Last week, after 244 years, Encyclopedia Brittanica announced it would be discontinuing the physical production of the iconic encyclopedia. Given the popularity (not to mention the breadth and accuracy) of Wikipedia, it’s not really much of a surprise. It is, however, a wonderful metaphor for the future of information in the sense that information wants [...]
The Future Will Require a Whole Lotta Unlearning
June 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
If something doubles just ten times it is one thousand (1024 times to precise) larger. This is an important concept to grasp if you want to better contemplate the future. Why? Because no fewer than nine technological trends—semiconductors, data storage, bandwidth, genomics, gene sequencing, robotics, nanotechnology, brain scanning and scientific knowledge—are doubling anywhere from every [...]
The World is Changing: Unlearn!
August 27, 2009 By 2 Comments
Take a look at the pictures to the right. What's wrong with them? The answer would seem pretty obvious: they are upside down. But that is wrong. They are only "wrong" from your perspective. From outer space there is no up or down, so the globe can just as correctly be viewed from one perspective [...]
Unlearning Stabilization
April 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment
John Seely Brown, John Hagel and Lang Davidson recently wrote an article entitled ”The New Reality: Constant Disruption.” The basic premise isn’t new to anyone who has read my book Jump the Curve or The Singularity is Near, and that is that society is now headed into a new era whereby change is a constant [...]
Unlearning Add-Ons
January 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment
According to this new study, the addition of an "add-on" can sometimes backfire and make a consumer less likely to buy the product. For example, in the case of a new MP3 player, if the company offers the customer an opportunity to purchase an additional 20GB of memory it might cause them to think that [...]
