Humans and Technology

One of my biggest fear is not staying relevant. Technology is moving so fast that I am finding it hard to understand NFT, Metaverse and block chain etc. Level of understanding I am referring to is not superficial, I like to really dig into the details and develop deeper understanding. I still don’t?understand NFT etc. to the level I would like to, I do not want to be the person who gets left behind in this fast moving technology world.

Why is this fear relevant? This realization came about due to an incident which happened few years back. My sister was discussing bitcoin and was considering investing in Bitcoin, I remember giving her half an hour lecture on economic fundamentals and how Bitcoin does not have any of the factors which make paper a money. Glad to say she did not listen to me and invested in Bitcoin, best decision she made in terms of investment.

Why my position was so wrong? Probably because I did not understand the Bitcoin technology and that caused me to miss the boat on Bitcoin early on. I was making a mistake of comparing horse with a car, I was trying to look for economic fundamentals in new technology where none existed.?I guess playing the game by old rules is not applicable when game itself has changed. Although I still do not understand or agree with Bitcoin but that does not matter much as world has moved on to a new game. ?

Had I listened to my sister and invested in bitcoin at that time, I would probably have taken early retirement and be sipping something nice by the beach somewhere in Bahamas. Instead I decided to invest in tried and trusted Real Estate sector, which although at that time made perfect sense but is now, four years later worth half of the purchase price when corrected for inflation and currency fluctuation.

That experience has taught me great lesson, never be irrelevant, keeping up pace with what is happening around you is key for your survival, lesson can also be learned from evolution of life in this planet. Only the ones who adapt quickly end up surviving, rest will vanish. Learn to evolve your mindset, unlearn what you know. Your mindset of yesteryear will not carry you in years ahead. Forget the fundamentals which are increasingly irrelevant instead learn the new ones.

Property you buy in Metaverse may not have any physical presence, get comfortable with it. Things you buy in Metaverse may not even exist in real life, they will be just software codes, example when you buy a blue suit in Metaverse you may get a code which is visible as a suit but there is no suit in reality but you will still pay for it, get comfortable with it.

Digital content you pay hefty sum for with ownership using NFT may be available and downloadable by millions of people, it is like you buy a car and everyone else is free to use it. Hence terminology can be used as anyone can have a Monet print but only you own the original. Only difference being, in this case print is just as good as the original which is not the case with physical art. Get comfortable with that.

Last two years have accelerated IT integration in our lives tenfold, concept of “visiting” your doctor through virtual means existed before but did not find significant adoption. Virtual meetings have replaced trainings, conferences and physical meeting, we all learned to get comfortable with that. These were forced adaptations, we had no choice hence we had to learn. Same does not apply to emerging technologies as we still have legacy options and are not forced into adopting, which means these technologies will take longer to make an impact in our generation.

Coming generation will have to learn to live without physical books, why would they need a physical book when they have access to ebooks. We have access to ebooks now but someone like me is not willing to switch, I still like to buy physical books. As option exist and I am not forced into adoption I will stay with my old ways. Next generation may never learn how to drive, why would they, when they will have advance versions of self-driving cars, half of us are driving while using the mobile phones, endangering ours and others lives. Might as well get autonomous car and not risk precious lives. ?

Our future generation may lose the art of decision making. We know that Humans are not good at making decisions, our emotions and state of mind influences our decision, for that reason we cannot make uniform consistent decisions. Why should we, inefficient humans make decisions? Decisions will be made for us by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Art of decision making will not exist two generations after ours, going forward role of us as Humans will be very different. I see a future where most of mankind will not have a role in society, they will be a liability, as anything labor intensive would be replaced with far efficient robots of the future, unlike humans they will work all day long.

Two or three generations forward humans will not be doing any physical work. Combat of the future will be using robots also, humans will no longer be physically fighting in war as we are not good at that, too many of us die. Robots equipped with AI will fight our wars. This will take away one of the biggest direct and indirect employment sector.

Both at decision making and physical work we as humans are very inefficient. So if we seize to do decision making and physical work than what is the role we will evolve to? What will be our contribution, do we need to exist in numbers that we have today???

Below are the words from George Orwell’s 1949 novel,?Nineteen Eighty-Four. Although, his context was different but what he said could not be further from the truth,

If You Want a Picture of the Future, Imagine a Boot Stamping on a Human Face – for Ever.