The Future is Now 5

October 14th, 2011

The last two weeks were hectic (good, hectic = more cashflow) and right now I have the grandmother of all flu’s.  So let’s use the time …

When I was a youngster, we only saw horror movies about robots and aliens.  The invasion of the robot, so to speak, and the humans could do nothing against it’s super powers.

I don’t know when it changed, perhaps with ET and Robocop?  But these days robots are on our side.  Technology is becoming more and more “human.” 

Remember the Bionic man?  Part man, part machine?  Remember how the machine part gave him super powers?  It is happening in real life!  Experiments are very well advanced with paralysed people and special, high technology suits that will enable them to walk independently.  That is a very positive robot  effect!

And what about the Google Car?  A driverless robot car?  Don’t believe me?  Rread about it here and here.  This one excites me!  Just imagine what it can do for parking lots!  I ask my car to take me to the office while I do a Sudoku.  I sent it back home and tell it to fetch me at a certain time.  Or perhaps even better, we have a number of these that travel a certain route and I flag it and it takes me where I want to go.  Like a taxi.  In South Africa with our irresponsible minibus taxis, this should happen tomorrow.

I have no doubt that technology will improve our standard of living.  When I think of Virgin Galactic and galatic travel within reach, Google cars, I involuntarily think  of the Jestons, that old futuristic comic.  I can see how we will have robot domestics that clean up, do the washing and ironing (and perhaps even wash my back).

The Future is Now 4

September 28th, 2011

Time flies!  It is almost Friday again.

Yesterday I spoke to somebody about the “waves” and how it is changing our world.  Computers will do more and more “human” work.  And he posed the question:  “I wonder what my children will do?”  That is a question.  I really don’t know, except – they will do something different from us!

I think part of the turmoil we experience in the world is caused by the fact that we are at the end of one (technological) era and at the beginning of a new (technological) era.  And the two are not really compatible.

The old economy was built on a mentality of scarcity, hence the definition of the study field economy as the “management of scarce resources”.  There is a huge difference between a resource and a source!  Resources are finite, like fossil fuel.  A source is limitless, like the sun.   More and more the technology is focusing on sources rather than resources.  The new “economy” will be built on abundance – enough for all.  The new economy will be “Biblical” – give and you will receive!  Don’t believe me?  If you read this you are on the internet.  Then you are experiencing the abundance of the new economy!

Our conversation yesterday turned to the population and unemployment and the problems it poses.  And suddenly I had this insight – the real problem is not the many people and unemployment.  The real problem is the money system and especially the friction in the monetary system.  We have been over inflation and money supply and how it contributed to the problem (go back to the series “The World in Aug 2011″).  The truth is I have more than enough work  in and around my home to keep a lot of the beggars knocking on my door very busy for some time.  There is more than enough work in our municipal area to keep probably all the robot-beggars (who really want to work) busy for a very long time.  There is no scarcity of work.  There is a scarcity of money!  And that is why it is so important to find complementary currencies.  What about paying with Voyager Miles?  Or Standard Bank “Blue Beans” of FNB “E-Bucks?”  Once again, this is not an original idea!  Just Google “Complimentary Money or Currency” and see what is happening around the world.  Some governments (the clever ones) are even accepting the complementary currencies as payment for taxes.

Next time I just let my thoughts go about what the future maight look like.