When future thinkers talk about timelines, they use terminology that centers around 3, 5- and 10-year horizons and they are purposefully vague.
INTERACTIVE MOMENT – take a sip of coffee or energy drink before continuing…whew that was close.
Now, take a moment to close your eyes and envision the world, say, 10 or 15 years from now. What you’re imagining, is most likely a Star Trek or Marvel like universe with new technology and maybe some unintended consequences, good and bad. As a species, we hope major world problems like poverty, climate change or disease will be solved by a technology breakthrough of the future. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we must move away from looking at the future in just this one way. I think the Marvel Universe nailed it. Dr. Strange envisioned 14,000,605 different versions of the future and only one that likely would work. However, let’s not talk in terms of a single future, that almost never happens. Let’s talk about the multi-future universe (cue music…oh what, sorry). Being open to multiple scenarios and all kinds of solutions will mean we are more likely to be right about what happens. We have more chances to be right about world hunger, global warming and any number of other topics that manifest as unsolvable problems.
Now I’m not saying that the flip phone wouldn’t have happened without the Star Trek communicator or that Quantum Computing won’t happen without the Quantum Realm. What I am saying is that much of the infrastructure we have today is a result of us imagining the desired impact of one device, the Motorola phone. The news broadcast of that “streamlined” device allowing the gentleman using it to talk on the phone while walking down the street…no coil cord connected to the wall, we only dreamed of that kind of freedom, cordless. The kind of freedom that allowed us to stay connected with our loved ones and our work lives while staying on the move or doing the things we wanted or needed to do. Wireless phones, wireless computers, wireless data streams and, very soon, wireless power all disconnecting us from the “tethered world” so we can be more connected.
Flying cars, hmmm. Jetsons, I don’t know, maybe. What does the infrastructure look like for that? If you close your eyes, I bet you can see it and I bet you have an idea on how to make it happen. Quick, go tell someone, you might just change the future.
Tom Douglass is the founder and CEO of Catapult Consulting – LLC of Arkansas, an emerging tech, innovation and management consultancy.