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This is the third post of my “The Pace of Globalization” series. For the previous two posts, follow these links:

The Pace of Globalization I

 

The Pace of Globalization II

In the first post of this series, I featured the video “Did You Know?” by Karl Fisch, a teacher at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado.

Mr. Fisch has done a great job spreading awareness about the mind-boggling pace at which globalization is changing our planet and our lives. His videos have earned high popularity on the Internet and even Sony executives were shown the latest version at a meeting in Rome in 2008.

Karl Fisch is writing a blog in which he shares his usually insightful thoughts: The Fischbowl (http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/)

After the huge success and great feedback he received from the original version of “Did You Know”, Karl Fisch created another intriguing video presentation which he calls his “2020 Vision”.

He outlines a “plausible vision of the future” which he created as a “look back at our future from the year 2020″ from his perspective when addressing the graduating class of 2020 which entered Kindergarten in 2007.

 “The kindergartners that start in the fall of 2007 will graduate in the spring of 2020. As architects of schools, you need to have a 2020 Vision. Your client’s and children’s futures depend upon it.”
by Karl Fisch

 

If the video doesn’t play, you can download the Windows Media Player version here: 2020 Vision  or the Quick Time version here: 2020 Vision

or you follow this link to Google Videos:

or go to Karl Fisch’s blog to download the videos or the script:

http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/11/2020-vision.html

Watching the narrated video you might begin to fear that Google will more or less take over the world between now and 2020, but as Mr. Fisch himself said,

“The goal is not to debate the plausibility of any specific predictions, but to envision a time in the not-too-distant future when the world is significantly different - and hopefully schools are as well.“

Furthermore he wrote on his blog:

 ”I didn’t want to wait any longer because I think this conversation needs to take place now.”

 In my opinion, it is not unlikely that some of Karl Fisch’s predictions will be fulfilled. With the dramatic changes that have occurred for the past 10 years  in our minds, we should realize that even the boldest predictions of the future usually were far less spectacular than what really happened. Take the example of Google which was incorporated on September 4, 1998.

Now ask yourself,”Could you imagine a life without Google?” How many times a day are you using Google, or Google Maps, or GMail?  Quite often, huh?

Could you have imagined 12 years ago that you might be as dependent on a company that was only about to be founded by two college students in a garage in Silicon Valley?

Now it doesn’t sound as unrealistic anymore that Google might purchase the Associated Press, ABC/Disney, several startup companies in the areas of solar energy, battery technology and quantum computing, plus two Chinese manufacturing conglomerates and vast stretches of sub-Saharan Africa. How about Google purchasing stakes in Ford, Apple and AMD? Or Al Gore and Warren Buffet joining Google’s board? 

Even what Karl Fisch envisions for 2014 is not so far-fetched:

 

On December 1st, 2014, Google holds a press conference to announce breakthroughs in solar energy technology, battery technology, energy transmission and quantum computing. GooglePanels quadruple the efficiency of current solar panels at one-third of the cost. All of Google’s data centers around the world will be powered by GooglePanels by the end of the year, saving the company tens of millions of dollars per year in electricity costs and earning it an additional 30 million dollars a year in carbon rebates.

 

 

 

Well, the point is that the pace at which globalization is progressing and technology is revolutionizing our lives won’t decrease. Therefore we can expect incredible changes in the coming decade. Global competition and collaboration, the energy crisis that is about to climax (for more on Peak Oil, follow these links: Is the end of the Oil Age near? ; IEA: Oil supply crunch and mega-recession by 2013 ;  or check out the latest Oil Price Chart: http://www.whatmattersweblog.com/energy-charts/ ) and climate change will have profound impacts on our world.

The earlier we start thinking about the future, the less we will be surprised and the better we’ll be prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Always remember,

“THERE IS NOTHING PERMANENT EXCEPT CHANGE”

Heraclitus of Ephesus

Category Globalization:

http://www.whatmattersweblog.com/category/globalization/

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 2:34 PM and is filed under Electric Cars & Auto Industry, Energy, Globalization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.