Life in 2024 or how the iPhone changed our world, reflections on my Iphone anniversary.
8 years ago today I waited in line for my first iPhone.
2008
The iphone 3GS would have built in GPS and run an app store.
2016
Who could have seen that people would use their phones for Health informations, Credit Cards, Interfaces to their cars and homes?
How could we have have known that people would be using their phone not to make calls, but to take photos and videos that would instantly disappear because we preferred it that way?
When the iPhone came out Facebook had less than 100 million people on their platform, today that number is closer to 2 Billion.
Who could have guessed that in just 8 years governments would be toppled and that people would be live streaming violence and death directly to social media?
Where were the futurist predicting that we would prefer to communicate with machines over people or that paying for your groceries would be come a complex transaction where our club card and credit cards would be choreographed routines dictated by cashiers who really only needed us to be more optimized.
How did we end up In an age where we wear health trackers, communicate with people by binge watching their life or we expect our social media providers to give us tools for dealing with the passing of a loved one, or the break up of a relationship and even access to our families?
How did we go from calling cabs to a nation of people driving their cars part time for a living or renting out their homes while they are away to make ends meet?
What does it mean, when the quality of our relationships is defined by the number of "people" are connected to and having a piece of hardware, mediate ALL your relationships?
Why do we keep our devices charged and our hearts and bodies weary?
When did we decide our values needed to trend for us to find our voice?
Who we are as a species has been defined by the tools we use and these tools were shaped to meet our human needs.
Yet we live in an age where our tools bend and shape us to their needs, their corporate interests.
Today Apple as close to 250 billion dollars in cash, that's 5 times the US government.
Apple has an international monetary, communication and health system.
2024
Today, give yourself a little hug, because life in 2024, 8 years from now looks a lot different.
iPhones won't be devices we carry with us, they will be systems we wear, that dictate our every move and control and filter our every relationship.
You won't download apps, you install "habits" and "environments"
Children born today go to high school in a world where machines plan the lessons.
First graders today will exclusively talk to machines full time by the end of college.
Teenagers will get their social skills by watching YouTube videos.
Our driverless cars will be elaborate iphone cases that just carry our preferences and our families to events optimized, automated and controlled for the best entertainment value.
Our time will be weaponized and every second wasted not in service to our work will be counted and measured.
Virtual reality will be how we meet "people" and the first Tinder generation will graduate from elementary high school.
Our health care will be controlled and monitored by the devices we use in our homes, cars and the very clothing we wear.
We are the last generation of people who will have a choice in how we are "remembered"
15 minutes of fame will be optimized to exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Maybe this is all magical and the StarTrek future of no money and peace in our solar system is right around the corner.
I wonder though, who is training the 30 year olds for the jobs that will be around in eight years?
Who is securing work for the 40 year old's that wonder if they are going to be part of the next layoff round?
It's time we talk seriously about a ditching the iphone and focus on the WEphone.
No one is getting out early and no one, is getting ahead.
Go love someone.