Incoming Curveball

Wow…how fast has 2018 gone already!

If things feel like they’re moving faster, then you’d be right. While time is constant, the rate of change around us and the pace by which the technology that rules our lives is moving, means life is simply moving much, much faster.

In the past, we were the rulers of the tools we used. But that’s all about to change.

Some of you may have heard of Technological Singularity. This hypothesis suggests that at some point, the intelligence within our technology system will reach a point where it surpasses the brainpower of a human.

It suggests this based upon the exponential growth we’ve seen which allowed our technology to surpass the brainpower of a mouse in 2015. According to this same hypothesis, we will be surpassed by 2023 – just 5 years from now.

In more scary (or amazing depending upon your viewpoint), is that by 2045, the technology will have surpassed the brainpower of all human brains combined. That’s some serious brainpower!

So what does this mean for us all? Will we become extinct? Will we all become robots? Will we all have our own servants and live like the Jetson’s?

To be honest, I don’t know.

What I do know is that fighting change is a fruitless endeavour. Like riding a wave, surfing with the flow of water is the easiest passage. This comes with risk and sometimes you get ‘dumped’ but fighting the wave will get you nowhere.

Now Technological Singularity is only a hypothesis and while it’s based on some fairly strong science and backed by significant individuals within the field, it doesn’t make it fact and it doesn’t mean it won’t change also.

Like been thrown a curve ball, if you read the spin and you see if from the pitchers hand, you can take a swing and change the trajectory. Technology is not the only curve ball we get thrown. It’s a fact of life. The world we live in.

Our ability to adapt and accept change is what is important.

Here at Jack in the box, we continue to embrace technology and explore the various ways in which it enriches our ability to tell stories and communicate with people. It’s shaped and shifted our industry and historically we’ve seen ourselves as the early adopters of technology.

So…let’s see what we do next…