FUTURE
Wanna Get Out of My Box. But High Tech Is Keeping Me In!
Our technology knows us intimately. And they give us more of what we already had in the past. Grrr… I want diversity!
In Taoism, we are taught that we are walking with our backs to the future. We need strong backs to steer us wisely. Our eyes are focused on the past. Because that’s all we know.
Well, I love my TAO wisdom.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” ― Lao Tzu
But in this particular instance, I want to do differently. I want to include the future in everything I do. I want real innovation, based on what I see as future trends. I want to find solutions to the problems of our times. Not looking back and faking some half-witty, industrial more-of-the-same-presented-as-smart solutions.
No, I want the real thing. Technology that supports life. Business models that solve inequality. Promoting sustainability and healthy living.
My eyes thrive on an eagle eye perspective. They want to see the future, and trends, and things I don’t know yet. I’m a polymath. And I love to sharpen my brain on different perspectives.
I love cultures and trying to understand them. So next time I meet someone, I can really connect deeply instead of just scratching the surface.
I love different languages and deep knowledge. And science. And everything beyond science, the so-called pseudo-sciences. So I can make up my own mind and see what will be viable in 2030. Or 2050. Or 2080.
“The more you know, the more you realize you know nothing”
— Socrates.
I want to see beyond my time. And at the same time, I’m aware that I know nothing. There is such a big field of collective intelligence in the world, my understanding is a tiny spec of dust in the vast universe.
And still, it’s my calling to know about individual puzzle pieces and to share the connected dots that are my own unique creations. I want to share my vision with the world, so it can form a big transition wave together with the drops of other people.
The wave of change has arrived. And if I do not get out of my box, I’ll never be a worthy changemaker. I’ll just be giving you more of the same.
So what do we need to do to get out of our boxes?
Our high tech, such as phones, social media algorithms, and search engines don’t help. They just give us more of the same.
The answer: let’s get curious!
Normal Pictures
Today I read a story from Thomas Smith about the skies of California. They are turning apocalyptically orange. This is an out-of-the-ordinary we want to capture. This has meaning. This is a capture of our times-of-change.
Thomas says:
“If you live on the West Coast and woke up yesterday morning to our aggressively orange, smoke-tinged, apocalypse sky, you may have thought “Wow, this needs to be on Instagram.”
But when you stepped outside with your phone to capture some pics to scare your East Coast friends, you were probably disappointed. A sky that appeared horrifically Martian in reality looked washed out and white-ish on your phone. [..]
But when conditions aren’t normal, these automatic settings can fail in a big way. When your iPhone sees the apocalyptic orange skies currently plaguing the Bay Area, for instance, it assumes you must be shooting indoors under a weird-colored incandescent light. “Here, let me fix that for you!” the software helpfully thinks, adjusting the white balance to even out the colors, removing the orange tinge from the sky, and making the scene look more normal.”
— Thomas Smith.
Thomas’ story taught me that my phone is keeping me inside the box of ‘normal’. Well, how will this help me to get to grips with the ‘new normal’?
Grrr… my software doesn’t have to think for me.
I’m perfectly capable of doing that for myself!
I already hated the automatic corrector of my words. It gave me ‘pornsite’ instead of ‘wide’. Glad I saw it in time. I wouldn’t have wanted to send that to my 85-year old mum. It always mixes up my Dutch with English and the other way around. How can it ever be clever enough to be valuable for me?
And I hate the suggestions of Facebook and Medium. Telling me that I want to read about nonsense chit-chat, while all that I really want are gems! Quality GEMS on topics I know nothing about. Is that too much to ask?
Apparently…
Diversity Is All
A while ago, I read a story about how to deal with diversity. I can’t find it anymore. But I remember what it said.
Diversity is very important if we want to create a peaceful world together. White people need to see black people’s perspective. And we can all get wiser getting by seeing indigenous people’s perspectives. Not to mention the Asian perspective. And an African perspective.
How else can we create tomorrow’s world of living happily ever after?
So what do I need to do to get out of my box? I can’t fight big high tech. It’s too mighty and I’ll burn out just trying. A no-go.
So I have to be like David, fighting Goliath.
Be clever. Be ingenious. Be smart.
And most of all: be curious. They say curiosity killed the cat. Hell, no! Curiosity is what kept the cat alive!
If you and I want to live our best lives, this is what we can do.
- We can search actively for writers different from ourselves
- We can bathe in diversity. Connect to people from other cultures. Learn from our wise Mother Nature. Be different. Act differently. Thrive on being unique
- We can look with our own eyes instead of just cameras. Smell with our own noses. Taste with our own tongues. Hear with our own ears. Feel with our own skin. And awaken all of our antennas big time
- We can use our intuition to keep an open mind
- And be curious. Always and everywhere be curious.
Happy discovering. Happy living!
And if you want to connect, you can find me somewhere being my unique, stubborn self and surfing the waves of change…
Further Reading
I invite you to connect. Here are my platforms: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, ManyStories or my website.
© Désirée Driesenaar
