The New; The Possible

Walk into a classroom. An undercurrent of activity throughout the room is alive, squirming in many seats. High school or university, these classes are twitching with fingers and thumbs on tiny keyboards, Blackberrys, IPhones, IPads…..The professor walks in but the squirming continues, ebbing a bit. As the prof makes her lecture points, fingers dance on electronic tools recording the ideas, filing them away for future use. 

Get on a public bus or subway or elevated train, similar twitching is going on. Communications are in process. Ideas are shared. What’s up bro? might as well be I’ll be home by 7 pm, then we can have dinner in time to make it to the meeting at 8:30, Love…. Or it can be…..just met the nicest guy….had a ton of ideas….we can use several of them on our project…Is this how Steve Jobs got started? We’re flying, man….we’re gonna fly!....... 

At first it seems rude. Not paying attention to class structure or instructor; but to something hand held. A game? A phone conversation? A tweet? An email message? Or class notes? 

Or the conversation overheard in public. It may not seem earth shattering to me, but it just might be for those involved. Sharing information. Data. Ideas. Leading to other ideas. Invention. Innovatation. Transformation. 

That’s it! That’s what has been niggling me for months. The transforming change of our society by those we think don’t know much, but who really do! They are taking us somewhere. I’m not sure they know it themselves. But new ways of thinking are being built. Not just new ideas. But new relationships of data, of meaning. And that is fueling whole new world views on countless subjects. Somewhere in there a new product that will revolutionize how we live? How we earn a living? How we use resources? How we see ourselves? 

Fundamental newness. Emergent. Partially understood. Still coming into the light. But new industries are already sprouting. New labor pools are being formed and used. Salaries are being redefined. Daily routines have been dropped, reimagined and are coming into place. 

8.5% unemployed. 9.5% underemployed. 5% maybe lost somewhere in the numbers. The revolution began a few years ago. We are not going to earn our livings in the old way. No sirree Bob! All that is old is soon to be gone. All that is new will be the fresh order of things. 

And we need to find our way through the maze. It is there as challenge. It is there as possibility. It is our future. When will we notice?

February 3, 2011