Our society is in the midst of a global breakthrough. Emerging and converging technologies are stirring up a stew that will lead to the transformation of the world as we know it.
This is beyond simply making many aspects of the physical world connected to the digital. It is beyond business transformation. It is beyond technological transformation. It is beyond physical transformation.
I have been having some critical conversations with wonderfully critical thinkers that have helped me conclude how serious what is taking place before our eyes really is.
I am of course referring to blockchain / distributed ledger technology.
You see, much like the physical world, the digital world is made up of many, many layers - each part building upon itself. by its nature, technology is a part of feedback loop that imagines, manifests, tests, breaks down, and loops again and again and again.
Stone and clay tablets were the tools of choice for our very first records of human history. One of the historical records we have is that of a transaction for food and goods in exchange for currency.
It is as if this was bound to happen, it could almost seem. We are now constantly making new transaction records of exchanged digital assets while tracking the flow of those items through cryptographically hashed and secured / validated networks of computers running to do just this one specific task.
This is where things will continue to go, and it will have vast implications on everything from governance, corporate structures, legislation, finance / asset management, identity management, healthcare medical records, artificial intelligence, history, and more.
This feedback loop has already wildly shifted the way the world works. The internet has been the backbone for such a shift in communication and what is now considered to be absolutely normal and essential to daily living.
This technology is like the discovery of fire to the exponent power of gutenberg's printing press. It will fundamentally shift things. Slowly, but before you know it, we may unknowingly be contributing to the creation of this future. Perhaps we already are. That's why I'm posting this to Steemit and you're reading it here, right?
What does this mean for you?
// more thoughts on this later, more teaser content to come, but wanting to open up a discussion for now.