George Carlin, Circa 1978...
Disclaimer: This post is just a reaction to something I was not nearly expecting to see on HBO in the year 2006....a George Carlin Comedy Special from Phoenix, recorded the seemingly ancient year of 1978...A.D. for those smartasses out there. Whilist I might be a great fan of Mr. Carlin, I could not help but think how cumbersome it would be to perform comedy in the round tethered down to a wired microphone.
Putting myself in the shoes of the layman, or even in what I can best describe as "my" shoes in that time period, I ask myself, "would I, or would anyone at that time be able to even conceive of a time, an era, when thoughts of being bound by mere physical wires are but a fleeting, if even, a thought?"
What I surmise, is that in the late 1970's, besides the more visionary Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the so-called "futurists" (and Trekkies, self-admittedly), and their ilk, very few people in modern society could fathom such a reality. While most everyone in such society knew about radio, few, I presume ventured so far as to imagine that such technology could eliminate the wire between tv and cable jack, handset and phone jack, etc, and even go so far as to conclude that one day human communication, whether voice, video, and/or data would be almost completely unbound by the physical wires of the day.
Fast forward thirty years.
Who amongst us can imagine the unimaginable technological advances that will inevitably alter not only the technological landscape, but also the fundamental way that humankind goes about its every day life. Such mental exercizes are likely to perplex even the most educated and experienced mind, as, amongst other obstacles, efficient market theory tells us, even predicting the near, or immediate future with much accuracy is, over time, a futile endeavor.
So what's next? What will be the 'wireless revolution' of our time? What is going to be the next great, revloutionary technology of our generation? And, furthermore, how are we to identify this next killer app? This post is not meant to be definitive, nor explicitely clear, but more philosophical in nature. The nature of innovation is no certain nature at all. As technology and our technological capacities and understanding increase over time at a near exponential rate, increasingly approaching the bounds of current understanding (e.g. the upper limit of Moore's Law), how are we to manage the way we approach even greater innovation. While this might seem like a veritable Catch-22, and in truth it may be, I am confident that humankind will continue, given a relatively stable set of geopolitical/economic variables, to push the proverbial envelope.
The salient question at this point however should be clear, and that is HOW we are to continue our upward momentum. Tonight though, I'm not going to say anything more than, that I am confident that as always, time, will tell.
Putting myself in the shoes of the layman, or even in what I can best describe as "my" shoes in that time period, I ask myself, "would I, or would anyone at that time be able to even conceive of a time, an era, when thoughts of being bound by mere physical wires are but a fleeting, if even, a thought?"
What I surmise, is that in the late 1970's, besides the more visionary Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the so-called "futurists" (and Trekkies, self-admittedly), and their ilk, very few people in modern society could fathom such a reality. While most everyone in such society knew about radio, few, I presume ventured so far as to imagine that such technology could eliminate the wire between tv and cable jack, handset and phone jack, etc, and even go so far as to conclude that one day human communication, whether voice, video, and/or data would be almost completely unbound by the physical wires of the day.
Fast forward thirty years.
Who amongst us can imagine the unimaginable technological advances that will inevitably alter not only the technological landscape, but also the fundamental way that humankind goes about its every day life. Such mental exercizes are likely to perplex even the most educated and experienced mind, as, amongst other obstacles, efficient market theory tells us, even predicting the near, or immediate future with much accuracy is, over time, a futile endeavor.
So what's next? What will be the 'wireless revolution' of our time? What is going to be the next great, revloutionary technology of our generation? And, furthermore, how are we to identify this next killer app? This post is not meant to be definitive, nor explicitely clear, but more philosophical in nature. The nature of innovation is no certain nature at all. As technology and our technological capacities and understanding increase over time at a near exponential rate, increasingly approaching the bounds of current understanding (e.g. the upper limit of Moore's Law), how are we to manage the way we approach even greater innovation. While this might seem like a veritable Catch-22, and in truth it may be, I am confident that humankind will continue, given a relatively stable set of geopolitical/economic variables, to push the proverbial envelope.
The salient question at this point however should be clear, and that is HOW we are to continue our upward momentum. Tonight though, I'm not going to say anything more than, that I am confident that as always, time, will tell.
posted by Gordon Gekko at
1:45 AM
1 Comments
