The Internet of Change

I'm Not Late

Two weeks off and I'm back to... do whatever it is I do in this space.  Talk about the intersection of human life and human technology, if I want to put a high minded spin on it.  Really, it's me thinking out loud.  Pontificating.  Being the Polonius I want to see in the world.

So, in that vein, I want to think out loud about a new book that Thomas Friedman, columnist for that 'International Jewel' the New York Times, wrote.  It's called Thank You For Being Late and is about how the rate of technological change has affected our lives as human beings.

This is Not a Review

First, let me say that I have not read this book.  So, this is not a review.  Or, at least, it IS a review in the internet sense that you don't need to know anything to have an opinion.  But it is not an informed review.  I do plan on reading it... right after I finish Lonesome Dove, so maybe sometime this coming summer.

Secondly, what I really want to think out loud with my fingers is someone else's reaction to the book: Matt Novak on Paleofuture. Though he also has not read the book but is reacting to an article on Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi.  (Because no one reads anything other than click bait headlines anyway.)

The two Matts focus on a graph that Mr. Friedman includes in his book and uses as 'proof' that technological change is outpacing human's ability to adapt.  They are right to criticize the graph as it has no values for either of its axis.

(Courtesy Rolling Stone)

Without values, it is hard to know if the gap that Mr. Friedman is identifying has been exaggerated or compressed or something.  I have no issues with their complaints about this graph that is rendered meaningless by its lack of specifics.

Where I have issues is with Mr. Novak's further assertion that technological change is not accelerating beyond humanity's ability to adapt.  He uses examples from the past like the rapid adoption of television and refrigerators.  While he does not come out and say it, he appears to be claiming that technology that has a personal benefit will be adopted without waiting for a generational change.

It's Not Smooth

That's where I think that Mr. Novak is missing the point.  Some technology will be adapted quickly by first world countries.  Some will even make it to the broader global market.  But there are technological changes that are not being adopted by individuals but by corporations.  Changes that affect individuals in unforeseen ways.  And, of course, the biggest is the rapid automation of the workforce.  The Industrial IoT.

These are not changes that are difficult for individuals to adapt to.  Instead, they are generational adoptions.  It takes someone who has grown up in a new world to live in it.  Those of us who remember an older, different way are the ones that are left behind.  That is my biggest complaint with Mr. Friedman's graph: the Human Adaptability curve is smooth.  It should not be smooth.  It should be a series of stair steps spaced roughly twenty-five years apart that represent a new set of people entering the work force.  A set that is familiar with the new environment.  Then, the challenges that they face just 'are'.  They aren't new challenges or different-from-the-way-we've-always-done-it.  They are merely the challenges that all people of that generation face.  The Human Adaptability curve rises to the current state of technology and then flattens to a tread for a decade or so as a new set of expectations are built that get blown away by the world the next generation encounters.

The Technology curve should also be a series of steps.  Technology builds on itself, but not smoothly.  There are Eureka moments that dramatically change how the world works: fire, writing, printing, electricity, radio, container shipping, the Internet.  While none of these are things that happened overnight, they had a fast adoption rate well beyond their initial intent.  Who knew that sharing scientific research quickly from university to defense contractor to lab would end up with Harambe memes on Instagram?

So What?

So go ahead and get over it.  The world moves on.  There is no holding it back.  If where you used to fit has changed its shape, then find a new way to live.  That is shockingly easy to type but very difficult to do.  To live.

I know that someone who grew up starting at McDonalds and then building a career at a auto assembly plant is not going to start coding the next Uber.  But that does not mean that they should resent those that do.  That new generation that is living in the changed, automated world is here.  They are inheriting the world and adapting themselves and their lifestyle to take advantage of it.

If we, the older generation, hold them back, all they have to do is wait.  We won't be around forever.