Technology Isn’t The End of the World

After reading an exceptional book recently – Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think (as recommended by both a client, and through the incredible futurist, Craig Rispin) – I’ve been thinking a lot about technology and our impact on the world.

It’s easy to think of technology leading us towards a dystopian future.

As human beings, we’re attuned to hearing about the fear-uncertainty-doubt in the world… 

(The fact that our attention is piqued by the negative is perhaps an evolutionary trait that served us well, keeping us safe throughout our species’ more primitive history; and it’s certainly the reason why the attention-driven media focusses on stories of fear-uncertainty-doubt-and-conflict as those stories capture our attention best.)

BUT… the evidence suggests the world is actually getting better. 

There are fewer wars, people are living longer, there’s less-and-less waste, standards of living are rising, and more.

Technology has allowed us to do more, with less, than we ever dreamed possible – and (for the most part) human beings are directing this capability towards doing more good with less.

Ignoring the potential impact of future technologies for a moment here – this idea is important.

“Doing more, with less.” into “Doing more good, with less”

I can’t help but think of the untapped potential there is in existing technologies that we already have.

Especially in business.

Everywhere I look, I see businesses who are using the stone age flint-and-steel methods to achieve results.

Doing things the long way, the hard way, the time-consuming manual way – instead of looking at how technology can deliver a better, faster, easier and higher-ROI result.

As leaders in any organisation that is making a positive impact on the world – I think there’s a moral imperative on our shoulders to look at how we’re using technology.

• Not just because it builds our competitive advantage…

• Not just because it allows us to sell more, produce more, and profit more…

• Not just because it makes our workdays easier…

But because it amplifies the positive impact we can have, as a force for good.

And – at the end of this life – surely this is how we’ll be judged: Better or worse, by the impact we had.