opinion
experts in science, medicine and
engineering, but I bet some of them
got to find their reason for vocational
existence later in life. Among the boffins
and the geeks are the dreamers and the
freaks. I applaud them all.
An unsettling reality dawns for Graeme Laws.
By Graeme Laws, Beyond Touch
Introduction
I have two teenage children and many
friends with children of a similar age.
I have detected a shared, unsettling
question of “what will tomorrow be like
for them?” Some friends are heavily
pushing their kids into medicine, science
or engineering – nothing wrong with that,
they are all great professions and offer a
degree of job security. However, I’m kind
of different. I am not pushing them, but
rather I’m keen to see my kids chart their
own destiny. I look to a future as one filled
with boundless possibilities – it is why I’ve
made a career in tech futurism.
The Right Approach?
There are a reasonable proportion of my
children’s classmates that will go on into
adult life, to do jobs that don’t even exist
today. Now that is scary as hell if you do
not have an explorer’s mentality. Whether
or not this is the right approach to take –
to let the future events create opportunity
– is open to great debate. What I will say
is that letting people explore the edges of
possibility has put us in groundbreaking
environments; walking on the moon,
jumping from the edge of space, creating
new life forms. I concede that none of
this happens without the aforementioned
The New New – Be Warned
Today we face the issue of not really
knowing what the future will look like or
how indeed we should interact with it.
As Don Rumsfeld said, “there are known
knowns… and unknown unknowns.” – And
a whole lot of stuff in-between. Microsoft
has announced Windows 10 – a new
interface from the old dog. I ask my
children what this will mean for them and
they shrug because in reality they will
adapt quickly and efficiently to whatever
technical tools are offered in order that
they can do what needs to be done. For
those generations that are currently in
positions of seniority in business – be
afraid. They are not coming for your jobs,
they will create new jobs (with new tools)
to meet the new needs of a yet undefined
customer group, and you won’t even
know that obsolescence stalks you until it
is too late.
The Intersection of Art and Tech
I have a view that the way technology is
designed has an impact on its uptake,
which really floats my boat because
good design is progressive. It fuses the
basic laws of thermodynamics with the
art of the possible and enables creative
technicians to suspend disbelief with
their ideas. Maybe I think that being
part of this rolling, progressive tech
revolution will protect my own risk
of obsolescence. Aesthetic design
should tap into the zeitgeist of a future
generations thinking, which is why the
most innovative studios and labs
KIOSK solutions 43