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AS SOMEONE who makes much of his living advising companies about the remarkable technological changes coming in the future, I have been reminded these past few weeks how far away the future really is.
By this I simply mean that old habits, rituals, practices and technologies die hard – and in many respects aspects of the business world have barely changed at all.
Yes, more than 150 billion emails are sent worldwide each day requiring new levels of immediacy in all we do.
Yes, 450 million tweets are also sent enabling us to receive breaking news and participate like never before.
And, with over 1 billion Facebook users, we all have a global network of contacts that is a significant first for my generation.
So it all sounds pretty good – until I needed to get my bank to provide a letter proving my bona fides to a client of mine, who was about to pay me for services rendered.
My client demanded that, to be a registered vendor, they needed an original letter – not a PDF or copy.
This necessitated a phone call to my bank to instruct them to prepare the letter.
Then my client had to dispatch a messenger to physically collect the letter – or more precisely, a piece of paper - and only then could payment be enacted.
Nothing "future" orientated about that exercise.
Little book with stamps
Last week I travelled through Asia. And, despite prognostications about passports being passé by the 21st Century, that little book of stamped pages that has hardly changed at all over the last 100 years was critical to my travels.
Yes, new security features are a manifestation in recent years, but falsification somehow still manages to circumvent this.
Simply put, if I didn’t have the little book with blank pages and decent validity, I could not travel anywhere beyond my own borders.
Not to mention the onerous visa regimes that require physical interviews when the supposed age of "big data" and the "internet of things" should have made this mode of identification obsolete years ago.
If all my movements and history are now on electronic record, surely the days of physical inspections are over?
A question of milk
Yesterday I ran out of milk - a simple problem we all face at times.
Sure, I can now order sophisticated electronics or clothes or books from anywhere in the world and have them delivered to my door.
I suppose I could do that for groceries as well, but if I wanted immediate fresh products (like dairy or fruit or perishables) a visit to the supermarket was needed.
Fortunately, I can walk to my nearest store – which I did. But then, with only a carton of milk in my hand, I had to wait in line for some time before checking out.
Yes, I used the great invention called the credit card to pay – but my wait in a long queue at rush hour was frustrating.
A few long-faced tellers and endless checkout hassles delayed my exit from the store.
Strange really, as on a recent visit to an Apple store in the USA I managed to buy an expensive iPad without checking out at all.
The salesperson simply swiped my credit card on the store floor, gave me the receipt and off I went.
But for milk, a long laborious process was needed. Nothing 21st Century about that.
Cyber risks and small dents
Not to mention the increasing risks I take in using my credit card, given a rise in electronic data breaches like those experienced by some 40 million Target customers last year.
Cyber-security risks clearly can offset and retard any progress made in making our lives easier.
A few weeks ago I scraped my car's side while reversing out of a tight parking space.
Nothing serious, but irritating enough to spoil the impeccable aesthetics of my vehicle.
More irritating was attempting to remove a small dent and touch up the paintwork.
A tiny scrape resulted in the metal bending way out of proportion to the impact against the wall.
The chassis compounds used on modern automobiles themselves have barely changed and seem unable to develop to a point where they can withstand even slight scrapes like this one.
I know that when I take my car in for a service, my fancy key gets "read" and all faults are analysed by a computer, but when it comes to dents, scrapes and buckled bodywork, things seem to have barely changed.
Cyber commute
Sure, I can now Skype my friends all over the world and get a "Star Trek" feel with Face Time on my cell.
But, it still takes me 17 hours to fly from Johannesburg to New York - a flight time that has hardly changed in 40 years or more, despite new long-range aircraft.
Yes, I can analyse how many calories I burn up using wearable technology, but it takes me two mind-numbing hours or more to commute 45km at rush hour from Somerset West into Cape Town.
I console myself and my clients that we are on the cusp of change.
Biometrics and nanotechnology will change much of these and other "old world" practices in the next decade.
Big Data will – and we live in hope – make life easier. Robo-sourcing will make us rely less on humans while 3D printing will allow us to secure customised items in our own homes at the press of a button.
But hey, we are not quite there yet.
- Fin24
*Daniel Silke is director of the Political Futures Consultancy and is a noted keynote speaker and commentator. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielSilkeor visit his website.
