When I grow up….
In the future….
One day….
To 80’s kids & the generations prior to us, 2020 sounded like a faraway utopian land. To me, it was a place where the Jetson’s lived and we would be travelling in flying cars with robots as our ‘hired help’.
We grew up without seatbelts or helmets. We sat at local libraries using pens and paper for our research papers. Children today are safer and more protected. They have the ability to write faster, learn faster, do faster. They’re uploading assignments to cloud accounts for teachers to grade remotely from Airbnb’s in foreign countries. Tutoring is easily available online. Learning is mixed with gamification and has even become “fun”.
Technology has afforded us so many incredible opportunities that have enabled us to be bigger, better, faster, stronger, wiser, and more globally unified. In the past century, we have gone from travelling across continents by boat to travelling by rocket ship to outer space. Our neighbours used to be the people on our streets, now they are the countries that surround us.
The past twenty years have brought about an explosion of social media, which has changed the world as we knew it. Marketing, communication, dating, travelling, and shopping have all changed in one way or another. We send Snaps, marketing ads are in real-time, we swipe left or right to determine who we want to date and restock our shelves via Amazon all while travelling to a shared office space in our Uber pool. Space is reducing, but through technology, we are finding a way to manage.
There have been extraordinary advances in medicine with the pioneering of 3-D printers, genetic testing, and robotic instruments in the operating room. We have built technology that helps the blind to see, wireless brain sensors, a machine that prints skin, new brain imagery and artificial organs. Neurofeedback enables those with Anxiety and ADHD to thrive. These medical marvels are enabling us to live longer lives, become stronger and healthier and have more opportunities to thrive. At the same time, stress and anxiety are almost the norm. ADHD, Cancer, and Heart Disease have become a part of our vocabulary when addressing friends & family.
Are we living in a world of flying cars and robots? Not yet, but we are certainly close. Importantly, we’ve changed the face of healthcare and opened up new doors and avenues for personal growth. We have come so far and technology has improved the lives of the many. We are growing as a culture and a community but there are still many hurdles that we face. Climate change is happening and our world sometimes feels like it’s at the end. We have one life, one planet, and one opportunity to get this right. Technology has taken us far, but I wonder, what’s next?