Wednesday, 7 May 2014

The Future of Future

We spend inordinate amount of time every day to catch up with the future. We do this by learning things which aligns us with “tomorrow”, synchronising our capabilities with the needs of the “future”. Once we transform into more intelligent species, we push our imagination and the frontiers of science to define a new future. The dynamic future is like the fast expanding universe with millions of thoughts and ideas spewing into its enormity every moment.  So, what is the future of future? Let us look at the past and then it will be easier for you to understand my thoughts about the future of future.

Post the invention of steam engine and the industrial revolution, mankind have never looked back. Then came the age of computers, which surprised our imagination with unthinkable levels of speed, accuracy and automation. Our technological advancements are accelerating at a much higher speed, than it was before the dawn of internet. The speed of information flow has been phenomenal. So, with every major breakthrough, the speed at which we advance have only increased. In other words we are shortening the life of future. Even the smartest mobile phone becomes obsolete within a year. Our grandfather would have dreamt of faster and sophisticated cars to evolve in hundred years but we can imagine piercing through the twilight sky in our flying cars in just a few decades.

I believe there are two elements which are integral to this inexorable march of technology – Imagination and Speed. I am not aware if the speed of imagination can be measured, but in future, humans should be able to imagine at a speed at which the universe is expanding. To reach that speed, humans would have transformed into Transhumans (a much advanced human-like species also referred as “posthuman” supported by gadgets embedded in their bodies).

As the speed of our imagination merges with the galactic speed and as technology catches up with imagination, we might start measuring “future” technological advancements in terms of a weeks or even days.

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