VOL 30: TECHNOLOGY AND GLOBALIZATION
Hey Friends,
Trust you all had a great week?
Most technologies that products are being built on today just started to make name for themselves 5 years ago. We are living in a fast-paced world, from the moment you wake up, to the moment you go back to sleep, technology is everywhere. The highly digital life we live and the development of our technological world have become the new normal.
However, if we want to continue to grow forever, we are going to need new technologies that radically change the way we do things because spreading old ways to create wealth around the world will result in devastation, not riches.
Without technological change, if India doubles its energy production over the next two decades, it will also double its air pollution, or if hundreds of millions of households in Indonesia and Nigeria were to live the way Americans already do using only today’s tools, the result will be environmentally catastrophic.
In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new technology is unsustainable. From 1971, we have seen rapid globalization along with limited technological development, mostly confined to information technology.
For context, Globalization is taking things that work somewhere and making them work everywhere. China is a perfect example of globalization, they’ve perfectly copied and mass-produced everything that has worked in the developed world. Technology on the other hand is any new and better way of doing things. But there is no reason why technology should be limited to computers.
Technology is miraculous because it allows us to do much with less, so today, we need to imagine and create new technologies that can make the 21st century more prosperous than the 20th century.
We need inventions that will create revolutionary services and breakthrough products. The goal is to create stuff which people may want or something that people didn't know that they wanted. We need to look out to other niches and not just the IT sector alone.
The existence of a single unique invention in the olden days only demonstrates the vast potential of creative minds, however, to properly utilize inherent creativity, a flexible social environment such as exists today is required.
The most significant invention in human culture involves not only mechanical devices but also means of disseminating information to inspire creative minds to build on previous ideas and discoveries and stir up industries to ensure that as many people as possible are exposed to them like what we have today.
Our forefathers started little but here we are transitioning and shifting energy sources from fossil fuels to renewable energy, we now possess more information and knowledge, especially allowing us in shaping our natural environment.
CONCLUSION
Peter Thiel said in his book “In the most minimal sense, the future is simply the set of all moments yet to come. But what makes the future distinctive and important isn’t that it hasn’t happened yet, but rather that it will be a time when the world looks different from today.
No one can predict the future exactly, but we know two things: it’s going to be different, and it must be rooted in today’s world”
The uncertainty presents the opportunity.
In other to create the kind of future we want, we need to invent new technologies and innovate on them.
N.B: Kindly note that this piece contains my notes from Peter Thiel's book titled “Zero To One”.
FACE OF THE WEEK
THOMAS JEFFERSON (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as the third president from 1801 to 1809. He had previously served as the second vice president of the United States under John Adams and as the first United States secretary of state under George Washington.
He was a gifted writer, at the age of 33, he was asked to draft the Declaration of Independence (he was not the only one but he was the principal author) which explained why the 13 colonies wanted to be free from British rule and also detailed the importance of individual rights and freedoms. It was adopted on July 4, 1776.
Jefferson was a proponent of individual rights, he created his own Bible, focused only on Jesus as a man of morals but none of his miracles.
One of the most significant achievements of Jefferson’s administration was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million in 1803. The Louisiana Purchase effectively doubled the size of the United States.
He also helped found the University of Virginia and ensured that unlike other American colleges at the time, the school had no religious affiliation or religious requirements for its students.
Jefferson and John Adams (2nd president of the United States) both died on July 4, 1826, the same day the U.S was celebrating its 50th independence anniversary.
I hope you enjoyed learning.
Enjoy your weekend.