The world is changing rapidly.
When I look back over my lifetime, it is incredible the power that is before me, even today. The tools I have available to me would have been unthinking 40 years ago.
Let us take a look at a very simple premise that most take for granted.
With Web 3.0, I am creating content that has monetized value. Naturally, this is something that was available within the Web 2.0 world, considering platforms like Wordpress and YouTube (for video), provided an avenue for content creators.
That alone was revolutionary.
If we go back to the 1980s, consider who made money in these fields. When dealing with print, that meant being paid as a writer. Usually it was either the path of newspapers/magazines or being an author. Often, writers pursued both.
As for video, that means being involved with Hollywood or the broadcast media. Those were the only two real options. On air personalities, as compared to the population, were few.
For me, Web 3.0 changed that. In reality, people who are utilizing an ecosystem like Hive are finding that they can get monetized even for leaving comments. This is a magical transformation.
Image generated by Ideogram
Superpowers Being Handed To Us
Technology that becomes reality was once looked at magic.
Can you imagine someone from the 1600s traveling through time and looking at a television? The person would be stunned there was a person inside it.
Throughout my childhood, many alluded to the old star Trek phones. That was science fiction. I was amazed the first time I saw one, thinking back to Captain Kirk (the William Shatner version).
For the last 100 years, we had flying machines. We have devices that are connected without anything physical. Lighting shows up in a bulb with the flip of a switch.
Even the image above, that was created without any artistic training or learning how to operate a computer design program (remember Corel Draw?). Instead, it was generated by typing a few lines into a website.
Going back to Captain Kirk, how often has we seen that? The future tends to unfold only after we envision it.
Today, we have the power to move mountains, literally. Consider trying that a 400 years ago.
It is easy to overlook how much things have changed.
Short Term Thinking Is A Cancer
We are affected with a cancer of the mind. It is short term thinking and it penetrates every area of our lives.
Our world is one of instant gratification. Everything is pushed as being crucial now. CEOs are only focused upon the earnings for the next quarter or two. Our political leaders are concerned with the upcoming election. The products that sell are those which do something that is "instant".
Many live with a pessimistic outlook. This is counter to technology. Sadly, this stems from the fact we take things for granted.
Consider those depressed young men who play video games all day long. Few stop to think how amazing that is. Again, go back 40 years and see how that changed. The problem is we have young men spending their days in the basement playing online games with people all over the world.
Society looks at the first part of the sentence, completely ignoring the second. If you told anyone exiting the 1970s that kids would be playing games with people spanning the globe, they would have thought you nuts.
At that time, the video arcade was still a think. You were lucky if you could play a game with 3 or 4 friends.
In reality, 40 years is not a long stretch considering human history. Actually, the last 100 years are just a blip in time.
That is part of what makes the present pace of technology amazing. We are going to see, at a minimum, advancement in the next decade that mirrors the last half century. What does the world look like in 30 years?
Web 3.0 Changing Everything
An amazing shift in perspective happens when we start to consider all that is free today yet, in the not too distant past, was paid for.
When we look at video, audio, communication, photography, and information, it is easy to be blown away. Of course, to fully realize this, one has to remember when there was a charge. I guess it is natural to overlook the ability to communicate with people globally for near free unless one paid a long distance phone bill that was charged by the minute.
Web 3.0 is leading us to interesting times.
To start, anyone can create their own money. Consider how revolutionary that is. Tied to this could be a plethora of financial services. Suddenly, everyone is in the domain of Wall Street.
The world of media is being completely disrupted. Fragmentation is upon us and only going to accelerate. Ultimately, we will see billions of content creators, in one form or another, monetizing what they produce.
Robotics is just kicking off. There will come a day where each of us has one or two of these in our homes. They might not necessarily be humanoids. However, we will live in dwellings that are fully automated.
Then we have artificial intelligence. This is something that obviously provokes a wide array of emotions with people. That said, one area that I like to focus upon is the concept of a personal AI assistant.
Consider what it will be like to have a host of AI clients that are strung together, able to handle a variety of tasks. Not only will this provide any answers required, suck as Alexa, but be personalized to the point where it will be like a human assistant.
Throughout history, this was the realm of aristocrats and wealthy business people.
It will be for everyone.
Show many an industry that is not going to be disrupted by this. Most everything is going to be disrupted in some form.
We are just at the beginning. What we do know is that most will likely underestimate the impact of what we are building. After all, who foresaw the Internet taking over the world?
Outside a select handful of developers, very few.
We should not make the same mistake again.