By this I simply mean that old habits, rituals, practices and technologies die hard – and in many respects aspects of the business world have barely changed at all.
Yes, more than 150 billion emails are sent worldwide each day requiring new levels of immediacy in all we do.
Yes, 450 million tweets are also sent enabling us to receive breaking news and participate like never before.
And, with over 1 billion Facebook users, we all have a global network of contacts that is a significant first for my generation.
So it all sounds pretty good – until I needed to get my bank to provide a letter proving my bona fides to a client of mine, who was about to pay me for services rendered.
My client demanded that, to be a registered vendor, they needed an original letter – not a PDF or copy.
This necessitated a phone call to my bank to instruct them to prepare the letter.
Then my client had to dispatch a messenger to physically collect the letter – or more precisely, a piece of paper - and only then could payment be enacted.
Nothing "future" orientated about that exercise.
Little book with stamps
Last week I travelled through Asia. And, despite prognostications about passports being passé by the 21st Century, that little book of stamped pages that has hardly changed at all over the last 100 years was critical to my travels.
Yes, new security features are a manifestation in recent years, but falsification somehow still manages to circumvent this.
Simply put, if I didn’t have the little book with blank pages and decent validity, I could not travel anywhere beyond my own borders.
Not to mention the onerous visa regimes that require physical interviews when the supposed age of "big data" and the "internet of things" should have made this mode of identification obsolete years ago.
If all my movements and history are now on electronic record, surely the days of physical inspections are over?
A question of milk
Yesterday I ran out of milk - a simple problem we all face at times.
Sure, I can now order sophisticated electronics or clothes or books from anywhere in the world and have them delivered to my door.
I suppose I could do that for groceries as well, but if I wanted immediate fresh products (like dairy or fruit or perishables) a visit to the supermarket was needed.
Fortunately, I can walk to my nearest store – which I did. But then, with only a carton of milk in my hand, I had to wait in line for some time before checking out.
Yes, I used the great invention called the credit card to pay – but my wait in a long queue at rush hour was frustrating.
A few long-faced tellers and endless checkout hassles delayed my exit from the store.
Strange really, as on a recent visit to an Apple store in the USA I managed to buy an expensive iPad without checking out at all.
The salesperson simply swiped my credit card on the store floor, gave me the receipt and off I went.
But for milk, a long laborious process was needed. Nothing 21st Century about that.
Cyber risks and small dents
Not to mention the increasing risks I take in using my credit card, given a rise in electronic data breaches like those experienced by some 40 million Target customers last year.
Cyber-security risks clearly can offset and retard any progress made in making our lives easier.
A few weeks ago I scraped my car's side while reversing out of a tight parking space.
Nothing serious, but irritating enough to spoil the impeccable aesthetics of my vehicle.
More irritating was attempting to remove a small dent and touch up the paintwork.
A tiny scrape resulted in the metal bending way out of proportion to the impact against the wall.
The chassis compounds used on modern automobiles themselves have barely changed and seem unable to develop to a point where they can withstand even slight scrapes like this one.
I know that when I take my car in for a service, my fancy key gets "read" and all faults are analysed by a computer, but when it comes to dents, scrapes and buckled bodywork, things seem to have barely changed.
Cyber commute
Sure, I can now Skype my friends all over the world and get a "Star Trek" feel with Face Time on my cell.
But, it still takes me 17 hours to fly from Johannesburg to New York - a flight time that has hardly changed in 40 years or more, despite new long-range aircraft.
Yes, I can analyse how many calories I burn up using wearable technology, but it takes me two mind-numbing hours or more to commute 45km at rush hour from Somerset West into Cape Town.
I console myself and my clients that we are on the cusp of change.
Biometrics and nanotechnology will change much of these and other "old world" practices in the next decade.
Big Data will – and we live in hope – make life easier. Robo-sourcing will make us rely less on humans while 3D printing will allow us to secure customised items in our own homes at the press of a button.
But hey, we are not quite there yet.
- Fin24
*Daniel Silke is director of the Political Futures Consultancy and is a noted keynote speaker and commentator. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielSilkeor visit his website.
