It once took years to get a television at home, and once we had one, we used it for decades. Getting a telephone connection meant waiting for a long time, and those landlines stayed with us until quite recently. These facilities were expensive too, and many people could not afford them.
Now look at how things have changed. Almost every household has a television. Almost everyone has a telephone connection—many people have more than one. You can even watch television on your mobile phone. Information is available at your fingertips.
All these changes have taken place very recently, right before our eyes. And these examples represent only a tiny fraction of the transformation around us. Change is happening in every field—communication, commerce, banking, healthcare, industry, education, and more.
But why changes are so rapid today?
It is natural for any living being, that they strive to improve continuously. This is the basic principle of evolution. Human beings are not an exemption to this natural law. So, we always try to improve, and we keep doing it at all times. Just to give an example, we invented bicycle to move faster. But we have to use physical power to ride it, thus we improved and invented motorcycles. To improve the riding comfort, we went on to make motor cars. Then we moved on to make airplanes. This story does not stop with the airplanes. Improvements continue. This is true in every field.
But why it was taking longer earlier than now? To understand it better we must ask, what was slowing the improvements? It was hurdles, that were in front of us, were slowing us to move forward. What we are trying is to remove these hurdles, so that the journey becomes faster and smoother. Every time we remove a hurdle, we gain speed to move forward. With that we approach the next hurdle faster and we repeat the process of removing it and keep going faster.
But how? We develop new technologies to understand the hurdle better and to surmount it. We are gaining more knowledge every day. With more knowledge and new tools, removing the hurdles come easier. Thus, we keep moving faster and faster.
Will it slow down anytime again?
No. That will never happen. Momentum of this pace will only accelerate further. The ripples are felt everywhere. We can feel it and nobody is immune to it. It will affect more in the future. Banking systems, communication, transport sector, medical fields, educational institutions, admirative offices, government departments, industries, technology centers; everywhere.
How do we cope with it?
To understand that, let us look at what we do when we move forward. When we are walking, we need to look ahead a few feet so that we do not step on to any odd things on our way. When we are cycling, we need to look ahead longer and gain time to control our bicycle. When we are riding a motor vehicle we need to look much ahead. The faster we ride, the longer the distance we need to look at. We have to be more alert so that we can manage the system effectively. This is a simple rule which we all know and follow it as well. Message is simple. The faster the changes, one must look far ahead into the future and have to be extra vigilant.
One need to relook at the way that we lived in the past. We need to get into future ready mode; we all need to look ahead far into the future and prepare ourselves to take on.
But who should take the lead?
No doubt, the government machinery. Everyone needs to work under the rules set by the government. If these rules are not future ready, that will be the hurdle in front of everyone and that will slow down the progress. Every branch of the government, including that of the central government, state governments and local bodies, must be future ready. Every organisation, its departments and individuals must be future ready, no matter when they were formed or joined the workforce. If not, we will be pushed back, and surviving will not be easy. Survival of the fittest is the law of nature.
—The author, Dr. V. Premachandran, is an education expert and former Member of the working group in the Kerala State Planning Board, and former Senior Fellow at the Solar Energy Research Institute, National University of Singapore. The views are personal.
Read his previous articles here
