Are you future ready? Mind-blowing disruption is already here. Cheese instead of Prunes??
Let me start with a tease from a real story:
Not so many years ago, photographers used to ask people to say "Prunes" instead of "cheese" when they were trying to take their photos. Can you imagine why was that and why the prune eventually became cheese? Stay tuned till the end of this mind-blowing article to find out.
The majority of the time when people discuss disruptive technology and disruptive innovation, they are usually referring about advancements in 3D printing, drone deliveries, self-driving cars, and artificial intelligence that can draw and write. However, what you are about to read will truly blow your mind.
I'm talking about the real deal here, and not some home toys that will make our Sundays less boring. Things like The Internet of DNA, programmable bacteria, 3D printing of food, Diagnostic Toilets, Data Uploading to human Brain and male pregnancy(so many whys would anyone ever need this last one) are some suggestions to keep you interested till we reach to that point in this article. No, I'm not making this stuff up and I am not going to lose your time. I promise. I can assure you that the hard evidence I have will keep you thinking for a long time.
Before I blow your mind, let's define "Disruptive Technology".
A disruptive technology is a new technology that overtakes or replaces an existing one and disrupts the technological status quo by giving rise to a fresh, cutting-edge product that, in some cases, can birth a whole new industry.
According to Clayton M. Christense, there are two types of new technology: Sustaining and Disruptive.
Sustaining technology is about upgrades and constant improvements of an existing and established technology.
Disruptive Technology is a complete new way of doing things replacing established technologies that used to be used to do the same work till now. Think of the cars vs horses, the MS word vs typewriters, the email vs mail, the digital photography vs film photography (Prunes vs Cheese😛 ). Even though it sounds invincible, disruptive technology often faces problems because, being new and innovative, it takes time to be adapted and embraced by the mass.
Let's use the word processing software as an example and examine this fascinating fact about the early stages of its launch.
When the first word processing programs were introduced in the 1980s, professional users like personal secretaries despised them since the software couldn't keep up with their typing pace. In actuality, the computers' processing capacity at the time was weak, making it impossible for quickly typed text to be processed and shown in the monitors. If companies had listened incorrectly the secretaries' feedback, they would still improve typewriters, but instead they made processors faster so they could keep up with their typing pace, and finally users fell in love with the fact that they were able to correct mistakes at the speed of light and re-use saved text over and over again.
So what is coming next? What is the next big disruptive thing?
These are questions that people frequently ask me as a professional in the digital and tech industry.
How can you reply to such a question? What is really coming? Not only what, but how many are these technologies? When are they coming? Which stage are they currently in? Are they in use or are they just the crazed person's idea?
So where can one obtain all of this information, then? Not just to be able to respond to each of these questions, but also to be ready for an awesome technological future. While seeking for those answers, I found this incredible tool from the Imperial College of London. Imagine it as the periodic table of chemistry you learned at school, but with future technologies instead of the chemistry elements. How amazing is that, right?
A table titled "The table of disruptive technologies" has been created by the "Tech Foresight" department at London Imperial College, which includes not only a list of 100 disruptive technologies but also a list of the institutes or organisations that are using or experimenting with them.Well, is not only that. The table is colour-coded. Every colour or horizon as they call it, represents the time that each technology will be available if not already.
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So what is already here and what are we to expect?
According to the table of disruptive technology, we have currently available so many goodies from smart nappies and wireless energy transfer to intention decoding and robotic care companions.
Very soon we will be able to print human organs and use toilets that can save our lives by predicting diseases. Artificial blood will cover the needs for blood transfusion in hospitals around the world while programmable bacteria will be used to treat cancer. What intrigued me the most though, is the Internet of DNA. isn't it mind-blowing? Can you imagine the extend of it and how that HOPEFULLY 🙏🏼 would change the world to the better?
A bit later we are about to buy tickets from the Ryanair of space travel (Low-cost space travel) and have our night (dry) dreams read and recorded. Still not amazed? We will be able to create artificial wombs against infertility, to predict life expectancy, to create existing and new materials and most amazingly, we will be able to transfer data to the human brain. WOW! Now that isn't the most amazing thing you heard today?
At this point I would prefer to stay away from the grey zone of the table as I am not yet prepared to allow myself to write articles that talk about telepathy, space elevators, human cloning, human head transplants and shape-shifting matter as listed in the college's table. I am not there yet. I hardly can reach the red zone to be honest. There is one thing though that really grabbed my attention in the grey area and that is the 100th technology which says "we can't talk about that". Does this mean "we don't know but we are open to anything new and we can expect it all" or does it have a literal meaning about something so unspeakable? Anyways, I don't think I will be living to see that :).
I want to underline that I'm not here to critique the philosophical underpinnings of these technologies or to speculate on whether they will be utilised to rule or control humanity or make this world a better place. I personally never want to think about or discuss any other scenarios since I always hope and feel that technology should only be used for the second case. Technology to me is an analogy of improving the world and solving peoples' problems.
Back to prunes and cheese as promised. why the prune eventually became cheese?
There were two reasons: Firstly, back then, the mouth hygiene was not at its best for most of the people and subjects weren't that proud to have their big smile in a wall frame due to some black or missing teeth. The second reason was the costs. Photographs wasn't a sport for everyone back then. They were considered a luxury and people had to look serious in their photos as they were taking one per lifetime in most of the cases. This is why photographers were asking subjects to say "prune" so they keep their mouths shut to take their photo.
KODAK, with disruptive technology made affordable for ordinary people to buy cameras that take photos of their happy moments. This, together with the fact that people later on had most of their teeth (fake or real), turned photo taking into a fun and smiling moment rather than a serious one, so prunes became cheese, a word that requires a wide open mouth (smiling) to be pronounced.
Do you see two disruptive technologies in the above analogy?
1) KODAK and affordable photo cameras
2) Teeth implants :)
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About me
I am A Digital Communication & Transformation Strategist with 19+ years of experience in Digital Marketing, Digital Transformation, Advertising & Software Solutions. A native "Digital Language" speaker who has provided Digital application, transformation and marketing strategies for several major players in the international market.
My vision is to actively contribute to the global digital transformation, and I will achieve this by constant learning, strategizing, measuring and sharing knowledge with colleagues and clients, through national and international projects.
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