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Dan's Biz Bookshelf: The Future is Faster Than You Think

The Future is Faster than You Think: How Converging Technologies are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives

Remember when the future meant flying cars? I don’t think anything represented the 21^st century to us more than flying cars, right? Well, you’ll be happy to know that they are here. Since 2019, over $1 billion has been invested in at least 25 flying car companies. They are all different varieties and sizes, from motorcycles with rotors to miniature space pods. Uber is developing the most promising of these flying cars, called eVTOLs for electric take-off and landing vehicles. They will have one pilot, four passengers, and travel at speeds of over 150 miles per hour.

Uber is also working with NASA and the FAA to develop air traffic management systems as well as real estate developers to design a string of “Mega-Skyports” for passengers to load and unload. These skyports will be able to recharge vehicles in as little as seven minutes and handle 1,000 take offs and landings an hour. And get this, they will take up less than three acres of space. Flying cars are just around the corner so you’d better get ready to meet the future faster than you think.

This is just one of the many mind-boggling predictions you will find in this mind-boggling new book.

How about computers that are building themselves faster than any human could do it? Or autonomous trucks hauling freight? That is not a prediction; that is a fact and it’s happening as we speak.

How about AI (artificial intelligence)? Google’s Talk to Books let’s you ask a question on any subject and responds by reading 120,000 books in half a second to provide you the right answer.

And we know that 5G (G = generation, in case you didn’t know) is here right now. Here is a good comparison of the generations with a capital G. We were at 0G in 1940 when the first telephone networks were rolled out and it took 40 years to get to 1G, which showed up with the first mobile phones in the 1980s. In the 1990s, 2G was developed. Remember those days of that spinning circle while you waited for your internet photo to download? Ten years later we had 3G and now we have 5G. Want to know how fast 5G is compared to 3G or 4G? 3G took 40 minutes to download a high-definition movie; 4G takes 21 seconds to download that same movie; 5G is faster than the time it has taken you to read the last five words.

But wait there is more, so much more.

Cities will be reinvented—you will be able to live anywhere because of the convergent technologies of high-speed internet to flying cars. That can get you from your house in Utah to L.A. in less than 40 minutes, if you even have to go into the office at all anymore. We saw this scenario accelerated during the pandemic.

There will be floating island projects created for people to live on.

Medical developments will be accelerated as we have seen in recent months. COVID-19 vaccinations were developed using AI and algorithms based on all previous knowledge attained all over the world. Scientist were working in real time, sharing their discoveries as soon as they happened. I heard the president of one vaccine company say that these global software programs allowed them to try out different vaccine elements with a program similar to Word, where they can add and subtract elements to the formula and see the results in real time.

Is your head spinning yet? Well, I’m just getting started. I have just shared with you a tiny fraction of what you’ll find in this book. I can honestly say that if you want a significant look at not only today’s technology but also insight into tomorrow’s technology (literally) then read this book. You’ll amaze your friends and family with your knowledge of what’s to come—faster than you think.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.

The Future is Faster than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives

By Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Copyright: 2021

Pages: 365

Price: $28.00/ Hardcover, $14.99 Kindle