What The Future May Hold

The future is approaching faster than one can handle. In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide. Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt.

What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next 5-10 years and, most people won’t see it coming. Did you think in 1998 that three years later you would never take pictures on film again? Yet digital cameras were invented in 1975. The first ones only had 10,000 pixels but followed Moore’s law. So as with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment for a time before it became way superior and mainstream in only a few short years.

It will now happen again (but much faster) with artificial intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture, and jobs.

Welcome to the fourth Industrial Revolution. Welcome to the Exponential Age.

Uber is just a software tool; they don’t own any cars and are now the biggest taxi company in the world.

Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties.

Autonomous cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear to the public. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be disrupted. You don’t want to own a car anymore. You will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You will not need to park it; you only pay for the distance driven and can be productive while driving. The very young children of today will never get a driver’s license and will never own a car.