The stamped letter, telegraph, telephone, phonograph, radio, television, computer. In hindsight it all seems so obvious. In fact it's tempting to think that given enough meditating, the next big thing would be equally obvious. ESP cognition?
You could follow this same mental exercise within the domain of computers. The internet, e-mail, e-bay, google, craig's list, facebook, u-tube, twitter. Surely we're in the early, creative years of a communication medium that will eventually become saturated and simply turn out imitative formats with a slight twist. So what's next? Maybe something like Kickstarter crossed with American Idol and the Lottery. Call it 'Time Out'. If you win you get a year's income to follow your bliss. Each week's votes are rolled over into the next and there is no entry fee. 26 winners a year would require advertising income of $1.3 million a year to generate $50,000 every two weeks. You'd get a dozen or two entries to vote on, if you visited the Time Out site. To register, you'd receive a pin number mailed to your address, one per address.
Seriously, nobody knows what the next big thing will be. What we may know, though, depending on our degree of optimism regarding the future course of humankind, is that certain content found in any given format will be judged differently in the future.
If it's true that the human condition is advancing faster and faster, then yesteryear's dead ends, slavery, for example--which took centuries to overcome, will be tossed aside in much shorter time periods. So, websites that champion exploitation of reality, in bad faith, should eventually wither away. Of course there are complications, like the fact that an institution such as slavery is different than three dozen diehards supporting a website that extols cruelty towards misfits. And there's the profit motive in many cases. But in general a trend line is discernible.
Perhaps a few contours are identifiable:
* Genuine, organic experience will gradually supplant artifice
* Kindness and thoughtfulness will make headway
* Tribalism will tend to give way to a more universal outlook
* Appropriateness will win out over random need
* Happiness will tend to be found in accomplishment rather than in consumption
* Freedom will be enshrined in ever more ways
I am optimistic, I have to admit.
