Some
common ground between anti-capitalists (labour should get all the reward) and anti-welfare
(work ethic/ safety nets make people lazy) is a romanticising of work. Work for
work’s sake. This commits us to hand to mouth living. Hand to mouth living
commits us to cycles of booms and bust when our hands aren’t sufficient. Hand
to mouth living commits us to hunger when there is not enough work. If you
think of work as problem solving, then presumably you want the problem to be
solved. We shouldn’t be afraid of technological advances solving problems, or
increases in supply of people able to solve the problem making it cheaper to
solve. We shouldn’t build borders that keep problem solvers out. We shouldn’t
want to create fake problems just to keep people busy so we can pay them with “dignity”.
We should welcome the spread of knowledge. This can only come if we turn
everyone into owners. With Capital that moves from solved problem to new or
harder problems. Work isn’t just a way of keeping us busy. The last thing we
should be killing is time.
What
are you counting? I have always had a love for both Art and Maths. In deciding
on a career, I chose to be pragmatic. The harsh reality is STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects are more efficient money-making
containers. Money making requires something you can count. If you can’t count
it, you can’t measure it. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. If you
can’t manage it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t make
money from it. It is a fundamental misunderstanding of pricing to think
qualitative subjects don’t add the value of quantitative subjects. Price isn’t value.
It just reduces the complex down to a tool for comparison. It creates a market
that allows Due Diligence (alternatives, reliability, fairness). This doesn’t
mean we have to live in a STEM world. It does mean that STEM Engines are more
reliable. It is far easier to use Maths to make money, and free your Art from
the constraints of supply and demand. Build an Engine you can count on, for the
things that count.
People
need Cash. Without a living wage, or a buffer, or Capital, or friends or family
to assist, or time, it becomes the only problem that matters. What each
individual needs the cash for differs. The best way for them to spend it differs.
We live in a hand-to-mouth, pass-the-parcel economy where we have to be active
to survive, and there have to be enough jobs (available and permissible) in a
functional chain for the music to keep playing. We can’t pause to check
everyone is okay. We can’t pause to breathe. Except. We can. There are buffers.
There is Capital. We do have enough. The challenge is a very simple
technological problem. Cash Transfers. One Bank account to another. One person
to another. It is not that we can’t do it. It is that we don’t trust each
other. Stay home doesn’t mean the same thing and we don’t live together. In a
world where we can’t look someone in the eye, hold their hand in a greeting, learn
to pronounce their name, and see their world… the immediate necessity is Emergency
Trust.
One area I believe Artificial Intelligence could be very powerful is as a Personal Editor. Many discussions online suffer from boiling blood and personal insults. The aim is to win. Our memories are short. Our reasons often made up to justify a feeling. Our areas of interest wider than our areas of competence. Our Personal Editor could ask us questions, refine, collect, and challenge our opinions. Not in a 'you are a bad person way'. In a 'have you read this' way. The intent of editing isn't to tear down, but to improve. A Personal Editor could fact check things for us, and filter the stuff we read to the set of things that will challenge us in new ways rather than reinforcing our bubble. Thought Leaders often benefit from editing. We just see the cheerleading. We don't get to see the rough path they took to get to their views. Democratising intelligent editing would do as much for communication as the printing press.
I have mixed feelings about Intellectual Property. I think we would be better off if we did our thinking in public. Open to the error correction of a million eyes, if what we are doing is worth their attention. Property allows investment. You can ring-fence the rewards. It also restricts the knowledge to a smaller set of people. We don't always know what connections our ideas will allow others to make. We all see the world differently. In a world with zero transaction costs, perfect transparency, and the ability to replicate anything that has been done before - the rules of reward based on ring-fences will fall away. We will have to switch the economics of scarcity for the economics of abundance. The only thing that can't be copied is human relationships. Trust. Time. Context.
