I think about this a lot.
I'm 34 years old.
Can you remember those days? 30 years ago?
Look at the roads. How have they changed?
Look at Sentosa. How has it changed?
Look at Changi Airport. There used to be 1 terminal, now there is going to be 5.
When I was young, pagers were around when I was in secondary school, 14 years old. (yr 1996)
When I was in JC, 17 years old (yr 2000), I regularly carried around my mother's phone when I went out so that they could contact me.
I played Utopia, an online game in my JC library, cos I did not have internet access at home.
When I had internet access at home, it was only a few hundred kbps. It was a dial up modem.
Then cable modems came along with a few hundred mbps.
Now we are surfing at 1gbps.
Handphones were those big klunky things.
Then came smaller models and Nokia was popular.
Then Siemens and Samsung and Motorola had their time as well.
We carried around our phones in my NS days to call family when we were at Tekong. (2002)
Some people were even talking about how is Starhub's reception. Now, no one asks about reception. Good reception is a given, people don't ask about it anymore.
Facebook was launched in 2004. People still had to use their PCs to access Facebook.
In 2009, iPhone3 pops up. Suddenly the information age changes.
Everyone is now connected. Information flows around at a snap of your fingers.
2016, things are becoming more automated.
Imagine we were our parents. They lived through this as we did. Travel was not as cheap previously. People didn't really go on trips every few months. Now international travel is all over the place. People go on holidays twice a year. Imagine we were our parents, do you think you would see international travel so regular? Such a normal thing for everyone?
Would you even imagine that information would flow around so freely?
That you could so easily get porn on demand?
That you could have a touch screen device to surf internet? Facebook? GPS and maps?
No... I doubt any of our parents, when THEY were 20, 30 years old, they would never have believed such stuff would appear when they are now 50,60.
Now think about where we are now. I am 30. Project this 20-30 years into the future.
Imagine. What things could be. Now, destroy whatever you have imagined. Cos that is wrong.
You can probably never imagine it.
30 years into the future, the world could go to war.
Or we would have nuclear fusion energy, the power of the sun, clean sustainable energy.
Solar power could be the next in thing, a device the size of your phone put on your roof could power your whole house forever. You really never know.
Do we even need to travel to work any more? Do we even need to work anymore?
We now have VR, we could hold meetings at a virtual work place. Discuss with people and talk, even see their facial expressions just via VR.
Maybe you could even 3D print food. Food is just elements, molecules which are formed into proteins and other stuff you eat. So maybe we could load elements into a device and it could print out any food you wanted. Why not? Impossible? Did your parents think that the internet was possible when they were 30 years old?
Or artificial intelligence could be so human like that they would be walking with us and no one would know if they were human or robots. They could do all the work. They could be as or more intelligent than humans. Robots could do coding, take care of children, farm, do medical stuff, everything. Then humans would just need to exist. There would not be anything necessary to do.
Impossible? Really? How do you know?
Maybe humans would have colonized Mars?
Would the stock market still function? Why would it function? Everything is free. No one needs to work. Robots do everything.
Or? Or? What?
How would we know?
Can you imagine? If you can imagine something, think further, think more impossible thoughts, cos in 30 years, it's going to be even more impossible than you could probably imagine now.
Just think about when your parents were 30, and where we are now.
Then think about now when you are 30, and where you will be at 60.
30 years is a long time in terms of technology. It's barely enough to just pay up your housing loan, but in technology years, 30 years, everything could be different, and the world as you know it now, will also be vastly different.
No... Everything will be different. We probably can't even imagine it.
Also think about your children. Don't think about what you want for them now. Cos that will all change. Think about what they would have wanted you to do for them, so that when THEY are 30, are they ready for the new world?
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I'm 34 years old.
Can you remember those days? 30 years ago?
Look at the roads. How have they changed?
Look at Sentosa. How has it changed?
Look at Changi Airport. There used to be 1 terminal, now there is going to be 5.
When I was young, pagers were around when I was in secondary school, 14 years old. (yr 1996)
When I was in JC, 17 years old (yr 2000), I regularly carried around my mother's phone when I went out so that they could contact me.
I played Utopia, an online game in my JC library, cos I did not have internet access at home.
When I had internet access at home, it was only a few hundred kbps. It was a dial up modem.
Then cable modems came along with a few hundred mbps.
Now we are surfing at 1gbps.
Handphones were those big klunky things.
Then came smaller models and Nokia was popular.
Then Siemens and Samsung and Motorola had their time as well.
We carried around our phones in my NS days to call family when we were at Tekong. (2002)
Some people were even talking about how is Starhub's reception. Now, no one asks about reception. Good reception is a given, people don't ask about it anymore.
Facebook was launched in 2004. People still had to use their PCs to access Facebook.
In 2009, iPhone3 pops up. Suddenly the information age changes.
Everyone is now connected. Information flows around at a snap of your fingers.
2016, things are becoming more automated.
Imagine we were our parents. They lived through this as we did. Travel was not as cheap previously. People didn't really go on trips every few months. Now international travel is all over the place. People go on holidays twice a year. Imagine we were our parents, do you think you would see international travel so regular? Such a normal thing for everyone?
Would you even imagine that information would flow around so freely?
That you could so easily get porn on demand?
That you could have a touch screen device to surf internet? Facebook? GPS and maps?
No... I doubt any of our parents, when THEY were 20, 30 years old, they would never have believed such stuff would appear when they are now 50,60.
Now think about where we are now. I am 30. Project this 20-30 years into the future.
Imagine. What things could be. Now, destroy whatever you have imagined. Cos that is wrong.
You can probably never imagine it.
30 years into the future, the world could go to war.
Or we would have nuclear fusion energy, the power of the sun, clean sustainable energy.
Solar power could be the next in thing, a device the size of your phone put on your roof could power your whole house forever. You really never know.
Do we even need to travel to work any more? Do we even need to work anymore?
We now have VR, we could hold meetings at a virtual work place. Discuss with people and talk, even see their facial expressions just via VR.
Maybe you could even 3D print food. Food is just elements, molecules which are formed into proteins and other stuff you eat. So maybe we could load elements into a device and it could print out any food you wanted. Why not? Impossible? Did your parents think that the internet was possible when they were 30 years old?
Or artificial intelligence could be so human like that they would be walking with us and no one would know if they were human or robots. They could do all the work. They could be as or more intelligent than humans. Robots could do coding, take care of children, farm, do medical stuff, everything. Then humans would just need to exist. There would not be anything necessary to do.
Impossible? Really? How do you know?
Maybe humans would have colonized Mars?
Would the stock market still function? Why would it function? Everything is free. No one needs to work. Robots do everything.
Or? Or? What?
How would we know?
Can you imagine? If you can imagine something, think further, think more impossible thoughts, cos in 30 years, it's going to be even more impossible than you could probably imagine now.
Just think about when your parents were 30, and where we are now.
Then think about now when you are 30, and where you will be at 60.
30 years is a long time in terms of technology. It's barely enough to just pay up your housing loan, but in technology years, 30 years, everything could be different, and the world as you know it now, will also be vastly different.
No... Everything will be different. We probably can't even imagine it.
Also think about your children. Don't think about what you want for them now. Cos that will all change. Think about what they would have wanted you to do for them, so that when THEY are 30, are they ready for the new world?
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