We are living a tech revolution every day | Blake Dowling

I was watching the show "Ancient Aliens" talking about our society going from the horse and buggy to walking on the moon in 100 years. What a great show. I guess I am late to the party as I just discovered the crazy dude with hairspray who hosts it. If you have not checked it out, go for it.

Ancient astronaut theorists agree, it is the bomb. Plus, that hyper speed technical revolution of the horse to the moon era is mind blowing.

We have not slowed down since the moon; it has been a wave of blowing minds every few years, since that summer in 1969. Who would have thought when I was a kid in the 1980s that by adulthood, I would have a device in my pocket that could be a VCR, jambox, Walkman, art studio, computer, phone, arcade, calendar, and bank all in one.

Young me would be mind-blown knowing I could watch "Airwolf" or "Mork and Mindy" right on my phone then pivot to a game of Pitfall on the Atari and back again. We literally have the world at our fingertips. Nanu Nanu, times 10 as our buddy Mork used to say.

I sat next to a gentleman at a lunch event a couple of years ago and the conversation has always stuck with me. He was the speaker at that event and his talk was about being wrongfully accused of a crime. He had just been released from jail after a 20-year sentence and what he shared with me at lunch was that new technology was just too much to wrap his head around.

Being able to watch movies, text (what does that even mean), check weather, email, make social media posts, crank up some tunes, read up on sports, have a remote meeting, on a small device was not comprehensible. Someone explained social media and Twitter to him, and he was like what? Why would you need to do that? Indeed.

Even going to a bathroom with touchless faucets was a deal breaker. He could not figure them out. He had to wait and watch others. He said it brought him to tears, missing that tech revolution, and now trying to play catchup.

We live in a constant state of tech revolution these days. As the song goes… You say you want a revolution well, you know we all want to change the world.

In recent years the cyber security revolution, internet of things, cloud revolution, mobile revolution and right now the artificial intelligence revolution are in full swing concurrently. It is as they say in the movie "Spaceballs," Ludicrous Speed pace here in 2024.

The man I mentioned earlier got left behind in a big way. I am sure you have felt left behind with some kind of tech? Am I wrong? My mom for example, I think she still records her shows on Fox news on VHS tapes?

I am not immune either. The first time I pulled in a parking space with a smart meter was a "what in the hell is this" moment. I think I circled the meter like Clark Griswold on a roundabout (a little "European Vacation" humor for you), before finally figuring it out.

Now it’s the norm and my bout of feeling tech age discrimination is over. I think I just created another unwanted euphemism, tech discrimination, but sheesh we have all felt it one way or another. For example, I had a family friend ask me on the down low how to call an Uber as they didn’t have a smart phone. Jail, aging, not paying attention, it can happen to anyone, and it is a thing.

Revolutions and tech age discrimination aside, it’s time to blow your mind.

What if I told you we are on the cusp of greatness as a civilization? What if the tech renaissance is behind the next door. That the political bickering we see in our nation is on the way out. That a new golden age is on the horizon.

The baby steps have already started; things like the International Space Station would be a good example of our capabilities. For the first time in history, we have the collective knowledge of humanity in our pocket. The question is what are we going to do with it? Another game of River Raid or help make the world a better place? The choice is yours.

Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies, the host of the Biz & Tech Podcast and the author of the pandemic diary, Professionally Distanced. You can reach him at dowlingb@aegisbiztech.com

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: We are living a tech revolution every day