Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Motivation for a blog on Man and Technology

Several decades ago, I read a book by Jacob Bronowski titled "The Ascent of Man". The experience has long been lost in detail but the impressions it cultivated that have remained are twofold: 1) the fecundity of mankind has been instrumental in his ascent from the apes - meaning diversity is a good thing for survival and 2) Man's powerful tool-making nature and long childhood enabling development our abilities sets us apart in our capability to improve our circumstance. We are naturally "programmed" to extend the boundaries of our capabilities.

Another strong influence has been Margaret Mead whose work in cultural anthropology stimulated an appreciation for seeing the world through the experience of "living another culture" in situ.

These humanistic influences blend with my engineering training in telecommunications and systems to foster speculation on where we are leading ourselves. It is more important and relevant now that "accelerating change" is common in our lexicon and it's exponential nature is debated whether it is real or fictional (See Wikipedia - 'accelerating change').

None-the-less, our own life experience suggests that we are having to adapt faster and faster to new tools, lifestyles, and experiences that are enabled through technology and connectivity.

This blog is a collection of my views stimulated in part by working for several years on "insights into the future of wireless" at a major international mobile wireless company. The opportunities were many during this time to rub shoulders with visionaries at future studies organization, leading universities and technology companies as we discussed the challenges to businesses trying to understand the role of technology in enhancing their customers' lives with useful and valued new capabilities and services.

Hopefully, you will find some of the commentary worth reflecting and, perhaps, acting upon.

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