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Comprehending The Future

I said before that the future is about a change of thinking and I want to elaborate on this a bit. Imagine you were a pygmy warrior in the jungles of Africa and you had never seen an airplane before in your life. Let’s say I was an explorer who was camping nearby and I…

I said before that the future is about a change of thinking and I want to elaborate on this a bit. Imagine you were a pygmy warrior in the jungles of Africa and you had never seen an airplane before in your life. Let’s say I was an explorer who was camping nearby and I had been talking to you about an airplane that would be coming soon to drop off supplies for me. How do you think I could describe what an airplane is to you and do you think you could understand what I was talking about? Even more so, do you think you could even understand what you were seeing when the airplane, a float plane, did show up and landed on the river next to you?

Now let’s take this a step further. Let’s say one day you start hearing strange garbled voices in your head. You start getting worried because you think you might be going insane. However, eventually you start figuring out what the voices are saying and you realize it is someone repeatedly letting you know that they will be arriving on a certain date from the future. They are just letting you know ahead of time so that you don’t freak out when they show up. So on the date they mentioned, boom they materialize out of thin air in front of you. Now with everything I just described here, could you even begin to comprehend how these future travellers did this? No, probably not. Even if they sat down and started telling you about their technology, you would probably still be confused.

“A fracklersphere? What’s the hell is a frackersphere?”
“It is just a simple device that warps space time on a perpendicular but rotational axis with the inverse of large gravitational bodies.
“Huh?”

You see where I’m going with this? We probably wouldn’t have a clue as to what someone from the future is talking about because we haven’t started thinking differently like they have and are aware of the new possibilities that lay before us. Therefore, if you want to start comprehending the future and changing the present you have to start thinking differently. That’s why I keep saying the future and Web 2.0 aren’t so much about a change of technology as a change of thinking. And I’m not just talking about a mild change of thinking, I’m talking about a radical one. Imagine how you live and work today, totally transformed. Think of a massive paradigm shift and you’re headed in the right direction.

Or maybe think like George Costanza and ask yourself what am I going to do the exact opposite today?

“My name is George. I’m unemployed and I live with my parents.”

2 replies on “Comprehending The Future”

George was always ahead of his time. We’re all still catching up.

Personally I believe your much better off living in the now rather than trying to comprehend the future.
The more you understand of the now, the more you will understand of the future when it arrives.

As for opposites, there was a time when I spent my time upside down in order to gain a fresh perpective on life. That was fun watching tele.

I always try and remember that there are always at least 6 sides to any story. It just depends on the angle at which you look at it.

You’re exactly right about living in the now Craig which is what my post entitled The Web Is What We Choose To Be hints at. If you look at the title closely you’ll notice I didn’t say What We Choose “It” To Be but instead Choose To Be. That is because I believe we create our future right now with every choice and action we make in the present. And the best way to live the future now is by living and doing something different everyday.

Actually another way of thinking this is that when you are in the future, you aren’t there anymore. You are in the now. Therefore, strive to live in the now and you’ll be living and creating your own future. 🙂