One massive change brought about by communication technology is the ability of decisions, and control, to scale. Senior executives earn way higher than front line workers now, partly because the workers are paid their cog value, and partly because a decision, made once, can be replicated. A musician who can record something once, but keep 'Intellectual Property' over it can make far more than someone who only plays live. Labourers play live. In a world that is perfectly transparent, and where it is easy to replicate whatever anyone does, the only control those at the top have is property rights. Those have become easier to enforce (for now). In the past, there had to be delegation of control, and reward, because of distance. Communication technology changed that (for now). In a world where everything you can do can be copied and repeated immediately, the power will shift back to playing live. The real value people add isn't in doing things a second time. It is in relationships and creativity. It is in being present. You can't replicate that.
One of the best parts of my period of 'independence' was not having to check emails. My inbox was no longer my onbox that determined much of what I needed to do each day. I was able to wake up, and be micro-ambitious. One of my 'mini projects' was getting fit, and so I would pick a place to do my writing and walk to it. I would put on an audio book and head out. I felt super productive, even though I had far fewer big goals. Each day, I was a little fitter, and had learnt and shared a little something.
One of my key ambitions was to be 'the guy with time'. Available for conversation. I have a chip on my shoulder about how busy everybody is, and how much we super specialise.
I fully buy into the value of focusing on areas of 'Comparative Advantage' in a world of scarcity, but there have to be clear constraints. We can't be perpetually on. Perpetually available.
In exchange for not being available for certain periods, you can be fully present when you are available. A friend described it as 'I would rather be 100% present 80% of the time, than 50% present 100% of the time.'
Social Media doesn't have rules. We make the rules. The tools develop depending on how they are used. I hardly used Twitter for the first 5 years I was on it. I had a very persistent friend who loved it, and kept trying to get me hooked. I tried, but it felt like it was just an sms to the world. Shouting into the infinite abyss. The trick, for me, was to get involved. Join the conversation.
Shouting into the Abyss
There is no more powerful tool I know of for connecting Global Citizens. There is no more powerful tool for actively constructing a flow of information that allows me to chip away at my ignorance. I look for real people. I try filter out the ones using Twitter as a loudhailer and look for those who are listening.
Since there are no rules, I use the rules of real life. Relationships are normally better when both people are interested in each other. No one likes someone who only talks about themselves, and isn't interested in others. There are also plenty of people who have interesting ideas and are ready to engage. I focus on them.
I am constantly looking for real people on Twitter. Like going to a party of a friend where you can meet their friends. I will follow people and see what they are talking about. Eventually, if they show no interest in pursuing a conversation, I move on. I don't take it as an affront. People are busy. They don't know me. I don't have to convince them to engage. So I will unfollow those who don't follow me back eventually. Like I would eventually drop my hand if I put it out to greet someone and they didn't notice.
This means I follow a lot of people. In order to focus my reading, I am a power user of Twitter Lists. You can set up public ones which others can see, but you can also turn the setting on private. This means I can have a variety of lists on a variety of topics. These are my constructed filters of what is going on in the world. It means I can consciously choose to make time to listen to bits of the news that don't normally make the headlines.
Yes, I can have a list of people talking about the issues facing the West like Clinton-Trump, Brexit and Terror Attacks. I can also have lists about areas facing Civil War, Mass Unemployment, and Extreme Poverty. I can have lists to ensure I am listening to voices that are normally under represented.
Social Media gets a bad rap, but I find it an incredible catalyst for real world interaction. I like using real world rules to help it help me. Be interested in people. Be kind. The world is a fascinating place and there is lots of good work going on.
I have a big family with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. The next generation is also starting to grow up. I can remember baby Jessica being very confused by the man with glasses growing his hair. What was he? Since then, I have got my eyes zapped but the long hair has made a comeback. Jess is now 13! Being on the other side of the big pond (I am a Soutie with one foot in England and one foot in South Africa), I don't get to see them as often as I like. One advantage for me of the technology age is that doesn't mean I can't be a part of their world. I am super chuffed to introduce her as my youngest ever guest poster, as she talks about feeling like an anomaly.
