When you solve a problem, do you set a goal, or do you tinker with it until it becomes what you like?
In essays 16-20, Venkatesh Rao, seems to focus on the freedom that has allowed software to be created and the capabilities and potential of software in the coming years.
First, he talks about how the line between virtual and physical worlds is becoming blurred. For instance, 40 years ago, virtual reality was something that only big companies like NASA had the capability to do. Now, there’s technology that allows smartphones to capture 3D imagery.
Even geographically speaking it is closing the gap. For now, walking down the street you are limited to seeing someone who is also walking down the street at that time, with technology like VR goggles and such, soon, could you be walking down the “street” and see someone in a different part of the physical world? It starts to make you wonder if stories like Ready Player One are less far fetched than they originally appear.
In any case, the speed and increase in how software is used is a great sign and testimony to how fast the world can change.
Another huge development is in better problem-solving technique.
There’s the political way of solving problems that goes something like: “Something must be done. This is something. Therefore, it must be done.”
Then there’s a step above this: “There’s a problem, we must set a goal of how to solve this problem and solve it that way.”
But then there’s a step even beyond this. Instead of going in with any pre-conceived goals of what solving the problem should look like, you go in with a tinkering mindset. You experiment with the problem. You see what works and what doesn’t. You aren’t content to just get it back to normal. You’re there to see what improvements can be made. “There’s a problem. Let’s sit down and have a conversation with the problem.”
It once again reminds me of the quote I mentioned in yesterday’s post: If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they would have demanded faster horses. ~ Henry Ford
People get so stuck in their preconceived thoughts and ideas of how things work that they forget about how things can be improved and changed into completely new technology that will improve the way they function now.
Much of this ability for problem-solving and innovations in software came from longer ago than we think. It can be tied all the way back to the 19th century.
The industrial revolution and that era brought freedom in two ways. Freedom for people and freedom for ideas.
People in this era were finally starting to be freed from being “property” of other people. Slaves and such were given the ability to create their own lives not dictated by others. There was still a long way to go, but this is where it started.
Freedom of ideas came from the people not being restricted to a single purpose. I’ve talked about in a previous post how before 1800, most people spent each day just surviving and living. There wasn’t much time to pursue things outside of daily survival. With the growth of the industrial revolution, people were able to start having interests in other things outside of survival.
Basically, more people starting being involved in “problem-solving.” This started to create the many parts of technology we have now, including the potential for software innovation in the 20th century and now in the 21st century.
When people are allowed to tinker and experiment, leaps and bounds often follow in the world of technology.
Free people create free networks.