BANG!
Did you see it coming? More than six times as many college graduates
are emerging this year than 100 years ago.
Millions of them are coming, ready to solve today’s problems. In the last decade, we’ve tripled our
knowledge of astronomy, pinpointed the age and size of the universe, counted
its galaxies, and found the theory that will link all known physics of the universe. We’ve found intriguing evidence that we are
not alone. We’ve found ten times as many
planets in around other star systems as we have found in our own solar system,
and we know it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
We’ve decoded our genome. We’ve
doubled our life expectancy. We’ve
changed the workforce and the workweek.
We’ve engineered machines a few atoms in size. From a standing start of zero percent of the US population in 1980 to 67% today, average
citizens are now are wired to the internet, in communication with the rest of
the world, keeping track of stocks and finding lost friends from decades
past. The volume of digital data
surpassed the volume of television and telephone data just a few years ago. Meanwhile, every word in every book in most
of the world’s libraries will be available online (and instantly searchable!)
in just a few hundred more days, in every language.
Futurist and
technological historian Dr. Jack Bacon presents a compelling vision that human
thought, which houses the parallel universe of information and all the models
of the physical universe in which we live, is undergoing an explosive new phase
of development not unlike the surge that occurred in the Renaissance or the
Bronze Age. This time, however, it’s
taking less than a generation, and it’s on an exponential trajectory that will
take humanity to inconceivable new heights. We’re living through something of
astounding significance to our species in this decade, as computing,
communications, medicine, psychology, politics, transportation, agriculture,
and world economics all “throw on the afterburners”.
What does it mean to
society? What will it mean to the different cultures and religions of the
word? Fasten your seatbelt.,
and prepare for the explosive growth in the creation of our new intellectual
universe: The Parallel Bang!