Over the last 20 years, technology has moved at unprecedented speeds — often not giving people enough time to process the massive changes brought about by technology. The World Economic Forum discusses how the tech revolution led to a radical transformation of society, culture, and daily life on a global scale. In the year 2000, only about half of Americans had broadband access; the number is now close to 90%. Cell phone use saw a similar trend, with eight billion cell phone subscriptions worldwide, which means there are now more phones than people.
Modern gadgets are increasingly personal and portable, and we anticipate there’s still more advancements to look forward to in the future. However, these rapid changes can also be a cause of stress; people constantly have to adapt to new devices without fully understanding them. For instance, not many people understand what tokenization is, which is why mainstream adoption is slow going.
Fortunately, many resources are available to help us figure out what’s going on. Here are three books to read if you want to learnabout future technologies:
Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life by Adam Greenfield
As artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things become more prevalent, Radical Technologies joins the number of books dedicated to questioning the intimate ties between human life and technology. What sets author Adam Greenfield’s work apart, however, is how he explores the impact of the technology we have here-and-now on human behavior in the years to come. With technologies like blockchain and machine learning slowly being integrated into everyday reality, how can we retain our agency and control? Greenfield also helps readers spot the intention behind a piece of technology, and how these intentions shape users — rather than the other way around.
The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler
Will you still recognize our world in a decade? Best selling co-authors Peter Diamandis (space entrepreneur-turned-innovation-pioneer) and Steven Kotler (peak performance expert) dive into a roadmap on how the world will change as a response to the next ten years of technological disruption. In The Future Is Faster Than You Think, Diamandis and Kotler examine how technologies like AI, robotics, virtual reality, and sensors will merge with blockchain, 3D printing, and global gigabit networks — and what this convergence will mean for the way we raise our children, govern our nations, or care for the planet. Not only do the co-authors invite us to reimagine our world, but they also offer us descriptions and applications of these technologies so leaders can start future-proofing their strategies.
Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia by Anthony Townsend
As we discussed in our post called Smart Cities and the Role Blockchain can play, 55% of the world’s population currently live in cities, and this trend is expected to continue well into the future. Smart cities — areas that use technologies like sensors, meters, tokens, appliances, and personal devices — are expected to keep urban living sustainable and inclusive. In Smart Cities, urbanist and digital technology expert Anthony Townsend takes a broader look at this notion, and how information services technology will play a role in planning and designing future cities. Townsend explores all possibilities of what happens when digitization is applied to urban life, and how policy objectives can restructure city living for the future.