June 16 - 30, 2018
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
durianrepublic
by JJ Atencio
Singularity - The tipping
point of technology
Truth to tell, I signed up for the
Executive Program of Singularity
University in Silicon Valley U.S.A.
thinking that the course would be
focused mainly on technologies used
in business: like e-commerce, digital
marketing, data analytics, block chain,
and such advancements that create
amazing potential for new commerce
and exponential profits. This is one
instance that I can say I was happy to
be wrong.
Technology is not only disrupting
businesses by creating platforms and
ecosystems instead of corporations,
but it is also disrupting all aspects
of our life in ways we have never
experienced before. It is changing
not just how we work but also how
we think and obtain information, how
we form opinion and biases, and how
our values and ideals are altered as a
result. It’s about how technology is
being used to solve the world’s great
problems related to poverty, health,
learning and climate change, but
also at the same time, making us
aware of unintended consequence
of exponential change. In significant
ways, It is reshaping our view of what
humans are and challenges what
humanity stands for, altering our
perception of our reality on a deeply
personal level.
Imagine this: Cellular agriculture
that creates food from laboratories and
not farms; 3-D printing of houses that
builds low-cost shelter in 48 hours;
paper made from apples not apple
trees; drinking water collected from
the humidity of air; a content Ipad
that gives word-for-word presentations
in classrooms where there are no
available teachers; drones flying over
corn fields spotting diseases in minute
crops; block-chain technology used for
every single policy decision gets voted
on directly by constituents; affordable
DNA and genome sequencing that
can tell you and your children what
diseases you are susceptible to
before they happen; massive internet
connectivity for 5 billion humans using
14 billion network devices by 2030;
robotics and artificial intelligence
combining to produce the driverless
car; AI-based learning machines to
determine prison sentences; nanobots
repairing our ailments and plugging
our brains into the Web by 2030.
And when you consider that, in
today’s business environment, instead
of building products, we now develop
apps that all people can use, and that
technological breakthroughs are now
coming, not just from large factories
and big corporations, but moreso from
small groups of young people working
together in homes, garages, school
campuses or co-working spaces, we
then realize that we need new business
models that are ore more inclusive and
uplift everybody.
The future, it seems to me, is
now more about start-ups creating
applications, using a different
perspective that solves a diversity of
individual, local and global problems.
In my own personal journey
with start-ups, I’ve invested in start-
ups that: enable small and medium-
scale businesses to obtain financing;
provide a low-cost reliable chemical
compound that detects food spoilage;
Bring together 125,000 overseas
Filipinos to teach financial literacy
using social media; provide borderless
transactions and OFW remittances
through an e-wallet that is accessible
anywhere in the world.
When we realize that start-ups
have the same power as multinationals
in changing the future and solving our
problems, then we know that our world
has really changed. But also that we
can become part of it if we choose to.
One thing is clear: it is now
impossible to imagine a future without
technology. But it is also clear
that as we rely more and more on
technology to advance mankind, we
will need to manage the unintended
consequences of change that have
to do with issues like the magnitude
of social disruption, how our personal
data remains private and protected,
the use of robots to render judgements
on humans, technology outpacing
its legality, the isolation of those who
have technological access versus
those who don’t, job displacement but
also job creation as new technologies
replace the old, and using technology
to act like God. We are in the process
of modifying our environment so
much in so short a time, that we must
consciously modify ourselves just to
exist in our new environment.
Singularity was defined as the
point in space at the edge of the
known universe, and what comes
after singularity is unknown, black and
daunting, but exciting and therefore
limitless in potential. Indeed, our
singularity is defined only in the limits
we border ourselves, but it is also
an invitation to have the courage to
explore.●
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