Schmidt At Techonomy Conference: Ready For The Next Technology Revolution?
On the 4th of August at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe, CA, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated that “Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003" This humongous number is mainly due to user generated content (pictures, messages, tweets etc.).
Schmidt's opinion is that while technology is neutral, he doesn’t believe people are ready for what’s coming. “I spend most of my time assuming the world is not ready for the technology revolution that will be happening to them soon” he was quoted saying.
I find this statement by Schmidt odd and somewhat disturbing. And I do not agree with it.
Technology is something we have created. It evolves with us and we evolve with it. Our information processing skills evolve with it. As I always tell my clients when I speak at corporate seminars, and I state numerous times in my books, it is our responsibility not to let technology overwhelm us, but to learn to use it as a tool, a servant to our needs. If the next few years will bring another, even more powerful, technology revolution in terms of how we exchange information, we are certainly ready for it.
We are living and breathing our technology, and we are creating that revolution ourselves, in our daily choices with digital interaction. I do not believe that we should feel at any moment that we are powerless in front of technology. We have created that technology, and it is such a great, powerful tool that it has broken every ultimate barrier between the individual and information and it has enabled us to be in touch instantly with anyone at every end of the world.
Why should we be not ready for the next level?
We can be ready, by being conscious about how we use technology. We can be ready, by remembering that keeping ownership of our mental space and carefully choosing our digital data diet is our responsibility and our privilege.
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