Novelty Is Not Progress

I’ve come to the conclusion over the last few years that it’s far too easy to confuse novelty with technological and cultural progress, and nothing in my lifetime has made that more clear than the latest incarnation of smartphones. It used to be that computers and devices were platforms — hardware and software stacks on top of which third-party solutions were meant to be built. Now many devices and platforms are becoming much more like appliances. In some ways, this is a positive evolution since appliances are generally things that all of us have, depend on, know how to use, and are relatively reasonably priced. But let’s consider a few other attributes of appliances: they typically only do what their manufacture intends, they are the very paragons of planned obsolescence, and they generally operate either entirely in isolation, or are typically only compatible with hardware or services from the same manufacturer.

Admittedly, comparing a smartphone to a blender or a coffee maker isn’t entirely fair since our phones and tablets are obviously far more versatile. In fact, every time I adjust my Nest thermostat with whatever device happens to be in my pocket, or use Shazam to sample an ambient track in a coffee shop, or search for a restaurant in an unfamiliar city and have my phone (or Google Glass) take me directly to it, I’m reminded that several conveniences and miracles of the future have managed to permeate the present. But one of the tricks I’ve learned for evaluating current technologies is to consider it in the broader context of what I want the future to be. And when I contemplate the kind of future I think most of us want — one in which all our devices interoperate, and consumers have full control over the services those devices support and consume — there’s a lot about modern smartphones, tablets, and the direction of computing in general to be very concerned about.

The reality is that novelty and both technological and cultural progress are only loosely related. Novelty is usually about interesting, creative, or fun new products and services while true technological and cultural progress is about something much bigger and far more profound: the integration of disparate technologies and services into solutions that are greater than the sum of their parts. Progress is about increasing access to information and media as opposed to imposing artificial restrictions and draconian policies; it’s about trusting your customers to do the right thing, providing real and tangible value, and holding yourself accountable by giving all the stakeholders in your business the ability to walk away at any moment; it’s about sometimes taking on a challenge not only for the promise of financial reward, but simply to see if it can be done, or because you happen to be in a unique position to do so, or because humanity will be the richer for it.

I know I’m probably coming across as a postmodern hippie here, but it’s these kinds of idealistic and possibly even overambitious aspirations that should be guiding us toward our collective future. I want to be able to use my phone to start, debug, and monitor my car and my motorcycle. I want the NFC chip in my phone to automatically unlock my workstations as I approach them — regardless of which operating systems I choose. I want instant access to every piece of digital media on the planet on any device at any time (and I’m more than willing to pay a fair price for it). I want all my devices to integrate, federate, and seamlessly collaborate, sharing bandwidth and sensor input, combining themselves like an array of radio telescopes into something bigger and more powerful than what each one represents individually. I want to pick and choose from dozens of different services for media, mobile payments, telephony, news, social networking, geolocation, and every other service that exists now and that will exist tomorrow. I want a future limited only by what’s possible rather than by intellectual property disputes, petty corporate feuds, service contracts, shareholder value, and artificial lock-in. And more than anything else, I want a future that is as much about making us intellectually and culturally rich as it is about material wealth.