AI + The New Human Frontier

CHAPTER 5A World of Templosion

Economists define a luxury in basic economic terms as something in extremely high demand but extremely short supply. So, if I were to put on my Richard Dawson hat (or Steve Harvey for you current watchers) and play a game of Family Feud and I asked you what the number one answer would be to the question “What in your life is in the highest of demand and shortest of supply?” what would you say? My guess is that you'd say “time.” For many of us, the biggest luxury is time. (Sidenote: I have asked this question many times, and some of the answers are as varied as “closet space,” “love,” “money,” and “sex”—problems I am definitely not interested in attempting to solve!) But for many of us, time is something in higher demand and shorter supply—and that supply seems to be getting smaller. Time is a valuable currency, and people feel like they simply don't have enough of it. We are all time-starved and repeatedly trying to find ways to control it, maximize it, and spend it. Time is the ultimate currency today. And in turn, time has become our greatest asset.

All of this is leading to a world of what we in our firm (The Future Hunters) call templosion. Templosion refers to the implosion of time. In simpler terms, it is the idea that the biggest of things and the biggest of events are happening in shorter and shorter periods of time. Everything from corporate lifespans to financial planning cycles to the way in which we communicate is becoming more abbreviated. ...