Why we need more tech future gazing

Written by Paul Maher

People often ask me how I ended up working in tech. ‘Are you actually interested in business software?!’ is a common question. And while I can’t honestly say that I spend my weekends gleefully reading about Network Virtualisation and Software Defined Networks, I do have a genuine interest in, and love of, this industry. But why?

Like most things in life, it comes down to my childhood – how I was raised and what was going on in the world around me. The eighties and nineties were a period of future gazing – full of silver jumpsuits, flying cars and space travel.

Every week Tomorrow’s World would get my school friends and I talking about the potential of technology. Films like Total Recall, The Fifth Element, Demolition Man and Event Horizon would fill us with excitement about moving to other planets, teleporting, and being friends with robots.

So what has this got to with what we do at Positive Marketing? Well, with the UK experiencing a shortfall in digital skills, which is only predicted to get worse, perhaps it’s time to take a look at what inspired those of us already in technology to get involved in the industry and provoke a new wave of technophiles.

When I was younger the world was still excited about space exploration – with the Space Shuttle programme in full swing and the US still increasing the annual percentage of federal budget being given to NASA. We, as consumers, were feeling the widespread benefits of the discoveries that came from the moon landing – WD40, microwave ovens and ‘mini’ computers. This was an age when even the sky wasn’t the limit and it inspired a generation to be curious, push the boundaries and always strive for improvement. As the American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson puts it:

‘If I say, “Design me a plane that’s more fuel-efficient, because the country needs that now,” you’re not going to get any truly transformative, innovative solutions. Instead, if I say, “Who wants to build an air foil that’ll navigate the rarified atmosphere of Mars?” or “We’re about to go to Mars. Who wants to study life forms that are yet to be understood that we may discover?” I’m going to get the best engineers, I’m going to get the best biologists. I’m going to get the best of those categories because it’s a goal befitting the depth of ambitions of students.‘

It seems we’re now reaching a point where technology has become so ubiquitous we almost forget to question it, to really think about how we use it. As I watch my nephew, who was able to use an iPad before he could speak, using YouTube and CBeebies, I think he’s going to grow up in a world where he expects constant access to technology. Maybe he’ll be celebrating incremental software updates with the same joy my parents celebrated the moon-landing. Is one small step for iOS 8 really a giant leap for a mankind?

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Things like the Hyperloop, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are still helping us to push the boundaries. Maybe it’s time we once again get children to imagine what the future might look like or get excited about the possibility of moving to Mars. By inspiring a generation to once again look to the stars and realise new potentials for human achievement, then the whole technology market, including those of us in B2B, stands to benefit.