Jessica, Janet (her Mom, my cousin) and Ryan
Anomaly
by Jessica (Age 13)
Society rules most teenagers' lives, from what i have realised. Their clothes, their shoes, their hair, their words; the way they talk; the pictures they take; the way they pose for pictures; posting the pictures; where they post them; why they post them; what they say when they post them; their friends; their marks; their bags; their attitudes. All of these are basically controlled by society. I would know. I am also, unfortunately, one of society's victims.
Society controls most things about me, even though i know it shouldn't. Most people spend their whole teenage years trying to impress society, my question is, why? What is so important about society that it has the role of taking over our lives. To be quite honest I'm tired of always trying to impress people. Why cant being ourselves be enough?
I have just entered my early teenage years and I'm already feeling the pressure of society. I am constantly trying to keep up with the latest trends, when who I really am, is just drifting me away from me. I have seen so many people suffer from the pressures of society. I thought all teenagers these days were influenced by the world around them, but I was wrong. I thought to be cool or what we call "popular", you have to be in with all the trends and have the best shoes. I was wrong. I thought for people to recognise a teenager as anything but weird, you had to have at least 400 followers on Instagram. Yet again, i was wrong. You might be thinking that what i just said is exactly what you need to be "recognised". No, it isn't.
I know you've heard this before but, you can be just you. I thought I was the only one getting tired of this whole "gotta-make-an-impression" thing, but I was wrong. Lately I've made some new friends who don't really let society get the best of them and actually, they are some of the most amazing people I have met for a long time. I have learnt more about some of these people in a day then i have about most people in 3 months. These teens actually don't care about what others around them judge them for. They are themselves. I think it's inspiring and incredible how emotionally strong they are. I am trying to make sure I surround myself with more people like this. They still like the same music and same clothes and shoes as me, but, it doesn't control their lives. And ... it helps that their personalities are just incredible.
Most teenagers my age are just looking for serious relationships. Everywhere on social media, you see posts reminding you to want that "special someone" or "bae". I'm so sick of always being told by other girls my age that we must impress the boys so that they will like us. Being told that wearing this or that will make us look hot or attractive. No. Most boys don't even put in half the effort for girls. Girls spend so much time on their make-up and hair. I don't even think boys care if your eyeliner is "on" or "under" your waterline. Why can't we be ourselves for them to like us?
Yes, I have "dated" before but to be honest, I'm not really interested yet. Everyone is so shocked when I tell them I haven't had a proper "first kiss" and I always tell them that it's never crossed my mind and I'm just not really interested. I don't want to kiss a guy just to tell society that I have. I prefer keeping guys as my close friends. If you have to change how you are for a guy, or girl to like you, it's not worth it. They must like you for who you are.
This generation is basically moulded by technology. Phones, iPads, tablets, computers, laptops.... If I had to ask someone to have a real conversation with me, the chances are, they won't be able to. I think our generation is just so thirsty for information, and technology is full of it. We are hungry for constant information, whether it's talking to our friends on Whatsapp and Snapchat or scrolling through Instagram. I learnt a few days' ago that your brain can process 10 pictures in a second. That's amazing.
Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp
Back on topic: Some people are going to completely disagree with what I have said. Then again, its just my opinion. Today, I have decided I am going to change, not for society, but for me. I am going to be myself and who ever can't handle it, well, I guess you are entitled to your own opinion. I am just so thankful to have met those people who have opened my eyes and shown me that being myself is better than anything else. Don't get me wrong, none of my friends have been a mistake. They have all taught me new things and different lessons.
I'm going to be a Pineapple and stand tall. Wear a crown on my head, and I will be sweet on the inside.
San Francisco (and the Bay Area) is where the future is being created. Look at the apps on your phone – Uber, Facebook, Google, Yelp, Pandora, LinkedIn, Airbnb, Twitter, and many more – all are located in the Bay Area. People here believe that the world is open for technological disruption and that they have the power to do so. This attitude of innovation and impermanence radiates through to every aspect of life. People are constantly experimenting with their identities, relationships and careers - purposefully building better systems. I live in Sydney now, but I left my (opened) heart in San Francisco.
