Computers taking order in restaurant. Robots doing production work. AI involved in writing, thinking and creating. We are going through a new Industrial Revolution, in warp time. In five years we will no longer recognize the work place or society.
We can talk about globalism, social issues, freedom, military and foreign policy. In reality it is the technology revolution we are in the midst of that will make the difference.
WHAT’S MISSING?
By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 4/26/23 www.capoliticalreview.com
Some important topics are missing from the current political discussions in the United States (and elsewhere).
The missing topics all relate to the future. They heavily involve science, mathematics, and engineering.
Let’s look at the last 50 or so years. Many things are different.
Think about hand-held calculators. People should ask themselves when they last had to do a long-division problem by hand. Think of the poor chemistry student who once, by hand, needed four hours to figure out temperature and air-pressure equations –- equations that now can be done in 10 minutes.
Personal computers arrived. Instead of having 10 people working in an accounting department, perhaps two people -– all using computers –- could do the same amount of work as the original 10 people. And the work could be done faster and more cheaply.
Then came the internet, which allowed users to look up vast amounts of information in just seconds.
In commerce, the internet replaced many aspects of traditional retail shopping. One of the internet’s main results was the ordering of merchandise online. Trips to stores, which often involved looking for parking spaces and visiting shopping malls, were not as necessary. Think of the how the internet helped eliminate overcrowded shopping situations at Christmas time.
In the future, there will be developments that no one can predict.
More and more often, people will be reading and hearing about artificial intelligence (AI). AI will be changing how people work. AI, for example, will be able to translate one language into another.
AI will permit the decoding of the three-dimensional structure of complex molecules. The time involved will be just seconds, not weeks or months. AI will permit drugs to be discovered much more quickly. Diagnosis of diseases will be easier and faster.
Then there is quantum computing, which has the potential to make current computing obsolete. Quantum computing will revolutionize such fields as the production of batteries, the use of cleaner fertilizers in agriculture, and the safer protection of data.
In the field of energy, there is the promise of fusion power, which can make the world’s oceans seems as though they are filled with gasoline. Then, there is hydrogen power, which, after usage, produces water as waste, not noxious gases.
With each passing day, people are hearing more about electric vehicles, which are destined in a few years to replace gasoline-powered vehicles.
The future will involve cooperation with allied nations, like Japan, South Korea, Germany, and Great Britain. Isolationism and protectionism will hamper the development of new ideas and new products.
The current talk about bank failures, inflation, and reproductive rights is becoming boring.
Let’s hear more about the future, and how exciting it can be.
