The Exponential Age
@Bendavisual
Consider the term, “exponential.” What connotations does it bring up? Does it stir up any emotion for you?
When I heard a futurist refer to this time in history as the beginning of the Exponential Age, something clicked. In terms of emotion, it stirred up some agitation, even resistance in me. As an aging person who thinks more about safety than risk at this point, I am selective about what I am letting into my already over taxed brain.
I recognize the need to take care with the information I am mining because I aim to mitigate the clutter in my mental environment as well as my physical surroundings. I have this sense that if I take in too much unnecessary data, I’ll somehow limit my recall on the stuff that really matters. And there is SO MUCH unnecessary data these days, from marketing and social media to limitless consumer choices, where to travel, what to learn, and how to create. In this age of exponential growth, i think we can agree that Overwhelm has a seat at the table.
Technology is at the foundation of these “exponential” times, as computers are programmed to behave in human-like ways, making decisions, producing an over abundance of services, goods and data. They are programmed to to keep us safer, to put us at risk, to streamline our routines, to complicate our decision making, to work “in the background” on our behalf. Artificial Intelligence is not just a robot vacuuming your floor in a random pattern, or detecting spills in Aisle 8 of the grocery store. It is in the invisible cloud deciding what to show you in your Netflix cue or on the sidebar of your email service, it’s your watch detecting unusual motion and questioning if you’re experiencing an “emergency” that may require assistance. AI makes it easy for your car to accurately guess your route, then “talk” to you on your drive. It also provides a container for your thousands of digital photographs, and a way to access and file them with face recognition. AI detects your voice and differentiates your commands, and even inquires to learn if you’re even still there. Are you there, Lisa? It’s me, Alexa. Technology has fully saturated our modern lifestyle.
Recently the news broke that Facebook is changing its brand to “Meta” to reflect and calibrate for this exponential growth on the horizon. Mark Zuckerberg’s company is planning for a future that is highly virtual, meaning even more programming, and for those of us who grew up with 3-D bodies and two feet on the solid ground, this is a hard concept to grasp. Why would I want to live in a virtual world? Maybe you wouldn’t, and maybe there are others like you. But like it or not, the future is going virtual and it’s like a tidal wave - an exponential wave - of change that is coming for us.
The Verge reports that “in the next decade, he (Zuckerberg) thinks most people will be spending time in a fully immersive, 3D version of the internet that spans not just Meta’s hardware such as the Quest, but devices made by others. He’s pushing his teams to build technology that could one day let you show up in a virtual space as a full-bodied avatar, or appear as a hologram of yourself in the real-world living room of your friend who lives across the planet.”
Do you remember Google Glass? It was technology introduced in 2013 by Google. I understood it as a bridge to a hands-free future, a pair of glasses that you could interact with through voice commands and eye movement. According to Wikipedia, “The Google Glass prototype resembled standard eyeglasses with the lens replaced by a head-up display. In mid-2011, Google engineered a prototype that weighed 8 pounds (3.6 kg); by 2013 they were lighter than the average pair of sunglasses.”
It sounded like something from a science fiction novel - put on a pair of glasses and capture a photograph or video of an auto accident as it’s happening, just by looking at it. When the glasses never reached mainstream, I wondered if it wasn’t embraced by the market testers. Maybe it just had too many glitches to operate effectively. Or maybe it was too advanced for our needs at the time - like having the first cell phone, but no one at the other end to call. In any event, it seemed to fade for a bit, and now here comes Facebook - er, Meta - with its own version of glasses. While gamers are traditionally the ones depicted in headsets, will the masses soon be standing in long lines (both real and virtual) leading up to the 2022 holiday season? Are you ready for it?
It’s so easy to discount it and say you don’t care because you’re not interested. I wonder if our parents and grandparents ever had those thoughts regarding personal computers and the Internet?
I helped two elder (i.e. older-than-me!) ladies the other day who were standing on the curb next to their car trying to use a parking app. They were so frustrated. One was holding the phone and pressing answers to the prompts while her friend stood at her elbow with a lot of directives and advice. They could not get that app to display the timer with the allotted minutes counting down, even though the phone’s owner had already entered her credit card information. The frustration was palpable. I was delighted to help because here was something I had familiarity with. I had adopted the same parking app years ago when it was rolling out in a few cities. Back then, it was an option when you had no coins on hand. On the street where these ladies were attempting to park, there was no other option. Every space in this neighborhood was a pay-by-app only space. No place to deposit coins, no card readers at the kiosk. The message was clear: use your phone or drive somewhere else.
What if the Meta-verse is looming large over a field of headset-wearing humans and we will one day learn that we have a tough option: comply or be discounted? How awful to live in a world that steps over you, rendering you helpless, and irrelevant. Maybe you will have to don the headset to vote. Or visit a doctor remotely? Or communicate? What if our cell phones go hands free and land on our heads? Or - “gasp” - under our skin??
Can you hear the excitement rising as I write? I can. I want to be ready for change so it doesn’t knock me down and roll over me and yet how do I prepare for a future that most of us cannot imagine? Changes are coming at us faster and faster with less time to process and adjust. This is the thought stream (or river!) that upends my state of calm. This is exactly why I have poured so much time and effort into creating Calm Beneath. Our future is barreling toward us like a log on the rapids, and the falls downstream are inevitable. How you log roll is going to make a difference in the trip. We are still upstream far enough that there is time to learn and adjust your habits for a more centered way of living. Are you with me?
