I think one of the most important purposes of technology, if not the most important one, is turning the things that don't scale into those that do.
Fundamentally, technology increases how much change a single person can achieve in the world.
The steam engine made production and transportation scalable. The printing press, radio, television and the internet did that to information sharing and knowledge preservation. The telegraph, telephone and internet did that to person-to-person communication. Writing and the computer did that to knowledge work. The record player, the radio and the internet did that to music listening. If you start noticing this pattern, you eventually notice it everywhere.
To predict where technology goes next, I think it's important to look at what can't be scaled just yet. Customer interaction, childcare, healthcare and physical product delivery are obvious examples, though there are probably many more.
It's not like we don't know how to do these things. We have machines (human brains) that clearly know how to do them, we just don't yet understand how to make similar machines ourselves, just like we didn't understand how to make machines that would be better muscles or better horses. This is not like e.g. faster-than-light transportation, where we don't even know whether it can be done at all.
I think it's worth thinking about how a wourld where those things could be scaled would look like. Individual instruction for each child, exactly fitting their needs and abilities, is an obvious consequence, so is much better care for those who can't currently afford a (good) specialist doctor.
Fundamentally, technology increases how much change a single person can achieve in the world.
The steam engine made production and transportation scalable. The printing press, radio, television and the internet did that to information sharing and knowledge preservation. The telegraph, telephone and internet did that to person-to-person communication. Writing and the computer did that to knowledge work. The record player, the radio and the internet did that to music listening. If you start noticing this pattern, you eventually notice it everywhere.
To predict where technology goes next, I think it's important to look at what can't be scaled just yet. Customer interaction, childcare, healthcare and physical product delivery are obvious examples, though there are probably many more.
It's not like we don't know how to do these things. We have machines (human brains) that clearly know how to do them, we just don't yet understand how to make similar machines ourselves, just like we didn't understand how to make machines that would be better muscles or better horses. This is not like e.g. faster-than-light transportation, where we don't even know whether it can be done at all.
I think it's worth thinking about how a wourld where those things could be scaled would look like. Individual instruction for each child, exactly fitting their needs and abilities, is an obvious consequence, so is much better care for those who can't currently afford a (good) specialist doctor.