You Learn Something New Every Day

The next big thing

Throughout the ages, there has always been something that people go after as the new “big thing”–the next future development that will change how we do things and leave a lasting mark on society.

• In the mid and late 1800s, it was railroads and industrial revolution; the mechanization of hard labor.
• In the first half of the 1900s, it was cars and war on a massive scale;
• From 1945 to the 1960s, it was air travel and modern appliances (TVs, refrigerators, etc.)
• In the 1960s, it was the fight for equality and justice, and freedom from tyranny;
• In the 1980s, it was cable TV, credit cards, and video games;
• In the 1990s, it was computers, information, and cell phones;
• Today, the big thing seems to be doing everything electronically—and wirelessly. You can pay bills, go shopping, store files, book plane tickets, get news, make money, etc. all online, and now with a wireless device. More and more people are doing it, and the “Web 2.0″ era is giving people new, more streamlined ways to use the Internet. We’re in full swing!

So what is the next big thing? I have a theory.

Many developers today are focusing on ways to make computer software more human-intuitive—not a bad goal. This means that, while we are definitely going to try to mechanize whatever unpleasant or tedious tasks we can, there is going to be a great value put on the humanness of future technology. We already have

• Voice recognition,
• Keyword association (when we search for “bishop” and “rook,”the software automatically finds “chess”),
• and social bookmarking (the more people “bookmark” a site or news story as interesting, the more likely it will appear in the top results of a search. Hence human preference helps guide future searches)

Rather than simply becoming more robotic, our world will also become more human-oriented, because the more we robotize and automate things, the more people will crave an intimate, spiritual connection in their lives. Many of us who live fast, simple, compact lives in the city lose touch with our humanity, our soul, and at some point we bump into something or someone who makes us see how much we’re missing and how meaningless our life is without that spiritual dimension. Are we even alive?

This is the next big thing. For it seems that no matter how much progress we make, poverty continues to exist and wars continue to be fought. The richest among us can be poor too—poor in spirit and character. I hope our progress can one day lead us to a point when we have the wisdom to see that the best way to achieve peace and happiness is through spiritual fulfillment.

Who knows? Maybe science will one day come up with a way to measure spiritual fulfillment, and then all kinds of programs will spring up to help people find the intimacy they sorely need. On the other hand, it would be wrong to believe that this is the answer, because the very nature of spirituality and fulfillment is that you can’t measure it! You can feel when you are fulfilled and satisfied, but in order for this world to get there we are going to have to find a compromise between our thirst for statistical knowledge and know-how and our need for human bonding and character development.

Will we see God in all the details, or will we move further from the traditional beliefs outlined in the holy books? Such is the focus of this blog. Welcome to the next big thing.

June 10th, 2007 Posted by Michaell at 09:54am | Concepts and the Future | one comment

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