|
Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 1999 Typing pool shows the way GENERALLY speaking, those working in technology have to stay ahead of the game in terms of their mobility and working flexibility. Here, technology and markets wait for no one - they drive mercilessly on, and if you don't keep up you are quickly out of the game. During the next decade many other sectors will also become computer-dominated and computer-driven. To survive, businesses and people will have to be more responsive to customers and the competition. So, what will further shake our companies and working practices to change our lives forever? I'm afraid it is a very long list, with technologies invoking more change in a shorter time than ever before. Our value sets, rules of business, and people behaviours will all have to change if we are to prosper. Jobs for life have long gone in all the fast-moving sectors, and so have typing pools and drawing offices. For many, the future will be about selling our skills on the move in an environment demanding continual education and training. A networked world naturally leads to people being able to sell their abilities to several companies at once, move organisations faster, and be more fickle. The electronic economy will soon eclipse the old order, and computer skills and creativity will increasingly be at a premium. Imagine trying to run a modern business using Morse Code instead of the telephone, or conducting business transactions only in cash instead of cheques, plastic and credit? We now see such notions as ridiculous. In less than a decade we will also consider businesses without email and a Web presence as weird, and people not engaged in e-commerce an endangered species. The arrival of digital radio and TV, chips in everything, wearable computers and devices we just talk to instead of type at, artificial intelligence that augments our own, and electronic agents that find the information we need, will change everything. All the typing pools went with the arrival of the PC. The mail-room and letters are next, followed by the needless use of paper, supermarket checkouts, travel agents and wholesalers. In a world of bits, these functions disappear into a screen and the customers take over. The key question now centres around our ability to adapt to change and adopt new practices and relationships. So far, technology has benefited us enormously by making those things and facilities that were available to only a few just a short time ago, readily available to everyone. And the trick has been to realise a world where we can all be computer operators, writers, bankers, medics, professors, teachers and students at the same time. So why are there so many doubters, detractors and technophobes? Well, looking at our history, we do have a habit of not quite getting it right. The industrial revolution was a painful transition because of its sheer speed and breadth. There were no models, no prior experience, no anticipation or expectation. By and large the first and fastest won or failed spectacularly. But this time around, we have the technology to help us - provided, that is, we choose to think, model, anticipate and plan. Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is: |
Telegraph Group Limited endeavours to ensure that the information is correct but does not accept any liability for error or omission.
Users are permitted to copy some material for their personal use, but may not republish any substantial part of the data either on another website or as part of any commercial service without the prior written permission of Telegraph Group Limited.