failed in creating a more peaceful world? Might society mirror movies and books as technological advances catch up to science fiction? SXSW wants to hear your version and vision of where we’re headed.
Here goes my answer:
Technology.Harbinger(): “Technology as Harbinger”
We are at the beginning of a convergence, where the various rabbit holes that our diverging visions follow are just strands in separate verticals of technology fragmentation. From the dream of immersive computing through virtual and augmented reality, to capable robots and autonomous drones, to that of the Internet of Things where hackneyed thermostats and door locks become aware of their role in our lives — and even emerging energy models that may make these networks self-sufficient, through time surviving our race. When taken together, these fragments are the building blocks of a world where action can happen at the speed of thought — when technology goes beyond solving problems of insufficient supply, such as hunger and homelessness, but transcends to allow the enablement of each person to manifest their dreams. What inspires me (and gives me hope in the future) is the possibility of a much-needed shift in human infrastructure and our own individual conceptions of potential.
One of the most impactful effects of forum-based platforms being so easily implemented is a trend in opening higher education. Through MIT OpenCourseware (and similar endeavors from other schools), Khan Academy and Udacity, one can attain the knowledge-equivalent of a university degree without spending the money. With Instructables, Lifehacker and a myriad of other DIY sites, people become empowered by realizing how accessible it is to make things. By democratizing access, people are free to learn and grow intellectually with no limits.
What if your classic union workers no longer have to fear losing their jobs to machines and robots? Because, they are free to be artists and mathematicians and astronauts — what they were inspired as children to dream of being. Machines are great at doing manual repetitive tasks, but humans were born to be (and are) capable of so much more. What if, every single human being could attain access to that potential — because they are free from being slave to the necessity of hard work — meaning, what if the human could all be intelligent managers and creators, and have the machines do all the work? Hard labor tasks such as cleaning, repairing can be done by smart vacuums and specialized automatons. Transportation can be made effortless by self-driving cars and self-flying helicopters and planes. Further, buildings and products could be planned and then entirely built by smart robots, freeing the population to do greater things. It’s a fact of reality that there will always be more than enough problems that need to be solved by a human mind. Exactly like how tech workers are paid more than traditional workers due to demand — we can easily create more jobs that do not subject the human to a life of menial labor.
I don’t believe that given the ability to do anything, construction workers or factory workers or your stereotypical blue-collar workers would simply drink and veg out. I think this stereotype is again due to inequality in access to education and opportunities — and the limited time they have remaining until their 4 AM wake-up alarm.
A tradition since antiquity has been that of class segregation, where the tiers go from opposite extremes of toilsome manual labor to a sedentary commanding class, whose well-manicured hands that have never done hard work have been the fingers that pointed to and determined the direction of history. Because of their disconnection from the real world, the infrastructure devised by these cloistered beings is often round-about in terms of actual efficiency, and through time, often grow meaningless — just a rule in the book that’s been there too long to be defied. This goes from antiquated laws to social systems that harm and exploit (or prone to be exploited) more than help. But, these were times prior to the existence of organizational technologies that were needed.
Imagine a city that is organically designed by and for function, where its homeostasis does not allow for housing crises and automatically puts up dams against floods or instantaneous-dynamic stabilizers against earthquakes. Data is the culprit and bottleneck — but, we now have all sorts of sensors that can tell us everything from instantaneous traffic to deltas in micro-climates. We are beginning to create nano-materials that can instantly change its molecular structure to withstand differing forces — effectively, we can create buildings immune to fires and that can even passively regulate its temperature controls. We can advance accounting and tracking platforms to be able to regulate the pricing of every single unit — and enable automated data-validation to determine how to fairly adjust for pricing based on individual need and contribution.
If you argue that this city is impossible because of capitalistic needs, we can arguably say that similar infrastructure issues from bottom-up design have been the detriment of software development. The right technical teams are often not tasked with the problems they are best able to solve, and thus entire platforms (even in established verticals) are built less from experience and best practices and more from trial and error. As a result, the phrase software or device fragmentation is heard too often in technology. Essentially, software is often built by teams that are too scrappy to be able to build it right. And then everyone else who has to use that software suffer — worse, those who have to extend or develop on top of it end up metastasizing this cancer of bad software. Weak foundations, bad architecture — thus, the code has to break. However, I am optimistic that technology platforms will eventually be designed from the top down. Tasks that would usually need to be outsourced would be done once then usable as its own black box for all other purposes — for all organizations. Extending this ability for abstraction, there might no longer be a chasm in the classic distinction between biz dev people and engineer. Software development has become insanely accessible in just three decades, from needlessly tedious punch-cards in esoteric machine language to high level languages that children or laymen can pick up in minutes at a Makerfaire. Continuing this trend, what if software could be designed at the speed of thought?
The power of technology is that it can make hard labor things that used to require an entire army, easy enough that a single individual can achieve. In the past thousand years, we have transitioned in power from empires, castles and armies to corporations, laws, and lawyers. But, even these entities are intermediary evils that only exist because of infrastructure process limitations.
Envision a world where the needs of the individual are perfectly met. We’ve started an on-demand economy that connects instantaneous supply with instantaneous demand — from work that needs to be done, to transportation, to food delivery. Extending that, micro-hyperlocal-on-demand platforms could let you barter or borrow things with the hundreds of other passengers on your crowded transit commute — or with others who live in your building. Or, what if you could donate to someone in need and get tax benefits. This is the sharing economy where nothing gets wasted.
Continuing this meritocracy based on the distribution of supply, while it’s hot, the next generation of on-demand can solve the problem of world hunger. The United States produces more than enough food to feed the entire world. Indeed, many of our cities dispose enough food, to be able to feed all of its homeless. Legality and accountability are both issues that accounting platforms can solve, and then it is a matter of connecting need with supply. What if Uber or Lyft drivers could deliver excess food to those who are hungry? What if Blackjet or major airlines could fly supply not needed here, in its empty-legs long-distance? What if governmental systems become transparently seamless, truly data-efficient with APIs that just work, where the givers are instantly granted great tax write-offs — because they’ve just saved a homeless mother and child from starving to death?
Access to education to empower the masses, so that we can properly pass on the union jobs to machines and robots. The creation and implementation of a data-checked and technology-enhanced city. The possibility of a transparent technology platform that just makes sense for fixing all the bureaucracy issues in both enterprise and government. The transition from computer programming as esoteric to common knowledge, where anyone can make their own software. On-demand being used as a solution to solve world hunger and mitigate the unnecessary system failure that was the third world. Uniting all of these fragments…
In such a world, where basic needs are taken care of, for granted for all, we can finally elevate everyone to the status of first world problems. The booming entertainment industries thus receive a plentiful increase in customers — and we can finally imagine everyone wearing VR goggles or AR contact lenses.
We arrive in a future where every human is free to tend to the need to create and express and share. Through a hybrid neuro-interface that projects to a shared view, we can instantly show others what we envision — no matter our background. We can collaborate and hold discussions over thought-products as we’re still thinking of them. An existence in which what’s possible can be created immediately — where potential can become reality. And where every human being can realize their own potential to contribute.
In the coming years, it brings me great hope that technology can be used by humans to be a harbinger for this future Renaissance that could become this apex culmination of humanity. The difference between now and then is that we only need to let it happen. I believe that not only do we really want to, but also that: we can, so we will.
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