70 Years of Time Travel
Texas and the Future on my mind
To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:
The history of the future
Scott Doorley of Stanford writes this in a book he co-authored last year:
We are living in the history of the future right now. At times, it may feel like things are on the verge of flying apart. But every one of us can assemble a flourishing future from today’s parts and pieces. The next seventy years are ours to shape…
Scott’s talk yesterday at South By Southwest was a mind-bender, about how technology evolves in recognizable patterns. It’s one of the sessions I will study carefully when I return home tomorrow to Sanibel, where I plan to record two or three SXSW episodes of my Kindle Chronicles podcast.
I took a break from South By yesterday afternoon to visit the Texas Capitol, a short Uber ride from the Austin Convention Center.
Before going, I left this comment at the web site of State Rep. Ken King, whose district includes a town in the Panhandle named Pampa:
Hello Rep. King—
I attended first grade at the Sam Houston Elementary School in Pampa. My Dad, who died two years ago at the age of 96, was transferred to Pampa from Boston in 1955 to work in Cabot Corp's Oil & Gas Division. I was 5 when we moved, and I couldn't wait to be a cowboy. In first grade I was the only kid who had ever seen an ocean.
Alas, Cabot transferred Dad back to Boston in the middle of my first-grade year, before I had a chance to become a true Texan. Family lore has it that I told my parents, "I have a great idea--you guys go back to Boston and I'll grow up here in Texas!" No dice. In the second half of first grade in Massachusetts, I felt so out of place I refused to speak. The teacher told my mother I might be retarded, to which Mom snarled, "He's been reading since he was 4 years old."
That's why I'm headed to the Capitol this afternoon. I just want to see the Texas flag and hang out under the dome for a while if it's possible.
I had hoped I might meet Rep. King and take a selfie with him. When I found his office in an underground level of the Capitol, his chief of staff said he was on the floor of the House.
So I made my way back up to the public gallery. There was a lull in legislative action during which several speakers recognized people in the gallery for various reasons. I couldn’t tell which one was Rep. King.
I sat for a while in the gallery, imagining how much my 5-year-old self would have loved being there. In moments like that you understand how fungible time is.
After Ubering back to the convention center, I sat in the front row for Scott Doorley’s talk. His choice of 70 years as a future time horizon makes me smile. My grandsons, Jake and Ryan, are 11 and 7.
With any luck—and possible help from AI and neurotechnology innovations I’ve learned about this week—Jake and Ryan will be living 70 years hence in the future being designed right now.
I thought my goal in coming to SXSW this year was to learn which predictions about AI and other technology make the most sense. I wanted to peer into the future, partly out of curiosity and partly to arrange the rest of my life to fit as smoothly into it as possible.
Instead, I will leave Austin tomorrow with a sense of responsibility.
My experiments with AI Pin (RIP), ChatGPT, Vision Pro, and Alexa+ can play a modest but meaningful part in technology’s unfolding.
An estimated 30,000 people are here at SXSW Interactive this year. What new designs will each of us bring home? The answer to that question matters.
The future of my grandsons depends on it.
