What does the future hold for us, or what should the future hold for us?
Phones are overrated
I believe phones are massively overrated as productivity devices. Phones are great for making phone calls, texting, shooting photos, videos, google maps, Uber and the such — but beyond that, I think phones are a bit overrated.
For example, the maximum output rate you can get while texting with your two thumbs is far slower than typing on a keyboard (using all five of your fingers).
Perhaps the next biggest innovation of a phone will be this:
A phone that will allow you to text, write, or transcribe text FAR faster than just typing on your thumbs.
Future cars
I love cars and have always loved them, especially car design. But besides Tesla, all cars are boring. They just keep getting more interesting design, more horsepower, etc. Essentially all gas cars are uninteresting.
The future — self-driving cars. Electric cars are very cool too, but the self driving feature will be 1000x superior that can actually improve our lives (imagine all the better things you can do with your mental energy than to use your brain power to drive yourself).
Irony: with Uber, we technically already got “self-driving cars”. Also taking the bus, subway, etc, in which we don’t need to focus on driving and can instead think, write, read, etc.
Art
To me the future of art must be digital. More publishing full free and open source JPEG images, PDF, or the original source files. Printing is still great, but we are seeking innovation, not striving toward “markers of legitimacy” like we did in the past.
I also foresee great technological artistic software innovations. For example, using iPad and Procreate has actually empowered me to make tons of new visual art! Same with Zen brush 2– combining old school calligraphy with technology.
The future of photography
Smartphones will keep getting better, but I actually see the future of photography happening more in small point and shoot digital cameras (like RICOH GR III, which packs insane image processing power in a small camera). Or new futures of monochrome, like what Leica is doing with their new monochrom cameras.
Also interest in digital medium format — not interest in more megapixels, but more dynamic range.
Also more perspective sharing through ultra wide video cameras like Gopro, or even virtual reality via 360 cameras (Gopro Max and fusion), or even ultra wide mode on the new iPhone and iPhone pro.
Technology for the sake of what?
This is what I try to think about a lot:
The point isn’t technology for the sake of technology. We want technology to “improve” or augment our lives.
But how can technology improve our lives? Practical ideas:
- Save us time in order for us to channel that time into creative pursuits.
- Automating boring stuff: Not having to do tedious work we don’t care for.
- Augmenting our already innate human abilities: Writing as augmented thinking. Blogging or publishing to a website as the ultimate form of thinking expansion and expression.