The world we live in continues to change, as it always has and always will. Life is change, as when change stops, we die. (Physically, mentally, and emotionally)
Now coping with change is something that varies from person to person or from group to group. Over time, the individuals, species, or the packs within species, who best adapted to change, tended to survive.
Our species, homo sapiens tend to divide into three segments (psychologically speaking) when it comes to accepting ‘change’.
- The first are the ‘early adopters’; those who buy the latest gadgets or are quickest to jump on a new thought or idea.
- The large middle ground, this is where for example a fashion trend reaches what Malcolm Gladwell refers to as “The Tipping Point”, and becomes part of accepted and common thought and behavior.
- The ‘laggards’; those who tend to hang on to traditional thought, far beyond rationality.
The biggest ‘change’ in 2018, will not be something brand new, but a general acceptance of a concept by the ‘large middle ground’, which will cascade into so many other areas, causing massive change in the way we think. And that is driver-less automobiles.
Increasingly people will get over the “you will never see me get in one of those” thinking. And when that happens our brains will start to get ‘aha’s’, as to what is going to happen, and we will start to think why not sooner vs later?
The biggest ‘aha’ for me, came when I realized IF we were a totally driver-less society, that deaths from auto accidents would be reduced to virtually 0. And I also started to understand the technology behind automated vehicles which is not only GPS guided, but also reliant on the cameras to avoid collisions. We can see some of these features built into the latest cars’ camera technology today. In the fall of 2018, Audi is set to release the first commercial vehicle to achieve Level 3 autonomy, meaning it can drive itself while monitoring its surroundings, in what could become a closely watched test case for self-driving vehicles.
However, it is not the commercial release of the closest yet to a driver-less car, it is the acceptance of the concept by the ‘large middle ground’, that will be the tipping point to accepting other related changes in the thinking of humankind.
- Logic starts to prevail, and we realize that most of the cars in existence, are sitting idle. It is just not efficient in the big scheme of things and one starts to think how much of our disposable income is spent on the car.
- We start to realize that by using the sharing economy more, we could reduce the amount of money we spend on transportation. Simply trying Uber instead of a conventional cab company opens our thinking to what is possible. (when we see how much cheaper it is) We then check out air b&b and so on and so on…..
- As we become more comfortable doing things online, like saving us a trip to the mall by having Amazon deliver that item, OR buying a recycled item from kijiji. We start to ask ourselves if we really need a brand-new item, if we can save a few hundred dollars on a slightly used one?
- This leads into the final cascade of thinking change for 2018, which is the concept of minimalism. Where we start to ask ourselves how much stuff do we really need to survive happily. The concept of happiness starts to be redefined, and popular culture starts to shift away from the “he who dies with the most toys wins” mentality.
Now I do understand that the ‘laggards’ will say that all of this is just a pipe dream, and that our true nature is one of resistance, violence and basically you either kill or be killed. And the laggards can slow changes down, which causes all of us pain and suffering in the end. They do this by perpetrating fear, which is the opposite of the peaceful existence we were all meant to have. Fear causes anxiety leading to physical and mental illness.
Let us not allow the irrational thinking patterns of the laggards, to slow down a more peaceful existence of humankind. It will happen as we:
- Stop living in the past.
- Start living in the now.
- Continue to learn and grow, based on changing information on how the world works.
Comments
The less crap we buy and have to maintain is the road to freedom from stuff. And the biggest shift has to be ..... you are not your stuff!
Nor does it count for who you really happen to be.
Great post!
Having a few cars down the street that you can summon up when required will change society drastically.
An exciting vision.
We need to go INWARD not OUTWARD!
Don't you miss the cost of car payments, insurance, maintenance, parking..... :)
I'm against IOT, and that includes driverless cars. Why ? I'm in IT and know what bugs in software are and to which extent surveillance is possible.
Not all new things are necessarily better ;-)
I'll miss driving and my own car but I won't miss big bills and the inconvenience.
Over time the traditional brick and mortar department style store will lose considerable ground. Americans will simply not need these huge dinosaurs to get a wide range of products. The new Amazon concept store that uses technology over employees will take over.
But can't "they" track us anyway if we have a cellphone on our person?
Sure they can. Even when your phone is shut down it transmits due to the battery installed.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/22/google-track-android-users-location-services-turned-off-sim
http://techpp.com/2013/08/22/track-phone-turned-off/
And this is NOT new. USB sticks have hard-coded open ports, as have laptops, pads or any digital gadget that can go online.
Jobs will shift for sure. How do you feel about Direct Marketing or network marketing type business models? I think these have legs as they involve a human or educational component, which cannot be replaced by an algorithm.
The problem is not only the surveillance which happens through a hidden camera in your TV or, soon to come, in your fridge which tells you which food lacks.
The problem is also "big data is money" - and you give it out for free already - on FB, LI, or wherever on "social media". Means that's why some IT guys are billionaires and you're not LOL
In future you don't need a house alarm anymore, because "they" know what you consume, where you go - and finally what you THINK. And I'm not paranoid.
At first, automobiles were only an oddity in the streets. Horses and buggies ran the roads. Then when traffic got be 20% cars, some horses were too spooked and had to be culled. As consumer preferred jumping into a car and just going--as opposed to preparing a horse for travel, cars became more popular.
Horses were finally banned from streets around 1925 ostensibly because the two modes of travel could not work together very well. But the real truth was that many people were glad that the streets were no longer full of horse poop and pee.
i sort of take the attitude that i don' care what others think of me
Me neither. But it doesn't stay there. There might come action after - be it because of your political POV on unsocial media or simply by what you buy and which friends you have.
Wehret den Anfängen ! said the Germans in 1932. But they didn't.
Those with the best of intentions as political leaders do seem to slip into a different state once they gain control.
Human character set apparently. But there's exceptions, although they never get too far. They're cut short or, worse, are killed, because their interest touches on the wealth of others....
"In a gentle way, you can shake the world."
When you have enough followers. The danger is then that suddenly you have created a sect or, even worse, a religion (-> see Christianity, Islam for more on controlling thoughts and actions ;-)
Isolation = NOT GOOD for humanity.