As a grand finale to my two months in the US and Canada (Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas), I went to a show - Absinthe. Somehow the performers manage to move in ways that don't seem possible. Through concentration, strength and flexibility they do things that bend physics to its limit. I don't believe most of the stuff I see shared on line. Photoshop means things that aren't real can look real. But this stuff was flesh, bone and muscle!
Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality are soon going to be a part of our lives. We are going to be able to share experiences like we share information. We will be able to experience what it is like to fly a wingsuit from the safety of the ground. We will be able to feel like we are walking around in Paris when we are in Parys. What we won't be able to share is the hours of effort that go into that level of controlling the body. The ability to zone in. To focus.
Our worlds are already a mixed reality. A mixture of what we believe is possible and what is possible. A mixture of fact and fiction. Sometimes we see things that break our reality. That break possible. Then we can take that spark and go out and make possible.
One of the most interesting bits of long distance running is how much of a gender equaliser it is. Ann Trason won one of the most hard core 100 mile events 14 times (Western States), and twice beat all the men bar one. At the very long distances, it is less about brute force and more about the story going on in your head. The strongest people in my life have been women. The idea that they would be able to push on as the men drop out resonates with the world I have seen.
Technology has the effect of being an equaliser. Guns meant the physically strongest no longer got to dominate people who were smarter. So the stronger lighter skinned barbarians from the North didn't get to sack the smarter darker skinned city dwellers from the South again. Eventually ideas and knowledge win out. They also spread since an idea used is an idea shared. A rock lifted is just a rock lifted.
Imagine a world where there was hardly any water. The richest person would be the one who controlled the water supply. She could have whatever she wanted, since people would exchange anything for water. Without water, nothing else they have has any value since try as you must, you can't drink dust. Then one day the rains come. The rain changes everything. The previous rules of engagement change. Suddenly the same water that was priceless has a price of almost zero. The richest person in the world is suddenly the same as everyone else.
Got Water?
I believe it is possible the rain is on its way. I believe that if Artificial Intelligence is really smarter than us, it would realise that keeping people trapped below their potential is crazy. I can imagine an AI that is better than any person at anything digital, or anything that can be done with a machine, or anything that once done can be repeated. That AI could realise that it could deposit a Universal Basic Income into everyone's bank account. It could become an individualised coach for every person. It could learn what motivates them and help out. Like rain falling on dry lands, it could release the creativity they are holding beneath the earth. By the AI spending a little on watering, it will gain multiples out of the creative fruits of people.
If the rains come, the rules change. Like the internal strength that makes women less likely to drop out in the long races. I believe that the days where our ability to release potential is based on competitive advantage, where it is based on transaction costs and lack of transparency, are numbered. The rain is coming.
When I visualise the future, I don't see a world where Technology has taken over and there are devices and gizmos everywhere. I see wires and chunky invasive things slowly being replaced with nature and space. I see small becoming possible again. AirBnB CEO Brian Chesky mentions tasks being divided into the hand, the head, and the heart. Industrialisation replaces the hand as machines scale up to do unskilled tasks far more efficiently than our multipurpose biology could ever dream of. Blue collars get replaced by steel. Next will come the head tasks. We are not far away from White collars being replaced. What proportion of the jobs of Lawyers, Actuaries, Doctors, Engineers, Architects are algorithms. Strings of instructions. If it is something you can be told how to do, a computer can do it.
Bye Bye White Collar
Bluetooth removes wires. What happens when Artificial Intelligence removes work? We are already used to being able to work remotely and farm out tasks. If you can send instructions, a computer can do it. Unless you are part of a very small set of people who are asking for unusual/creative things to be done, a computer can likely learn from all the other times it has been done. All driverless cars can automatically know about a pothole once one has gone through it. What happens when work and wires disappear?
