The World in 2030

52 The World in 2030
The wheel, electricity, and the automobile all dramatically
changed our social arrangements. The difference
today is that the accelerated rate of technological
change has been so great that the social accommodation
to new technology has lagged further
and further behind. The evolution of technology is
now running ahead of cultural evolution, and the
gap is increasing. 100
And in the ‘gap’ between technological evolution and
cultural evolution that John Naisbitt describes is a noman’s
land in which we lack even the language to describe
the new technologies and the new concepts they bring to
our lives.
A good example of our paucity of language for describing
new technology is the term ‘mobile phone.’ Nobody has a
mobile phone which is just a phone any more. All popular
models (made mostly of plastics) store information in a
database, many models have cameras built in, some are able
to play music, others offer GPS tracking systems and one
model is also a magic lantern. 101
The phrase ‘mobile phone’ will probably come to seem
as quaint as ‘horseless carriage’ once a new, more accurate
and all-embracing term for this universal network device
gains widespread acceptance.
But whether or not we have got the words with which to
describe new technologies and their potential (what they can
do and the social, economic and political repercussions they
will bring), new inventions, concepts and techniques are