Fraser Speirs’ iPad Future Shock

“What you’re seeing in the industry’s reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock.

The tech industry will be in paroxysms of future shock for some time to come. Many will cling to their January-26th notions of what it takes to get “real work” done; cling to the idea that the computer-based part of it is the “real work”.

It’s not. The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.

The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table’s order, designing the house and organising the party.

Think of the millions of hours of human effort spent on preventing and recovering from the problems caused by completely open computer systems. Think of the lengths that people have gone to in order to acquire skills that are orthogonal to their core interests and their job, just so they can get their job done.

If the iPad and its successor devices free these people to focus on what they do best, it will dramatically change people’s perceptions of computing from something to fear to something to engage enthusiastically with. I find it hard to believe that the loss of background processing isn’t a price worth paying to have a computer that isn’t frightening anymore.”

Fraser Speirs - Future Shock

Wonderful perspective on the iPad and what will come from it. If you’re in tech, take 5 minutes to read this and then take a few deep breaths.

Curious about the future of everyday technology? Watch this.

This really is brilliant. Sure, it’s Microsoft’s own version of the future, but think about it. The possibilities…

Joenandez wrote a thought provoking post on LacrosseAllStars.com a couple of weeks ago titled “TomorrowLand Lacrosse… Let’s Ideate.”  His ideas run right along with the video above:

1. New uniforms or pads that sense touch and location
2. Live broadcasts of games in 3D (think HHDTV)
3. The stats keeper is the computer, so everything will be “trackable” on the field

These are spectacular ideas that really could become reality.

For me, the Microsoft video and Joenandez’s article have been a bit of an inspiration, causing me to think differently about some big decisions over the past few weeks. The futurist in me has come out a little more. I like that, and I hope it stays this way.

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels.
The troublemakers. The round
pegs in the square holes - the
ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules and
they have no respect for
the status quo. You can praise
them, disagree with them,
quote them, disbelieve them,
glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing that you
can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.

- Jack Kerouac

“Here’s to the Crazy Ones”, Apple, 1997