The future I see is where obstacles have been removed. The technology acts as a platform. AirBnB is a great example. Why didn't people invite people into their homes before? Because it was hard. They aren't building anything, they are removing obstacles, making things easier and opening up connections. The stuff that can't be replaced is more than an instruction. It is the interaction of people, places, objects, time and space.
Google turns the idea of having a product you have to sell on its head. Most people think they never click on adverts. They don't even know the search results are the advert. They don't know how Google makes money. Amazon turns the idea of making a profit on its head. Over an incredibly long period they build a bigger and bigger business through reinvestment. What if an Artificial Intelligence business able to do all sorts of remote jobs better than people reinvested its profits by Giving Directly. What if that extended to the point where every human on the planet suddenly started receiving a universal income of around $75,000? This would seem odd. Like Google 'giving away' free search. But what if the AI realised that if everyone had 'enough', they would have far more people using their services? What if more people using Goomazon meant a bigger Goomazon?
I think there is a world beyond work. A world beyond an exchange economy. It is exciting. It means we have to start thinking about time in ways beyond productivity. It means we have to think of motivation beyond building something. It means we start getting into the juicy parts of life.
In trying to connect, I have experimented with finding what suits different people. I have never liked the phone. You lose body language. Some people love the phone, so at stages I have got into a habit of giving people a call. Because that is their preferred method of contact. My grandparents love a weekly call on a Sunday. When I am being a good grandson, I do that. Often I end up caught up in whatever I am doing and drop the pattern. A few weekends pass, and I realise it is no longer a part of what I do. No longer a part of my collection of habits.
Whatsapp is one method of staying in touch I have found very useful. It does drive some people nuts though. They moan that they arrive back to streams of messages, or that their phones keeping buzzing incessantly. The second problem is, in my mind, an easy one to solve. I put my phone on silent about 7 years ago. I will turn the sound on when I am specifically expecting a call. Before cellphones, we used to have to arrange to call someone. Appointments. I think that is the way forward. Things are very seldom an emergency. There is a real cost to thinking it is okay to interrupt whatever people are doing. I check my phone often enough, when it suits me, to be okay with calling people back. The advantage of silence is that Whatsapp doesn't irritate me at all.
The first issue can probably be solved in the way I reunderstood Twitter. Twitter is not like Facebook. You don't have a wall. A friend described Twitter as more like a river that you can dip in to as an when you need to. You don't need to fear 'missing out'. I think we should treat other communication forms in a similar way. As an example, when people get back from leave, I think they should be able to delete all the messages in their inbox. Start from scratch. If it is important, someone will get back to them.
We do this with non-technological communication already. You don't have a recording of everything that friends have said. You catch up with them. Yes, there is repetition, but that is how the important stuff gets embedded. We say things. If they are important, we say them again. The truth is, even if you are listening to someone, you are only hearing a fraction of what they are saying anyway. You lose concentration and your mind wanders. You wait for an opportunity to speak. Your understanding gets tweaked. Then they repeat.
I don't like the phone. But there are people I care about who only use that form of communication. If I really want to stay in touch, I need to adjust to whatever way it is other people want to share. Between Whatsapp, Facebook, Skype, Letters, Phonecalls, Coffee, Email, Blogs and Pictures... there is now a broad menu to choose from. A former colleague of mine started using Snapchat because it was the best way to chat to his son. Sometimes you need to get out of your communication comfort zone if someone really matters to you.
Ironically, the best way to start being better at staying in touch is to put your phone on silent, and not expect people to answer 24/7.
I enjoy speaking to Uber drivers about their experiences. I presume there is a bias to being positive to customers since no one really likes a moaner. But I would think you could read between the lines if too many stories are made up. They are overwhelmingly positive. In London, my driver had been working for Tesco. In Joburg, the driver had been working as a security guard. Through the easy provision of a platform to shift to being a driver, these guys lives had been transformed. They were able to take control of their hours, and both said they were earning well.
