I had the recent very good fortune to attend a few days in Silicon Valley at the invitation from those nice and very clever folks in Google, to meet and hear from some of the great technology innovative minds around
Aside from being stimulated and invigorated about the possibilities available from the continued exponential development of software, hardware and data (AI and the likes), one of the sessions that stood out was a briefing on the dawn of satellite imagery coming mainstream to drive large scale commercial benefits (e.g. measuring global/regional fuel reserves or forestation)
When I posed the question to the presenter “when will the satellite evolution bring social and human benefits such as disaster alert e.g. tsunami alert or forest fire warnings’ – it’s in no way disrespectful that same presenter (he was excellent BTW) to say that such use cases hadn’t really been explored, which is no doubt due to the fact that there is little commercial benefit in such pursuits right now, at least not until this exciting but of course tremendously expensive technology truly goes mainstream and we see Moore’s Law take effect where costs and expanse can be consumed by a broader base of needs
Of course this is the way of the world, where breakthrough developments often have to go through commercial funding and teething before being served up to social and human pursuits (take the jet engines true birth during WWII). It struck me more than just a little that at the back of our professional minds and in our commercial quests, we should always have one eye on the broader benefits for society, humanity and our collective betterment
Of course I remain Darwinian about our intrinsic and intuitive ability as humans to deliver a better world, and in case you’re looking for comfort, here’s an interesting article to support my notion (http://singularityhub.com/2016/06/27/why-the-world-is-better-than-you-think-in-10-powerful-charts/?utm_source=Singularity+University+Main+List&utm_campaign=95d5f928cf-Exponential_Thinkers&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9c706260a1-95d5f928cf-57986905)
All that said, I also draw comfort from more down to earth examples of businesses thriving off social pursuits, no more so than the really fantastic services that Fiona McKeon and BizWorld Ireland BizWorld carry out with 5th and 6th year students in primary schools across Ireland. I said that I had the good fortune to visit some fantastic brains in ‘The Valley’ a few weeks back – well I also had the chance to visit some equally fantastic brains from the 6th class in my own kids National School (St. Laurence’s NS, Greystones) around the same time and witnessed as the ‘Dragon’, the students presenting their business ideas, branding, funding, mock up and even wireframes (if you don’t believe me, see the snap I’ve attached) and trading shares for funding with ideas ranging from social, fitness and nutritional care, to multi-device charging stations (the phoaster) to environmentally protective bin locks
I was literally breath-taken by some of the ideas, business development skills and confident presentations from the groups that I fear I perhaps gave a little more mock cash for a little less shareholding than I would in a commercial setting … but it was the encouragement, opportunity and learning not the deal that was important right !
So thank you the fantastically bright and imaginative 6th year students from down my local school, the positive encouragement of their teacher Sinead Ui Bhroin, BizWorld, their sponsor and my own employer Bank of Ireland BOI for making and taking the time and opportunity to zoom in on ground roots, bottom up innovation and helping me keep my feet on the ground
