Reality as We Know it Will Change
The time between now and 2037 will be one of the most transformative historic transits in history. There we be more change in the next 20 years than in any 50 -100 year period in history. Reality as we know it will change.
As the futurist who has been saying for 10 years that we have left the Information Age and entered the Shift Age I have said that the “second half” of this age will transform almost every aspect of human endeavor. One way to think of this is that the Shift Age is roughly congruent to the first third of the 21st century. This is the threshold, or transition between what reality has been up to this century and the new reality which we will be living in post 2035-40.
We have entered the Age of Climate Change. This will dramatically alter our actual physical landscapes. Loss of land and real estate values to Sea Level Rise, ever more extreme floods, droughts and storms and the need for tens of millions to migrate as a result of ecological changes will disrupt society if we do not start to face this reality soon.
We have entered the Age of Intelligence. What is now called Artificial Intelligence – and should be called Machine Learning- will eviscerate some 50% of all current jobs. It will allow humans to enter the age where one’s self-definition is primarily determined by what one does to make money. The Age of Intelligence will be a time when humanity, for the first time, will have to psychologically adapt to an equal or superior intelligence cohabiting the planet with us. Are we ready? Absolutely not. We must start to face this fast approaching reality.
We are at the early stage of moving beyond the two century old definitions of Democracy and Capitalism into a Post-Capitalist Society. The 21st century will be looked back upon as the beginning of this social, political and economic historical transition. Many of us can glimpse what much of it will look like but we are not ready to let go of the dysfunctional past yet to see a different future.
The backside of new realities are new meanings. When reality changes, meaning changes. So what used to provide meaning in our lives will no longer do so. There will be new meanings developed that are not yet apparent except in the abstract.
Reality and Meaning for humanity will change in the next 20 years.
