The Shopper Economy: The New Way to Achieve Marketplace Success by Turning Behavior into Currency

CHAPTER 12A Glimpse Ahead

“An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense ‘intuitive linear’ view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century—it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate)…. There’s even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence.”

—Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines, 1999

THE RATE OF CHANGE IS ACCELERATING

Even if one doesn’t subscribe to Kurzweil’s notion of the Singularity, it is hard to deny that the rate of change (both technological and social) is increasing. Therefore, this discussion of change and trends doesn’t ...