We are printing our wares with 3D printers, programming at the cellular level, transferring memories from the brain into cloud storage, growing human organs in laboratories, our homes, lawns and fields are managed by robots, we no longer need an army of bureaucrats or notaries, because the blockchain technology lets us easily save and protect information.
We do most of our transactions – from purchases to personal business – via the internet or applications in our phone. We join work meetings only remotely, and we have never seen most of our colleagues with our own eyes. They might not be our colleagues at all, only e-functions or robots.
A journey to Mars will be a small item in our bucket list, and our relationship to nature will remain fragmented. Today’s children don’t see carrots growing. We might see the sunset by the sea only as a screensaver.
People and companies that own technologies also own the future of the world. For example, Facebook and Google already control around 70 percent of the global digital marketing industry. You gain a dominating position by controlling technology.
5 global tech giants – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft – together are stronger than many countries. They were once only ideas or scientific projects. Today, Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp, while Google owns YouTube and Waze. The holding company Alphabet, which owns Google, also owns the technology research lab called Google X, neuroscience research and artificial intelligence companies Verily and Google Brain, the self-driving automotive company Waymo. Amazon controls ecommerce platforms, logistical systems, and the largest data storage centers, as well as scientific research laboratories. If you are not developing artificial intelligence today, you will be gone tomorrow.
It is likely that patents will go away eventually, and most technologies and applications will become open source, but these will be so advanced that only the chosen ones will be able to comprehend them.
In this context, we are tackling serious and forward-looking issues in Lithuania and Latvia: waste disposal, potholed roads, the national costume and strengthening the regions by providing mortgage loans
The whole world is considering the competences of the future. Are creativity and motivation the most important? Is an engineering or IT qualification enough to give you a promising future? We don’t know how people’s relationships will develop and change or how organizations of the future will look like. What will we do if robots do all of our work? It is estimated that artificial intelligence will take over 1.8 million jobs and create 2.3 million new jobs. We will work, but our work will be different.
IT, sciences, engineering, data analysis, finance management and management (someone will still have to organize the work) are named as the most viable fields. A person who understands technology will be able to participate in the creation of the future. Is there a place for such a person in Latvia or Lithuania? Will this person identify themselves with the Baltic states? Or will the tech companies become the new motherlands?
Newest research shows that millennials are more conscientious than we once were, but they feel lonely. People are living creatures. Today, we still have a relation to one another and to nature. Nevertheless, it seems that the isolation will become stronger. The divide between the competent and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, will increase. Some will consciously choose a natural way of life – natural food, natural pregnancy, life in nature and sustaining a meadow, a garden, livestock, and enjoying the real smell of the mornings and evenings. Others will journey into the cyberspace. It seems that small children engaging with their parents’ phones already have a one-way ticket there. Not on their own volition, though.
I sometimes feel that the world will leave us standing behind and hardly knowing what’s going on. Do not worry, they will come to take us. No, not Martians. The ones who control the capital and the knowledge will need consumers. Consumers that have at least some money. This is why they will organize tech-literacy and robotics training. The question of whether we’ll be smart consumers or smart creators is being answered today.
Dr. Alisa Miniotaite, Leadership and management expert, Founder of UAB „ALISA MANAGEMENT LABORATORY“ , International certified ICC coaching trainer for Baltic countries.
Source: www.15min.lt