Understanding our world

Our daily lives are being transformed in different areas – workplace, politics, geopolitics, ethics, community – and the speed of change is accelerating. It was only 10 years ago – 2007 – that Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world; Amazon released the Kindle that started the ebook revolution; Facebook became global when it was finally opened to  anyone 13 years old and over with a valid email address; and Twitter started its own separate platform and became global.  Media headlines are consumed by the acts and antics of world personalities like Trump, Putin, Macron, Xi Jinping, Duterte, Merkel, and Kim Jong-un. But what is really reshaping the world today? What is really happening?

Finally, here is a book that explains in a readable narrative form what the author calls “an essential guide to the present and to the future.” Thomas Friedman is a Pulitzer Prize winning  author  and  a famous columnist. 

THANK YOU FOR BEING LATE: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, by Thomas Friedman, 2016, published by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York.

Friedman begins his book by explaining his type of writing: “Everyone goes into journalism for different reasons. There are investigative journalists, beat reporters, breaking news reporters, and explanatory journalists. I have always aspired to be the latter...I enjoy taking a complex subject and trying to break it down so that I can understand it and then can help the readers better understand it – be that subject the Middle East, the environment, globalization ... Our democracy can work only if the voters know how the world works, so they are able to make intelligent policy choices and are less apt to fall prey to demagogues, ideological zealots or conspiracy buffs who may be confusing them at best or deliberately misleading them at worst.”

The book’s thesis is that “...to understand the 21^st century, you need to understand that the planet’s three largest forces – Moore’s Law ( technology), the Market ( globalization), and Mother nature ( climate change and biodiversity loss) – are accelerating all at once.” Friedman  explains that the advances in silicon chips, software storage sensors and networking created a new technology platform he calls the “supernova” which he says “...is an extraordinary release of energy that is reshaping everything from how we hail a taxi (e.g. uber), to the fate of nations (e.g. cyber war), to our most intimate relationships.” And even the way we shop.

Moore’s Law (Technology)

“One of the hardest things for the human mind to grasp is the power of exponential growth in anything – what happens when something keeps doubling or tripling or quadrupling over many years.” What is the impact of Moore’s Law “...when you keep doubling the power of microchips every two years for 50 years?” 

The book explains that if you took Intel’s first generation microchips from 1971 to its latest chip today, the latest chip offers 3,500 times more performance, 90,000 times more energy efficient and is about 60,000 times lower in cost. This steady acceleration of power including software applications is now leading into something we now call “the cloud.” Friedman says also that  this the place “...where the pace of technological and scientific change outstrips the speed which human beings and societies can usually adapt?” Is this the point where artificial intelligence will take over?

The Market ( Globalization)

Economists define globalization as the  measure of trade in goods, services and financial transactions. Friedman says: “ Globalization, for me has always meant the ability of any individual or company to compete, connect, exchange or collaborate globally...globalization is now exploding. We can now digitize so many things and thanks to mobile phones and the supernova we can send those digital flows everywhere and pull them in from everywhere.”

Among these tools of globalization, he cites Facebook, Airbnb, Youtube, Amazon, Alibaba, Paypal, Netflix, Google, and Twitter. My driver uses his smartphone to send and receive messages and photos from relatives in Bukidnon; watches PBA games through livestream; and receives instructions from my wife through text messages. 

More and more people are now being connected globally as all forms of mobile devices become more available and accessible through the cloud. The Boston consulting Globe was commissioned to  poll people in the United States, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, China and India on the question: “which of the following would you give up for a year rather than give up personal use of your mobile phone.” Among the answer, 38% said they would give up sex for a year rather than give up their mobile phone.

Mother Nature

There are nine planetary boundaries that human must not breach or continue to breach, since several have already been breached. Breaching these boundaries  “...would set in motion chain reactions that might flip the planet into a new state that could make it impossible to sustain modern civilization. 

These nine planetary boundaries are climate change, biodiversity, deforestation, biogeochemical flows, ocean acidification, freshwater use, atmospheric aerosol loading, introduction of novel entities, and atmospheric ozone layer. Friedman warns that we must act now before all these planetary boundaries are breached. If we do not act now “...we will be the first generation of humans for whom later will be too late.”

On one occasion a person he was going to interview came late and while waiting he found a few minutes to just sit and think. It was during this pause  that the idea for this book begun to germinate in his mind. When the guest finally came, he said: “ Thank you for being late.” 

Creative writing classes for kids/teens and adults

Young Writers’ Hangout for Kids & Teens on May 27 and June 3  (1:30-3pm/independent sessions).  Creative Writing Workshop for Adults with award winning fictionist Susan Lara will be on June 17 (1:30-4:30pm).  All sessions are at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street.  For registration and fee details text 0917-6240196 or email [email protected].

Email: [email protected]