Shift Happens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q

“The top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet.. using technologies that haven’t yet been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

“The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.”

“Predictions are that by 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the computational abilities of the human race.”

Although I first watched this video last year, and it’s now three years old (even scarier) it’s had a huge impact on me and how I look at new things that seems so cool and innovative. I’m very amazed at the things this video told me. I always knew that technology was going very fast but not as fast as it really is. “Predictions are that by 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the computational abilities of the human race.” That scared the crap out of me. That pretty much said that in forty years, humans will be obsolete. I will be 58 years old and I will be worthless in the eyes of the world because a supercomputer could do everything I could, but better and for cheaper. This made me think that perhaps things are going too fast for our own good. Is there ever going to be a point where it all stops? Pretty soon things will become outdated before they go on the market. Actually, I think that’s already happening. What good is that then? We won’t have time to savor accomplishments because something better will take its place right away. We will never be able to say we have the best there is out there because it wouldn’t be true five seconds after you own a piece of this amazing technology.

“The top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet using technologies that haven’t yet been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” That whole sentence says that the world is crazy. Things are moving way too fast for us to deal with. We are preparing for things that don’t exist yet. How can we even do that? It makes no sense to my simple mind. Am I the only one that’s afraid Apple is going to rule us?