Humans and Technology Living Together…Mass Hysteria!

OK, so Peter Venkman said it a little differently in Ghostbusters but the premise of the statement is never more accurate than in today’s Age of Augmented Humanity.  As the Key Master and the Gatekeeper of today’s world finally meet, the marriage of human existence with technology is opening up new possibilities, opportunities and, well, dimensions that we thought were only possible in science fiction.

The evolution of the smart device, starting with the PDA (that’s Personal Digital Assistant for the kids) in 1993, all the way up to the wearable devices that would make Egon’s goggles look like off the shelf specs from the Sunglass Hut, has led to the single biggest impact in human advancement since fire. But the challenge isn’t finding new ways to use technology to help move humanity forward, rather, it is figuring out how to design engagements that improve upon an existence that is accelerated at unprecedented levels.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is connecting us to everything.  And while social media has made us all aware of anything and everything happening, including making overnight celebrities of people who went to bed the night before just an “average Joe/Jane,” the connectivity and our existence is going to be walking hand in hand like never before.  Think about it, just 30 years ago, the IBM Commodore 64, the most popular computer in the country, held about 64k of memory.  Today, an iPhone has about 16,000 times that capability!  Why?  Yeah, Steve Jobs is a genius.  But more importantly, technology has evolved to a point where it is not just about the capability the technology provides or offers, but how it is designed and intertwined into our everyday existence.

Because of this dependency, it is imperative that ideas be looked upon, not just from a programatic perspective, but that UX/UI is just as important to achieving success and dependency.  Much the same ways advertisers and corporate sponsors of sports teams attempt to find, “tasteful integrations,” or, “seamless sponsorship activations,” into consumer content and exposure, the next big thing is not going to be what the idea is, it is how simple and easy it is to be adopted into ordinary life.

Let’s just take a look at the Google Glass concept, which is phenomenal in concept.  If you are an individual who wears glasses already, this is a no brainer. However, aside from that, there’s one caveat about this execution: people don’t want to look like they are from outer space even though the technology is cool enough to practically be from outer space.  The connected generation will want alarm clocks to adjust wake up times based on travel delays, reservations to be updated if a calendar or GPS route has been altered or money transfers to take place to ensure that iPay can complete a transaction for the new proton packs the kids are clambering about.  The marriage of our humanity with technology has created a paradigm shift from what can the technology actually accomplish to how easy is it for me to incorporate into my daily existence.

This fundamental change will alter the entire strategy of how company’s “think tanks” work in creating new solutions for our lives.  As humanity continues to evolve, not taking into account the design of a product or technology and how it adaptable it is to a human’s way of life will be almost as bad as crossing the streams….almost.