Mystery

There are days when I'm bothered because little things are left unresolved. Even appliance malfunctions, conversations in limbo, waiting for some result, pains and worries all can get us down. Other days even when facing life changing issues, I am filled with confidence.

Today my oven wouldn't turn off and I happen to feel timid at the same time. When I was in prison not knowing when I could get out, I knew I would and felt a boldness despite the fear. I have no idea why. Each one of us is a mystery in that, if you let yourself face the many feelings that used to guide our curiosity, creativity and love like a child again, we realize we really do not know who we are and what moves us.

We are at a juncture of great social-economic change due to the possibilities of the semiconductor, micro-processors and memory. This invention changed the last 50 years of society more quickly than ever in the history of human kind but things are about to change even faster. Can our industrial paradigm of growth, organisation and education adapt fast enough?

A factory is about making the same thing for the masses by the masses. It provided the things that has made every day chores easier so humankind is free do more important things.

This is the premise of the capitalistic driven growth after WWII. To build factories and institutions modeled after them including education, government, banks, retail..... it is assumed that pumping money to those who can build factory-like institutions would make economies of scale and create a perpetual profit machine.

This assumes people are generally satisfied with the same products as others. Only then will our industrial model be profitable enough to support institutions today. The success of this model with the deployment of information technology since the 1970's has made the industrial machine so efficient, we are replacing repetitive work with automatic machines (some of which are called robots, a word that instills fear for many). Many have more free time from chores and repetitive jobs than ever before to do more important things.

The new problem is we don't know what to do with more "free time". The industrial model is so deeply ingrained every segment of society, factories are the default paradigm for management, human resources, education where a person is defined by what you do.

Little emphasis is place on individual performance because the most important thing is the position of someone within the social-management machine. Hierarchy trumps real performance. Protecting the machine seems to be more important than the quality of work and life of each person in the machine. This is taught as the way economies grow and thrive in the industrial model.

Even free time is so viewed. Tour groups take people to see the same sites, shops, eat the same food and enjoy the same things. Sport is an industry where people can enjoy the same competitions in each country as if it were a predestined standard where each player must pay their dues at the chance of a top billing and winning for their team.

Not that all this is bad or evil in themselves. The options for free time are just standardized and offered as manufactured options under predefined rules and answers.

Mystery is seen as an obstacle in industry to be resolved with absolute conclusion like a TV program. Industrial paradigm manufactures multiple choice answers where other options are seen as abnormal and insignificant because "most people" don't want infinite choice.

Solving little understood questions is the essence of innovation. It is what people are born to do just as an infant instinctively explores their world. If we continue to embrace our hunger to explore, understand and create all our lives, innovation will the result.

What the semiconductor did was put logic into machines that react to different input automatically. These machines became smaller, faster and cheaper so quickly that we are carrying powerful programmable ones in our pockets today that used to occupy buildings just 50 years ago.

Yet, unlike the room-sized machines that needed to be reprogrammed for almost every new task using commands and code, we are now presented with applications that we pick and choose like multiple choice. Most users ignore the infinite possibilities event though each smart phone, notebook, tablet, desktop can be reprogrammed to solve any problem you want.

Mystery should be embraced by all humankind and not left for an elite to limit our range of choice due to laziness, incompetence or lack of knowledge. With the existence of "cloud computing" which is just a reservoir of computers that can be expanded ad infintum, capital based investment no longer guarantees growth.

I'm inspired to help build the models of growth that uplift the human spirit and take advantage of the logic machines in the air. The model to replace the industrial one is about intelligence, curiosity, collaboration, quality and more organic growth.

Free time should mean doing anything you like. And we should feel free to uncover this most basic mystery of life: What do I really want?