The age of irrelevance
Why is not what you think
This statement could be seen as a pretty strong prediction that is far from reality and I would say it is very much true. Let’s be honest, it is quite unlikely that in the future masses of people would be left in the irrelevance as some dystopic film pictured.
Why then writing an article about an unlikely prediction read on some book? Societies have shown more and more time that they are always able to drive the technology and constrain what needs to be slowed down while protecting what should be protected. From nuclear weapons to workers (talking mostly about blue-collar) we all escape the worst-case scenario and move forward with improvements. The question starts to be more compelling, why then?
Because won’t be the society the irrelevant one but just you, you that until now forgot there are almost 7 billion people in the word with you. You that each day miss the chance to learn more and resists change. You that want just a stable job to stick to all your life. If the previous sentences are NOT describing you at all then this article is for you.
Reflections
Understanding that if the problem does not touch us directly could be also our problem is another fundamental step in this path. ( Do you remember the fundamental step of last week? ) Many people hanging around on Medium are constantly eager to read and learn more about some topic but recognizing that many other people have not this approach is important as well. Even if could well be that all my readers and a few of their friends won’t be attached at all by the future and won’t fall into the irrelevance not now or soon, there are people who will.
The age of irrelevance is not an age where people are left outside of new technologies or networks but instead that many less wealthy people fail to recognize there is a whole world outside their small network and most of their action or creation will contribute to the growing impairment that exists in modern society and we will analyze in a couple of weeks. Technology was invented to improve work and make processes more enjoyable or efficient and it is not a surprise we are now living in a world where most of the things we interact each day weren’t there just 50 years ago (little more than half of the human average lifetime). The world runs fast and sticking with an old mentality could be detrimental for the future self.
The age of irrelevance is an age where we are not more able to understand the complexity of the world as already completely connected. In this world is very difficult to make a big difference or only to plan a working action. Everything falls into irrelevance. Many people can fell over those words and this allows me to restate my consideration. Is not enough to learn how the world is growing and expanding but it is crucial to learn how too many people fail to keep pace and is everybody’s responsibility to avoid this feeling of the irrelevance of action ( and later themselves ) to appear.
Finally, the age of irrelevance underlines the fact we will (or already) have digital tools that can connect more than ever on one side but also able to drain us completely. We feel more and more that our experiences are irrelevant if not shared with ( and accepted by ) others. Many could argue that this exactly how is always been and humans do that since the beginning of time but scaling from a community of hundred people to millions is not a simple problem and could take a generation to finalize.
Misunderstanding the age of irrelevance in front of us can have harmful consequences as we have all see a couple of weeks ago in this video.
To Conclude
New technology and the fast development of the world are the truth that we feel every day and are very likely that you, my dear reader, have recognized that already. Improving and approaching with curiosity the unknown is the right way to stay relevant in this new marathon. This post tries to reflect on the fact that maybe the goal isn’t to win the marathon but learn how it works, how to play it, and then help others changing the rule of the game in any little part you can. Seems maybe not concrete but I would love to be more specific on Instagram or in the comments. What could you do to change the rules of this marathon? Feel free to share your thoughts on Instagram tagging @bit.evolution.
I hear someone said something in the line of “pursuing the dream of someone else is the worst that can happen to a person”. I can say that there no worst future for a person to pursue a dream injected by a news feed of some social network.
If you would stick with me for the next 20 weeks hopefully a clear picture of humans and technology will raise. It is very easy to fall into irrelevance, probably you have already one more gear but never forget about all the other person on the planet. Till the next one, if you understand Italian:
