The Intention Economy: Wearables, AI, Robotics, and the Future

Written BY

Aric Dromi

May 24, 2016

Written by Special Guest Blogger Aric Dromi, Futurologist, Digital Philosopher and Professional Troublemaker, TEMPUS.MOTU

ARIC DROMI

The current structure of most enterprises is based on 18th-19th century infrastructure, rules, and perceptions. The medium that channels the company’s ability to scale and expand its core business is outdated and anchored in a hierarchy made of paper.

Most business models revolve around one central management entity. Much like the Swift in banking, you can create a psychological consensus for “single-point control” as long as you work in the comfort zone of one unique industry, country or even a local geographic location.

Technology has always been the carrier of human social development. It was never one “thing” that made a difference, but the synergy between several disciplines coming together, defining the relationships that underlie the impact of society. The industrial revolution pushed the boundaries of humanity beyond anything we understood at that time–it transformed us.

While the current generation of C-Suites (excluding few) and politicians are managing the world with a limited understanding and thereby under-utilising the potentials of digital technology in almost every area. Now, we are entering an era of digital augmentation and areas such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, genomics, biotechnology, neurotechnology, adjustable reality, and the codification of value interactions enable us to reexamine every aspect of our life.

The international supply chain is not a physical “thing” any longer. The backbone of our social structure is based on data, networks of digital data to be exact. And it’s these networks of connections between technology and people resolute in ideas that pushed us forward, towards a model where national sovereignty is no longer seen by physical borders, where corporate giants promise us immortality, and the definition of humanity is written in code.

Much like Prometheus gave fire to man, this coded supply chain will create a new, nonlinear circle of identity between brands, businesses, people, transactions and investments. More than that, it will enable organisations to inject potential growth engines directly into the company’s earning core in a faster, transparent, more efficient manner than ever before–We will get better services.

The power of data rests in our ability to tune it to a single intentional space–in other words, a dataset that can’t be monetized is useless, while a dataset you can apply even a single query to is invaluable.

We already know how to augment with technology; now, we need to learn how to let it become seamless and invisible yet always present, predicting needs with point-of-view decision support, but getting out of the way so the value can augment our life.

Since the dawn of mankind, we’ve migrated from one place to another. If wars, famine or hunger were the reasons or simply the wish for a fuller life, people emigrated from their homes, cities, countries in search of something better. Today we are quantifying our self-awareness and uploading it to the global human-cognitive cloud; and as we are getting closer to the inflection point that will once again change our understanding of reality, it’s not so far-fetched that soon we will be able to decentralise our identity and move to live among the clouds as 1s and 0s.

A new formation of Decentralised Autonomous Identities will rebuild society and assemble knowledge in a whole new manner–we will not search for knowledge behind a screen, we will be part of it. I like to think that the greatest designs are not the ones that only eliminate friction; they are the ones that make the experience a natural extension of one’s perspective. These first steps we are taking today – the realisation that technologies such as virtual reality are not a touch point but an entry point – will be the basis for a new infrastructure, one that is anchored in code, an extension of our intentions, and part of our existence.

This vision will bring the change faster than most companies are able to cope with and while most companies are busy improving the current rather than disrupting–i.e. removing layers and layers from the future until the naked enablers for transformation are gone and they are left with “zero impact change.” To survive this journey, organizations will need to reinvent their industry, business models and the value they can deliver, not just to a single individual but for that individual as part of a digital society.

Further Reading