FUTURISTS MISUNDERSTAND HUMANS
Another question the Barna Group asked us for their "Fueling Innovation For The Future" paper was:
"What are some emerging technologies or trends that you believe will have a profound impact on society in the coming years? How and why?"
I answered:
"The real story is how emerging technologies *won't* have a profound impact on society. Just like there was immense hype about how Segway, GoogleGlass, Metaverse and NFTs were going to have a profound impact, there's immense hype about AI, VR and web3 right now.
"All these technologies eventually find their rightful place in the human experience, but that place is inevitably far more limited than the technologists and 'futurists' predict.
"The futurists told us Segway was going to transform human transportation. Instead, it became the main joke for 'Paul Blart, Mall Cop' and the means by which packs of tourists occasionally take in a new city.
"For my part, I'm spending a lot of time putting together SUBLIMITY's vision for how Christian nonprofits and companies should be thinking about their audience mobilization path from now till 2030. It involves a lot less focus on technology and far more focus on human experiences.
"Screens are great. But God made humans with many more senses and desires than screens can deliver."
I stand by all of that. I'm in no way against technology (I'm not even sure what "against technology" would mean). Every day, I happily use a hundred things that fall under the category of "technology". It's more that I'm against the incessant tech hype that wastes precious time and strategic focus.
For example, it was common just one year ago to see #LinkedIn posts from #thoughtleaders saying "If your organization doesn't have an #NFT strategy, you're going to get left behind!"
Today, that's laughable.
But we do this exact same thing with all the different technologies. It's a hard temptation to resist, because no one wants to feel "left behind".
You'll never be "left behind" if you get to know your audience and include them, in a disciplined practice, in discovering and creating experiences they will love. Helping you with that is my team's job (and passion!).
Photo by Andy Kelly on Unsplash