With my travelling, one part of Uber I have enjoyed is the safety and regularity. There are some things where you want local variety, and others where it is a hygiene factor. Getting from A to B, unless it is specifically for the experience, should be a hygiene factor. Being able to land in a city and use the same app to call up a ride when you are a little overwhelmed is fantastic.
The only negative story I have had, came from someone who used to like 'overwhelmed clients'. He had been a driver for a long time. He charged based on accent. So if someone had a New York twang, he would charge the regular fare from JFK airport to Manhattan. $60. Except he wasn't working in New York. So he would charge R600 for the trip from Cape Town Airport to the City. Only after he had dropped clients off would they find out he had overcharged. Switching to Uber, he couldn't do this anymore since no money changes hands. So he made less money. Clearly this 'negative story' is actually positive.
Most drivers I speak to really like the lack of cash. They don't have to worry about clients just hoping out of the car without paying. The fact that the clients identities have been verified by banking details gives them additional security. If someone has had a few too many and decorates the back seat, a simple message will lead to money being credited to their account to have the car cleaned. They don't have to negotiate with the decorator.
What other exchanges can the 'money bit' be removed from? Could restaurants Uberfy? No bill required if you log in. Self-checkout in London is quite wide spread. In some shops you can get a scanner to carry around with you as you shop, so you don't even do the traditional aisle check out. You just take the scanner back. I have heard talk of items being cheaply tagged, so you just walk into a shop, take what you want, and leave. The bill gets calculated behind the scenes.
There is a huge premium to trust. There are big industries built around the difficulty we have engaging fairly with each other. Security and Insurance are the obvious ones. I don't know much about Bitcoin, but the Economist recently wrote an article on the broader applications to fields beyond money. The technology basically allows people who don't know each other to have interactions that require trust through a dependable public ledger.
One of my pet peeves is when there is a telephone at a service counter, and the person on the other end of the line takes precedence. The people who have physically come to the place wait as the phone is picked up.
Given how fast technology moves, it is very easy to start feeling old when you talk of 'what it used to be like'. Yes, there are now adults that don't get references to Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, Good Will Hunting and Fight Club, but I refuse to admit that I am old. I still reckon if we make it through the next 20 years, we could all end up living a couple of centuries if not more. So they'll have plenty of time to watch the movies.
Anyway, when I was young people still had to make arrangements to be at the phone. 'I am expecting a call' was a thing. I can understand why culturally, it was a big deal. People had to co-ordinate making sure they were available. Getting a phone call now is no longer a big deal. Sometimes our etiquette takes time to catch up. When cell phones came along, suddenly you could call anyone, anywhere, anytime. The novelty meant people liked being the person who would always pick up. My pet peeve of counter service got extended to almost all interaction. 'I just need to take this call' became a thing.
What made me think of this was seeing a Telephone Chair at a local antique shop. I thought what a good idea it would be if phones were removed from office desks, and people had to arrange to call them, or get up and walk over to them. Things are very seldom genuinely an emergency. We just turn them into emergencies. Many people spend most of their office day responding to email, making phone calls, or going into meetings. This leaves little space to think. To chew. To process. To do things differently. We end up on autopilot.
Seth Godin often talks of the value of adding back some friction. Making things a little harder. Imagine we had to pay to send emails? Imagine you had an inbox where you knew the sender had paid a £1, $1 or R1 to send you the mail, and it was only released to you after a week. Would the quality of communication you got go up?
An example of this for me was leaving living in Cape Town. I was fortunate that I got to go back for work fairly regularly. I ended up seeing my friends who live in Cape Town more regularly than when I lived there. When you live close to someone, like standing in a queue waiting, they are often to easy to see, and you don't see them. When you live in a different city, it is like you are phoning, you get given precedence. It is an occasion. Instead of just a beer, or a meal, perhaps you stay for a few days. You make time for each other.
I am suspicious that the best way to see busy people you care about is to live somewhere else. It adds friction.
