You have probably heard the fable of the blind men and the elephant.
Six men encounter different parts of the animal, the tail, the trunk, a leg, a tusk, etc. and not being able to see the whole animal they each form an inaccurate picture of what they think it is.
Our experience with the technology that’s shaping our lives isn’t much different. We may be able to point to how it impacts us now, but knowing where it will go is a different story.
Case in point, look at some of the predictions of the smart folk who were instrumental in shaping the early days of the internet. “Content will all be produced by media companies, regular folk will never make things!”, “No computer network will change the way government works”, “No online database will replace your daily newspaper”… you get the idea.
We may not have any hope of knowing the future, but by feeling as much of the elephant as we can, by acknowledging that we can’t possibly see the complete picture, and by working with others who have a grasp on different body part we might get an inkling of where thing might be going, and we can build for that.
Otherwise, we’re just left fondling an elephants leg.