Beyond the Information Age?

More than ten years ago, I read “The Dream Society” by internationally known futurist Rolf Jensen, first published in 1999. He provocatively peered into the forces that will shape our lives in coming years. Now, today, I can see just how piercingly accurate many of his projections have become.

Human civilization has evolved with big shifts in the way we live. Moving from a primitive nomadic hunting culture to a settled agricultural-based society took millions of years. The next wave of civilization was less dependent on self-cultivation of agriculture, developing trade instead. This, plus the need for protection, led to the development of towns, usually near a water source, that took thousands of years to develop. A few thousand years ago, democratic societies developed. A few hundred years ago, the industrial revolution changed civilization again with the development of a transportation system that allowed the broad distribution of goods and people, with specialization of industries in regions. A few decades ago, we began the technological wave of civilization with the development of the atomic and space ages. And, within the past decade, we have seen the rise of the information age of civilization. “The Dream Society” postulates a post-information age.

We have seen the transformation before our eyes. The computer (or mobile device) has taken over and has simplified many of the tasks that we used to do. From shopping to making travel arrangements to banking, we can do all that on our own from our phone.

Recently, Elon Musk spoke at a conference in Dubai about the challenges and opportunities of the future especially in areas of artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and job displacement expected to come with it. Just like in Arthur C. Clarke’s 1968 novel “2001 A Space Odyssey” where AI outsmarted humans, machines are taking over many activities. There was a recent article about a brick-laying machine that can be operated by one man and can do the work of six. Autonomous trucks are in testing in Nevada. New states of automation are being written every day (hello Siri & Alexa!).

So, what did The Dream Society foresee? Jensen theorized that the most important people in the society will be the dreamers – the poets, artists, inventors, philosophers, and (yes) architects. Billionaire Mark Cuban has stated that if he were starting college now, he would choose philosophy over his accounting major. The jobs of the future are those that require critical thinking and creativity, requiring strong cognitive ability and analytical thinking, skills difficult to replace with AI.