Farming completely changed how we spent our days. Indoor Plumbing and Sewage made cities liveable. A museum guide in Stockholm told my cousins wide eyed little girl that they used to be able to smell the city 15km away. Urbanisation has been rapid. Horses disappeared (as workers) and we got cars. We got electricity. We got the internet. How we spend our time can be completely upended. The UK is still recovering from the social turmoil of a large chunk of its population getting the rug pulled by the closure of mines. That rug is readying itself for those in white collar jobs with Artificial Intelligence knocking on the door.
What are some of the other changes that could change everything? One I get very excited about is driverless cars. I love the idea of streets free from cars that aren't moving or picking someone up. I love the idea that young people (Parent's taxi) and old people will no longer be dependent on someone for a lift. But, something that blows the excitement of driverless cars out the water is Artificial Intelligence. Tim Urban has done two long posts introducing the idea. The first post looks at what it is and how far we are on the path. The second post looks at the implications.
We really can't even imagine how much life could change. Virtual Reality where you can be anywhere, doing anything, as anyone (Matrix Style), not just as spectator but with the ability to feel, smell and engage. Asking Google questions that could take you four years of study to process, where Google can present the information to you, and teach you. Or just answer the question. Perhaps something as simple as well timed reminders to call your Mom, because she is free, and looking at a picture of you.
One of the questions in Artificial Intelligence is 'self awareness'. At what point does the computer become aware of itself as a separate thing. I think this is ironic, when looking at some of the deeper thinkers on happiness. Happiness may come from a realisation that we are not separate. People seem good at being self aware, but this is often an impediment. One of my problems with a focus on performance management of individuals is it constantly reinforces the individual self. We become so scared of making mistakes, judgement, failure etc. When the focus shifts to the bigger self, some of the panic disappears.
The part of Artificial Intelligence that excites me most is the ability to increase our awareness of our part in the bigger picture. A driverless car can be aware of what is going on at every angle around it. A driver can only think of one thing at a time. Perspective is a great source of well being.
I used Airbnb for the first time this weekend in Edinburgh, and now for the second in Lisbon. I love using Uber. I don't think 'Sharing Economy' is the right term since these are still businesses. They are also controversial businesses because we are figuring out new rules as we go. And we are going quickly. I fall in the fan camp. That doesn't mean I am in the fan camp of every provider, every user and every innovation. An Economy at its best is similar to Science at its best. It is not an answer. It is a question probing at problems, making mistakes, and fixing them. It is messy.
There are two specific things that I really like. An economy which wipes out transaction costs and gives more transparency has the ability to lead to significantly less waste and more trust.
Less Waste
I love walking along the streets imagining a world without all the cars lining the road. Picturing wide open walk ways with tables, chairs, benches, trees and the like. Most of the cars I see aren't moving. They are sitting idle. In the same way there are masses of other 'sitting assets' - rooms, appliances, clothes and other 'in case things'.
There is an irony when people look at rich lists which are typically based on financial assets. The easiest wealth to 'see' is ownership in listed businesses. These do not fall into the sitting assets category which are tougher to value and easier to hide. Money isn't actually a thing. If the money is invested in businesses, it is busy making things or doing things. Efficiency through social networks and electronic administration increases the chance that more of the sitting assets will get off their bums. I get bothered when inanimate objects get more leisure time than people.
More Trust
The more exciting new developments use trust in interesting ways. There are all sorts of wasteful industries that exist primarily because we don't trust each other. Through a combination of introductions, user reviews, identification etc. we end up with a new way to trade privacy for trust. We value both. We are far more tentative in our use of trust and privacy as a currency than cash. For the reason that cash is gone when you hand it over and the deal is done. A cash transaction is temporary. A trust interaction is an ongoing relationship. Trust grows. Trust is fragile but it can be incredibly powerful. We can start to invite 'strangers' into our homes. We can personalise the world. We can standardise the stuff that doesn't matter (like admin) and savour the stuff that does. We can enjoy the unique combinations of flavours creating individuals. Trust tastes good.
