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THE WORLD IN 2023 A transcript of an interview last week with Mark Anderson
FiRe is back - save the date! Our Future in Review conference will return, live, at the Terranea resort in Palos Verdes, CA, November 6-9. _____ Why Read: This is a transcript of a wide-ranging interview with Mark Anderson on February 9, on the next FiRe conference, global trends and events, economic war, new physics, Advanced AI, CRINK, and other subjects that are strategic and critical in understanding the coming year, following a presentation of Mark's 2023 predictions. Mark's interviewer was Paul Grey, past chair, Technology Alliance Group; president, Rotary Club of Bellingham (WA); and CFO, Prime Party.
Paul Grey: Mark, tell us, if you would, what's coming up with the FiRe conference this year, and is it back to being in-person, versus video because of COVID? Mark R. Anderson: Yes, we have booked the Terranea resort, as you mentioned, in Palos Verdes. It's a really beautiful - if you Google it, you'll want to go just from the pictures of it. We've used it before, so we know it's cool. It's a fantastic place to discuss big ideas, and you're right on the coast, and so on. It's face-to-face, which we're really happy about. It'll be November 6 to 9. We're just lining up people now to do speaking, to do sponsorships, and so on, as [FiRe COO Berit Anderson] mentioned a minute ago. So, we're very eager to have everyone here come and join us there. As Paul said, it's kind of like "changing": it gives you access to people who are doers, thinkers, action-oriented ... They want to make changes in a nice way in the world; they love to talk to each other. It's the best crowd I've ever been part of. When you come back, your batteries are fully recharged. You're tired as heck, but your batteries are recharged at the same time. So, that's FiRe. We've been doing this, as you mentioned, I don't know, 19 years, I guess. It's really, really great. If you're not that kind of person, don't come. But if you're that kind of person, you know, please come. You'll love it. So, that's what we're doin', and I'm so glad we're doing it again. Virtual just didn't cut it. PG: I read a book some time ago - this is not one of the questions, Mark - pretty thick, written by an MD, and the title is Aging Successfully. At the end, very unusually, he recapped all of what he had in his 700-page book, and he boiled it down to 10 things, and one of them was Stay curious. That's what you're all about. What are you tracking these days with Strategic News Service? What kinds of topics? MRA: Well, this might be of interest to the group here, I think, because it's not a technical problem, really; it's a general problem. I decided to call it hyperchange. Imagine that you could look at a chart of change, over time - so it's a second-order chart, if you're a mathematician. If you start back in the '50s: something gets invented, how long does it take before it's accepted, and so on. We all know that the rate of change is increasing. But you might also suspect that that isn't necessarily a happy story. Is there, for human society - and break it right down to yourself - is there a point where it's changing too fast? Not because you're older, not because you're not smart enough ... it's just changing too fast. I remember when Microsoft was competing with Netscape, and they were slugging it out in the browser world, and one of them decided to start issuing browsers, like, every six weeks - because they could. No one wanted that! That's a horrible idea! It's bad enough once a year, when you have to make sure everything works. That's hyperchange: where technology, essentially, is changing faster than society benefits from, and in fact might be hurt by it. And I think it applies to everything - just like technology drives every sector in the global economy. Which technology sector is not going through hyperchange right now? I think they all are. So, as much as - I'm a booster for technology; I've spent my whole life doing that - but I'm not stupid. And I just have a feeling as though we're not really in control, anymore, of this. One obvious question would be, is the internet - mother of all technology and change - is the internet still a benefit for us? Is it? Are we better off? I'm not sure, really. I've said to [my assistant, Denyse Davis] a couple times, I'd just push the red button if someone gave me one, just to see. I don't think that we get enough back out of it, compared to what it does to us. I'm not sure we're healthier. I'm sure we're not happier; I'm sure of that, and we might talk more about that. But, you know, if you're looking for a healthy, happy life? If that's your personal goal? Tell me why the internet makes it better, right? That's hyperchange. And I think it's a worthwhile thing to question - at least talk about - this, and if talking about it helps us ... I've got this idea, Paul. It's really simple. The phone box. In every house and every meeting room, there's a phone box. It's a shoebox. And when you come into the room, you put your damn phone in the damn box. [Laughter] Not kidding. I've briefed the NSA before, and they have a phone box. We should have one, too. I think that would be a really good start. You know, [so] we actually look each other in the eye, we can't cheat in the meeting and do the ... Just listen to the person that you're meeting with, and then get out of the room. Alright; enough of that. |
