Speed Changes Everything

As a futurist, I often find myself discussing how emerging technologies might impact jobs.  We talk about automation, artificial intelligence, robotics and other technologies that are all obvious candidates for human displacement.  We don't, however, think enough about the physics-related notion of speed. 

Speed refers to how much distance can be covered in a unit of time. If a car moves at 3 MPH, the driver can safely look around, take a drink of water, and eat a burger while driving.  However, if the car is moving at 120 MPH, the task of driving requires all of the driver's attention just to keep it under control.  The difference in speed completely changes the nature of the job.

The following is a list of just a few ways people, things, concepts and processes can be changed when speed increases:

1. Faster operational tempos require faster decision-making.  At a certain point humans reach their limit.  At that point processes must be automated and decisions made by algorithms to progress.
2. Speed changes organizational charts. Faster operational tempos require flatter organizational charts and fewer humans in the decision chain.
3. Speed requires faster acting and reacting.  Again, humans have their limits.  At a certain point automation and algorithms must take over to manage the speed of action.
4. Speed mandates continuous  and increased levels of attention and concentration.  Humans tend to quickly lose concentration, which soon becomes a big liability.  Automation will need to take over in a 24x7x365 - always on world.
5. The faster the speed, the more precision is required.  Often this precision can be lost as humans get tired and lose focus.
6. Speed quickly destroys the quality of a human experience.  Even a race car driver must rest, recuperate and be restored before returning to the track.  Continuous speed forces humans out of operational processes.
7. The increasing speed of innovations, invention and transformation makes long-term planning obsolete.
8. The speed of innovation far outpaces government's' ability to study, regulate and monitor it in order to build guardrails and protect their citizens from potential dangers.
9. Speed changes how markets operate.  Instant and automated digital trading based on algorithms can cause huge market swings and unanticipated swarming events and bring instability to the global financial system.  There is no time left in this process for wise industry sages to deliberate and ponder.
10. Speed changes how commerce and e-commerce are conducted.  Consumers want instant information, transactions, confirmations, approvals, feedback, real-time rating, comments, chats YouTube explanations and instant personalization.  Real-time equals automation, as humans cannot operate at digital speeds.
11. Speed changes how sports betting is conducted.  As more information is produced about every competitor, team, event and environment at a faster pace than ever before - the nature of betting changes.  Sensors, digital twins, data analytics, algorithms and speed increasingly becomes a source of advantage for sophisticated gamblers.  The nature of the game has changed.
12. Speed changes how democratic elections must be managed and safeguarded.  Media-reporting on elections based on near-real-time data, projections and speculation across different regions, time zones and methods of voting can create confusion, concern and conflict that interferes rather than promotes democracy.  
13. Speed changes the manner in which styles and cultures evolve.  Influencers can publish media and can instantly change the direction of fashion, create swarming events, or destroy the reputation of other people or things.
14. Speed changes how languages evolve.  Historically, time and distant provided environments where languages evolved slowly in near isolation or with limited outside influence.  Today, with global media broadcasting, and routine travel around the world the trajectory and pace of language evolution is greatly impacted.
15. Speed changes how conversations take place.  From face-to-face often requiring travel, to letters requiring travel and delivery, then phones, to email, texting and then chat, as each of these means of communication changed, so also did the way we format information and present it.  It changes our writing style and habits.

16. 

    Sloths are the definition of anti-speed

    Speed changes relationships - think online dating.  From proximity being a key selection filter to now opening the doors instantly to the world's population, much of what was historically involved with developing a relationship has been impacted by data and speed.
17. Speed changes the nature of conflict, battles and warfare.  In the roman era, leaders estimated that armies could generally move at 20 miles a day.  So armies separated by 60 miles were thought to be 3 days a part.  Three days allowed time to anticipate, prepare for battle or negotiate for peace.  Today, with stealth aircraft, drones, missiles and hypersonic weapons attacks can occur with little to no warning.  There is no time for negotiation, contemplation and conversation.  The nature of conflict has changed as a result of speed.
    

Today, speed is tightly integrated with the notion of digital.  As things becomes digitally enabled, speed transforms it.  This transformation often pushes humans beyond their limits.  They become the friction in a world running at un-human speeds.  A place where only more sophisticated digitally enabled things (i.e., robots, AI, algorithms, automation) can work at this new and future operational tempo.

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Kevin Benedict

Futurist at TCS

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.