A guy I once kind of knew, heard of a girl, whose previous dog's owner overheard a conversation about a foreigner who used those region-hacks for DVD players. You know those ones that stop you watching it because it was meant for another country. The same thing that stops us watching the Trevor Noah clip on colonisation. I imagine that person knows a hack for that too. All illegal of course.
The hacks involve an algorithm of rather bizarre steps that result in the DVD player becoming region free. Something like 'press... right arrow, yellow button twice, mute, help, left, up, 5, box office, up, pause, 3, 7, increase volume, down, boil an egg, tv guide, 4'. Then the screen allegedly goes black and they think they have broken the machine. About two minutes later, lo and behold, they have a region free machine. A mysterious algorithm that if followed correctly does what it is supposed to.
I am busy learning to solve a Rubik's cube via YouTube clips. By stop-starting your way through the video, you can learn what to do. In the beginning the steps are quite understandable. Towards the end there are just algorithms to learn. If you see a yellow fish, make sure its nose is pointing down and then '(R)ight face (c)lockwise, (U)p face (c), (R) counter-clockwise (CC), (U)(C), (R)(C), (U) 2X, (R) (CC)'. The last few stages all have these semi-mystical algorithms that magically solve the cube if you make no mistakes.
It reminded me of some of the things I learnt at university. In one particular subject I was desperately keen not to 'just learn the algorithm'. I wanted to understand why it worked. I sat down with the 700 page text book and started my way through it. Each page took about an hour to understand. I decided to persevere, but after 20 pages my speed wasn't increasing. I did the more simple arithmetic of how many hours it would take to understand the course. I didn't have that much time. I had to suck it up and learn the algorithms. In the case of this course, I didn't even understand the steps! So I had to just learn the various rows of proofs having no clue what they meant. I recognised the symbols, and so sometimes I would spot a pattern. If there was a (-1) at the end you swapped everything around on the next row. Why? Don't know. Fortunately I was not alone. Humility was dolloped out to all my classmates.
Learning how to do something you don't understand can be done through repetition. A university Maths professor once told us at school that if you want to do well at school maths, you can. Just do enough past papers until you recognise all the questions that could be asked of you, and you know the next step. Learn maths like you learn history. He told the story of a girl who had been failing maths, so she did something like 90 past papers and ended up getting close to full marks. Don't do examples till you get them right, do examples till you stop getting them wrong.
There aren't enough hours in the day to learn how to do everything. Fortunately we can solve problems and then share 'simpler ways' to do things. We will likely need the experts when things go wrong. Real understanding comes from knowing the why, not the how.
I usually leave my phone on silent. I know this means I miss calls, but I don't see that as a train smash. I have never been very good on the phone unless it was a girl I particularly liked on the other end. Skype is better because you can see facial expressions. Telepresence is ridiculously awesome. They set up meeting rooms with high definition sound and picture to give the illusion that people in other parts of the world are actually across the desk from you. Because they quality is so good, you don't even put your shouty voice on. You know that one people have when they are talking on the phone. Even in public places.
Flat screen TVs used to be a tremendous luxury and now are fairly commonplace, so I have no doubt the level of technology required for this to be in lounges around the world is not far off. It is one of the few things businesses get to have that are better than what they lay person can get. Remember when you used to go to work and marvel at the cool stuff. For the most part people now go to work and moan about the things they can't use because of IT Security. Things like DropBox or some of the collaborative work software that you can get for free scares any company that has vaguely sensitive information.
A lot of the cool stuff comes from being able to freely share ideas. This is where businesses are at a disadvantage. Secrecy is a fairly key part of having a sustainable competitive advantage, but once we move beyond making stuff and into the more interesting collaborative world - old industrial rules start to break down. When secrecy is important, being part of a business gives you an edge. Then you get let in on some of the tricks. When bravery and authenticity are important, not creating borders that separate you from others gives you a shared edge.
