It has been 7 years, 3 months, 14 days since I last wrote on this site. A lot has changed since then.
The current President is Donald Trump (yes, “The Apprentice” reality tv star, and we’ll save the analysis on what that’s meant for another time). Facebook’s stock is now almost $200/share with 2.4 Billion MAU, which represents more than 1/3 of the world’s entire population. Autonomous (self-driving) cars are already available, though in very limited number, and with extreme regulatory restrictions.
On the device front, the latest release of iOS is 13, and the latest hardware is iPhone 11. Microsoft’s surface team (see my previous post) just announced multiple new products, including Surface Pro 7, Surface Pro X and Surface Laptop 3. I honestly have lost track of how many generations of iPads, Android tablets, and other “mobile devices” have launched, and already become obsolete in the last 7 years, but suffice to say it’s been at least once a year, and even with “device fatigue”, there’s no reason to keep developing new devices.
On the personal side, I now have been married for more than 8 years and we have two children; boy and girl, ages 4 and 6. We moved to a new home near Calabasas and I work in Product Management. In all this time I actually have written a lot, but haven’t published anything, but I suppose it’s just that time again.
For one thing, the world is a little more intimidating than it was since my last post, and not just because I am now a parent (though that surely has changed the lens by which I view it). Just last year, shortly after purchasing a new home we nearly lost it to a wildfire. Just last week, there were nearly 10 fires in one week across the Los Angeles area alone, and I personally witnessed and called the fire department about one just a few blocks away from my house. Fires have always happened, but it’s fair to say that it was an anomaly for forest fires to burn down homes and displace thousands of people – usually some freak of nature where the winds and dry conditions just happened at the same time near a populated area. But that’s California’s new normal, and my kids will never know anything different. As a firefighter friend and neighbor told me, some kids have “snow days” where schools must close, but in California our kids have “fire days”.
On the digital and technology front, we’ve reached a point where digital media has all but replaced traditional media. Physical Newspapers are all but gone, replaced by digital versions of the same, and social media itself has become transformed, with new types of neighborhood based social networks and services like “NextDoor” and “Citizen” that aim to keep you informed about what’s happening in your area. Personal digital surveillance has advanced, with camera products like “Ring” and “Nest Cam”, and Netgear’s “Arlo”. And along with this, the evolution of IoT (Internet of Things) which connects every device to the internet and let’s you have a true “Smart Home” allowing voice activated devices like Amazon’s “Echo” or “Google Home” to turn on and off your lights, your fans, and even tell you when your laundry is done.
On the content delivery side, we’ve made massive strides with streaming technology, all but eliminating physical media, and Virtual Reality is now going mainstream with consumer devices by Facebook, PlayStation and mobile manufactures like HTC driving a new market of enthusiasts and hobbyists. Mark Zuckerberg has said VR (and AR) is the next computing platform, and I happen to agree wholeheartedly. Whether you’re a fan of Snowcrash or Neuromancer, or never heard of either, there’s no question that the future is a virtual one. This is a topic that I’ve always been passionate about, and it’s an exciting time.
On the news and information side we’ve hit a critical challenge, with digital content being so readily available and the means to produce and distribute it so freely accessible, it’s introduced a new opportunity for propaganda and disinformation to spread much like the California wildfires on the winds of technology change, reaching global populations like never before. Media literacy has never been more important, and understanding that everything we do and say can be used against us is also part of our new reality.
As I write this, I now know every word can be used to determine which products I’m most likely to buy, to decide whether I should be considered for a job, whether I should be sold a loan, or whether I can be persuaded to vote for a particular candidate in the next Presidential election. My words can be used against me simply because once online, they can be mined for keywords, tone of voice, and bias. And all of this is automated, using algorithms and predictive models.
There’s so much more I want to write about, including how all of this impacts my children, who are even now presently glued to 8″ screens less than 2′ from their eyes, consuming advertising free content nearly 3 hours a day, and up to 5 on weekends. Who is influencing them, and how, and do I even know what they are watching, or how it affects them? My children are guinea pigs in this new world, growing up never knowing what the world looked like before having everything on-demand, from the dinner we order on Postmates to the classic cartoons they watch on Boomerang, to almost never having to shop in a physical store for clothes.
Again, it’s been a long time, and a lot has changed, but one thing remains – I’m still as curious as ever about technology and there’s still very much a geek in me. I’m still an out of the box and creative thinker and a self-declared futurist, and I still believe that all this scary technology stuff continues to make the world better. Maybe some of the ideas I have here might contribute to that, and I think now after a long hiatus, I’m ready to dive back into it.
Geek 'N Me 