Author: Jeremie Averous

I love this quote from Alan Kay: “Technology is anything that was invented after you were born, everything else is just stuff.” Actually I realized that it was quite true.

Technology for my children is vastly different from my concept. For them, computers and internet are normal. Only what will be developed next will be new technology – for example, self-driving cars, electrical vehicles, etc. For me, born in the early 70’s, computers and networks are still marvels of technology. I still remember in the early 1990’s in engineering school, how it was fantastic connecting to a server on the other side of the Atlantic using ftp!

What this quote underlines is that technology is a relative concept, at least when it comes to what we perceive as technology. A lot is hidden from view, but what was there when we grew up is certainly our baseline to appreciate technological developments.

“About 10,000 years ago, humans passed a tipping point where our ability to modify the biosphere exceeded the planet’s ability to modify us. That threshold was the beginning of the technium. We are at a second tipping point where the technium’s ability to alter us exceeds our ability to alter the technium. Some people call this the Singularity, but I don’t think we have a good name for it yet“- Kevin Kelly in a great book, What Technology Wants.

The technium is defined by Kevin Kelly as “…a word to designate the greater, global, massively interconnected system of technology vibrating around us“.

I find this historical perspective interesting (and frightening also a bit – see our post How We Are At the Brink of the Effective Real Birth of Artificial Intelligence). Enhancement of our capabilities or downright slavery? In the mind of Kevin Kelly, the internet and what might happen next is inevitable, the necessary evolution of technology in history. It is where the fact we can’t see any other presence in the universe turns scary.

I am rather on the optimistic side, believing that we will learn to dominate the technology around us… although this skill might become more and more difficult to develop. We definitely need develop a new skill set around managing the technology around us. This needs to be taught at school. This will even more necessary with the development of the self-driving car and other items that we won’t control any more directly. How should we react? How should we use emergency stops? We all need to learn what we can and cannot do. Sooner rather than later!

One the advantages of being a coach and a facilitator is that we seek, and then experience moments where something clicks in the heads of our coachees or participants in our meetings. From one moment to the other, people suddenly have a realization, change their mindset, or the way they see an event or a problem. I am always how such change is sudden even if it took very significant time to come to this point.

It is actually quite amazing and humbling at the same time to witness these sudden changes of state. Of course we are here to provoke these changes (without necessarily trying to impose an answer, as in coaching), and it is always fascinating and exhilarating to reach that moment where there is a significant shift in the person.

Recently I was facilitating a workshop where part of the audience was very entrenched in its understanding of a problem and its conviction in a particular solution, and the objective was to show them that there could be other alternatives and other ways to look at their problem. It took time but finally it clicked. Suddenly, at the occasion of a break, the mood and the mindset changed.

When it happens, some people will readily admit that they changes their point of view; some others will be defensively mumbling and you might need to leave some time for them to admit the change. Yet, every time, the change is visible and can be noted in time.

We should not fear change. It is very possible we change our opinion very suddenly. Let’s not be surprised and confused. It is the way we change most of the time: through a sudden realization.

Kevin Kelly in a great book, What Technology Wants, gives fantastic illustrations of the power of the exponential in a number of areas related to the Fourth Revolution (read our post Why the Fourth Revolution is the Era of the Exponential, and How this Changes Everything).

I can’t resist sharing more exponential curves with you in a variety of technological areas:

“The same kind of steady exponential progress that drives computer chips also drives three information industries, and the keenest observers of these trajectories— the very founders of their respective “laws”— all believe that these trajectories of improvement are independent lines of acceleration and are not derivative of the overarching progress of computer chips.”

Amazing, isn’t it? The exponential really determines technology today.

This post is a second part to a first post.

Kevin Kelly in a great book, What Technology Wants, gives fantastic illustrations of the power of the exponential in a number of areas related to the Fourth Revolution (read our post Why the Fourth Revolution is the Era of the Exponential, and How this Changes Everything).

First, the Kurzweil law showing how computation capability has evolved since the beginning of the 20th century (at a time where all calculations were manual), showing how it evolved exponentially even before the modern Moore’s law of doubling computational capability every 18 month. According to Kevin Kelly, “the curve (let’s call it Kurzweil’s Law) transects five different technological species of computation: electromechanical, relay, vacuum tube, transistors, and integrated circuits. An unobserved constant operating in five distinct paradigms of technology for over a century must be more than an industry road map . It suggests that the nature of these ratios is baked deep into the fabric of the technium.”

Also I noticed this depiction of the power density in various natural and artificial devices, showing how extreme it can be in a microprocessor:

The era of the exponential is really upon us!

I like this quote from Robin Sharma: “You can do world-class work. Or you can please everyone around you. But you can’t do both“.

He continues: “the full expression of your gifts, talents and genius into the world is more than worth the disapproval you’ll attract. Actually, your mastery demands it“.

Of course this immediately attracts the image of the artist genius, completely ignored by its contemporaries, or even disdained by society. We can’t all afford to live like these extremes.

Yet even in my situation of a consultant, I know that I will sometime annoy my surroundings and my clients when I am trying to respond to my vision. What is important is that what happens is explained openly and genuinely. People will recognize a vision and usually respect it. And what is also important is to grow and count on a group of supporters in the face of adversity.

For sure, we should not try to please everybody, and we should not try to anger everybody as well. We need to make sure that at all times we can count on supporters, because they will motivate us to do the work we are here to do.

How much we influence the world is measured by how much we force people to change their mind. Not by how much we please them.

I like this quote from Om Swami: “Your past is like the baked clay pot. It’s already been through the fire, it’s hard, its shape is set. We can’t re-mold it. Any attempt to do so will break it. Whereas the present is like the soft clay, you can shape it however you like. How one casts it varies from one person to another.”

Let’s take this image this a bit further. We certainly have the possibility to shape our future (within the forces we can control). What should be do with the past? Sometimes it seems it could be a good idea to preserve it as it is; or even to build some more on top of it. Sometimes it might be worth shattering it though and start anew without looking at it.

Be gentle and generous with the way you shape your present and future – still, do shape it!