Categories: Articles

What Technology Will Bring (Hint: More Massive Disruption)

This is some big brain stuff to watch over the weekend.

It’s probably also some of the smartest and most important things for you (and your business) to be thinking about in the next five years. I have been looking at the area of robotics, drones and wearable technology in a very different light for the past few years (I’ve even started a Tumblr page on the topic, We, Robots, but it’s dire need of being updated with all of the new content that I have been hoarding on Pocket). In short, there is a major panic in industry that the digitization of work and the growing dominance of newer robotic technology is going to push us all out of work. My theory, is that robots should not replace humans, but rather augment our work experience. Let the droids handle the work that doesn’t inspire, so that human beings have more time to be creative, exploratory and connecting to one another (yes, I know, it’s a big dream). At this past year’s TED conference, I was fortunate enough to discuss this topic and other trends over a dinner one night with Erik Brynjolfsson. He is the Schussel Family Professor at the MIT Sloan School, the Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Along with Andrew McAfee (a scientist at MIT), they have co-authored the amazing book, The Second Machine Age – Work, Progress, And Prosperity In A Time Of Brilliant Technology. It’s a staggering data-based read about work and the future of business. McAfee recently had a conversation with Walter Isaacson (who heads up The Aspen Institute and also authored many books – including the Steve Jobs biography) at the institute. It’s over an hour long (so, pack a lunch), but it is something that will get you thinking completely differently about work today, and what it’s all going to mean tomorrow.