We live in exponential times

This morning I watched my three year-old son (and he is only just three) turn on his mother’s ipad, sweep over the slider bar to unlock it, find the you tube app, and start watching his favourite steam train video. When we called him in for breakfast he touched the screen to activate the video controls, hit pause, and then sauntered into the kitchen for his Cheerios. I wouldn’t mind but we have only had the thing for a month. It’s taken my wife that long to get used to it. My mother still cannot find the on button…

The world into which our children have been born, and within which they appear so comfortable, is so different from that of even five years ago as to be unregognisable. Back then tablet computers effectively didn’t exist, and nobody saw the need for them. There are now more devices with internet capability than there are human beings on the planet. Next year there will be twice as many. The rate of change in our world is no longer arithmetic, it is logarithmic.

My colleague and business mentor Martin Stillman-Jones pointed me towards this little you tube gem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwwrGV_aiE&list=FL3Z6gLy1vNd6QGliVPtN7iQ&feature=mh_lolz. When I watch it I think about my little boy’s future, and I both envy him and fear for him. We live in exponential times…

 

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