Reflections on the ‘Atlantic’ Article – What’s your next logical step?

I have long been a fan of The Atlantic.   Issues sit on our coffee table, open to articles of interest and topics of conversations that often turn to debates when our grown children come home to visit.  So I was intrigued when it popped up on our reading list and then riveted when I saw the date of original publication and completely engrossed when I began reading.

To say that Bush was visionary would be an understatement.  Although I’m sure he was not alone in his musings of what the future holds, the parallels between his projections and reality were too numerous to mention.

The tie-in between his writing and my last post, not nearly so eloquent or publishable, came to mind. I was pondering the differences in the use of word processing skills in my household.  I wondered how the dictation methods my daughter uses could ever be manageable in a full classroom, citing chaos and noise as obvious impediments to whole-scale adoption of the method.  Yet, 73 years ago, Bush suggested not only that this would be possible but how it might work!

By bone conduction we already introduce sounds: into the nerve channels of the deaf in order that they may hear. Is it not possible that we may learn to introduce them without the present cumbersomeness of first transforming electrical vibrations to mechanical ones, which the human mechanism promptly transforms back to the electrical form?   (Bush, 2006, p. 108)

So, perhaps what we have seen from Bush is not simply visionary musings about the possible, but writings on the evolution of tech and the logical next steps?  Is that what we, as humans do?  Evolve our tools to do the next thing that seems logical.  And in so doing, the thinking goes, ‘and if it can do that, then it could also do ______’.

We have all had our million dollar ideas.  Mine was in the early 2000’s when I got my first car with heated (leather) seats.  In the scorching days of summer, I proclaimed that if we can heat seats, surely we can cool them too!  Low and behold, this is now available on cars that I cannot afford 😉  Was this a next logical step?

I have often joked when in line at the grocery store, that the time will soon come when I don’t have to dig out my debit card to pay for groceries.  Rather the scanner will read a chip or device on my person and withdraw the appropriate funds from the account.  What is the next logical step?  A global economy whereby we are all allocated the physical goods we need to thrive and simply record our receipt via a chip scan.  No money, no budget.  Socialism on a global scale!  Unthinkable in today’s reality.  But totally improbable?  Only the future will tell.  Thankfully, with the advent of the Internet and its endless memory and storage abilities, my musings are here for our ancestors to see.

What is your million dollar idea, or next logical step for the future of tech and humanity?

References:

Bush, Vannevar. (2006). As we may think: July 1945. The Atlantic, 298(2), 55.