We all travel into the future, but we never arrive. The path into the future itself is all we experience and, without a time machine, that is destined to remain our reality.
But the path into the future, the road we travel to a place we never arrive, has changed drastically in one generation; and, to deny these changes is delusional, dangerous, and in the end detrimental to our own lives.
The Internet, along with cell phones, texting, social networks, and global communication is a revolution that has occurred with consequences still being played out around the world. Stories of riots and revolutions make up the history of civilization, and they include the American Revolution, but the speed has increased and our ability to respond, to move forward into the future needs to adapt.
The advice here is to pack light.
The revolution occurring in Egypt is the most recent example of a popular uprising forcing reform in government. Tianamen Square and the Fall of the Berlin Wall, both occurring in 1989, were forerunners that occurred without the technological tools now available to people around the world, and many analysts point to them as examples of why the recent wave of political unrest would have occurred irregardless of new entities like WikiLeaks, Facebook, and Twitter.
The reality is that these social networks work to push events forward more rapidly, and will in the future force change to occur sooner and faster, rather than later and slower. The importance of specific brands like Facebook & Twitter is limited, as they are simply heads protruding from the the network of communication that has evolved over the past generation. Cut the heads off of the network, and others will immediately protrude to take their place.
Egypt attempted to turn off the Internet (network) in an effort to quell the uprising, China regularly attempts to censor information available on the Internet, and the United States is preparing legislation to implement an Internet kill switch in the name of national security. It’s an archaic response analogous to killing the horse upon which the messenger is riding, and any effectiveness that strategy has today will not exist in ten years as networks and users become more diverse and sophisticated.
We have been aware for a long time that Information is Power, and the increase in how information is propagated so quickly has fundamentally changed the balance of power as more people have access to more information. This, combined with the prevalence of communication tools, is speeding us into the future. The time differential between cause and effect is being reduced, and consequentially there is a greater domino effect. A spark in one part of the world can rapidly catch fire in another far distant location in relatively short order.
So how do we pack light as changes in the world lead us into the future faster? How do we avoid being left behind? Take inventory of what you need; review your values; and, leave behind fears and prejudices.
Pack those values and truths intrinsic to who you are as a human being. These values are usually easily identifiable, and less cumbersome than items described as ‘your best interests’ which are subject to change. Leave behind fears and prejudices, they often become all consuming and regularly prevent people from traveling into the future.
Suggested truths to pack for traveling light into the future:
That all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.