Toddler Tech Talk

My daughter Amélie is 3 years old and already knows how to use an iPhone, an iPad and Google Nexus. She is able to turn on her touch screen Dell laptop running Ubuntu Linux and browse to Youtube to catch her favourite clips just as well as she is able to turn on her Samsung Smart TV and fire up Netflix to watch her favourite cartoons.

Does this mean that my daughter is mega smart because she can operate computing platforms? Does it mean that my wife (Louise) and I are raising Amélie the ‘wrong’ way by exposing her to so much technology -so young- when she could be playing with dolls, other kids and trees... and stuff... ?

Well. I am pretty sure most people will have an opinion or two on this subject but what I can tell you is that she is not especially smart for a 3 years old. She is probably on the bright side of normal (whatever that is) but she is no child genius. I would also like to reassure you that Amélie has a very healthy imagination, great social skills (for her age) and enjoys wallowing about in the garden or the park with her one and a half year old brother (Sebastian) and our insatiable chocolate Labrador (Winston). 

I’ve made a conscious decision to expose Amélie (and Sebastian) to technology as early and as often as I possibly could, and I will continue to do so. Technology affects everything we do in life and in most cases it controls and determines outcomes that are very important to us. Specifically, the data that computers create, drive and share across the ubiquitous networks that make up the internet and worldwide web touch our lives in so many ways that it is almost impossible to properly untangle and quantify the magnitude of their impact.

I will cover this in more depth in my next blog (for those of you that are interested - and why wouldn’t you be??!?)

For the purpose of this blog, please trust me when I say that the average computer algorithm (software that does stuff) already affects your daily life and your future prospects exponentially more than the bloke we just elected into 10 Downing Street and this truth extends to all politician and indeed nation states.

Technology transforms civilisations, it disrupts and leaves in its wake those that weren’t able to adapt to the change. Technology is no different to any other natural occurrence that we, as humans, have to adapt to in order to maximise change to our advantage. Technology is a very valid part of our evolution. I want Amélie and Sebastian to know this from the beginning of their lives and I want to give them the best opportunity to embrace these wonderful digital tools that will continue to transform our lives and our planet (possibly even our universe).

The steam engine transformed Britain -and then the world- by enabling humans to overcome their physical limitations in the business of manufacturing (this was called the industrial revolution for those of you that somehow managed to dodge reading books and learning about history). In the same way that the steam engine removed our physical limitations in the business of manufacturing, our digital tools are enabling us to overcome the inherent mental limitations we -as humans- encounter in the production of knowledge based goods and services.

We have only just embarked upon this journey and I fully expect the productivity curve to grow exponentially. This because computers and networks, as well getting plain faster, are able to create, store and transfer substantially more data every year. This improvement has been measured since the 1960s and can roughly be summarised as -computing performance and capacity doubles each year with costs either staying flat or declining.

This is all very well and good but what does it mean? To give you an idea of what this means, regardless of where you start, if you double a number every year for 20 years, what you end up with is a number one million times as big as the one you started with. 

I will give you a couple of minutes to ponder this (and check I am not making it up)...

'Great' I hear you say, but what does this mean? 

It means we have faster computers with the ability to create, store and share more data. This much is obvious. What is less obvious is what this means for the outcomes that computing will drive. How can you possibly conceive an influence that is already the dominant force in your life becoming 1 million times more capable?

That last statement either made you incredibly anxious or really really REALLY excited. I hope it was the later- for your sake. Computers represent progress and progress is good and regardless of whether you share my view on this, you will have to accept that computer aided progress is inexplicably inevitable and neither you or I could stop it -even if we wanted to. Human beings are hard wired to be curious (admittedly some more than others) and computers allow us to ask more questions and find more answers about the universe we live in.

Strap in peeps… the world is going to get very VERY weird, very quickly! But not for Amelie or Seb… not if I have done my job properly ;)

If there is one piece of practical advise I can give in terms of a mindset toward technology - it is this. If you use or know of a piece of technology that is a little bit dodgy right now, perhaps take Siri for example, in 2 years time that technology will be delivered using computers and networks that are 4 times as fast. Staying with my Siri example and extrapolating out 10 years- Siri will be 1000 times more capable. In 10 years time, Siri will probably be your best friend and know everything about you. It will recognise your moods, it will anticipate what you need and what you want. Siri will eventually optimise your life and the environment you spend it in. This is a fact. 

Industry is littered with examples of this happening - Laptop computers, digital cameras, mobile phones, music and video streaming services, computer games, voice recognition services, etc. These services were all rubbish when they first appeared on the market but now they are transforming our paradigms on the way we live our lives. 

I will give those of you of that have perhaps been a tad bit rude to Siri in the past (you know who you are) a moment to ponder this.... Siri is only a baby in computing terms but she (I use the lady voice) will grow up very quickly indeed. I suggest you try to build some rapport ;-)

The biggest transformation will be in our job markets -again, a bigger blog for another time- but suffice to say that in the same way that the industrial revolution created massive disruption in skilled and manual labour markets, the digital revolution will have knowledge workers constantly rethinking their value and place in society. This is already happening. IT professionals -the best ones- routinely make their job redundant through the use of computer automation. They don't ponder this, they drive progress and move on (usually upward in old fashioned hierarchical terms) and add value in other ways. It really doesn’t phase the ones that are successful. I've spent 12 years in the technology Industry and I have seen the change first hand. 

Essentially, if your job involves knowing stuff and acting upon that knowledge in a logical fashion that could be expressed through a tree diagram or flow chart (regardless of how complicated), a computer will be able to do your job (or 90% of it) very soon. It is inevitable. 

I imagine that our children will look back at the days when people used to count up really big numbers in their heads and do mental arithmetic -littered with errors- and wonder why on earth we did that. They will also wonder why 10 ton trucks were driven by human beings that can easily be distracted or fall asleep. But then, in a world where the best lawyer or doctor they know is a 25p app on their phone, the past is going to seem silly in a lot of ways :-) 

Now that I have finished rambling, I will let you enjoy my two minute tech with my 3 year old daughter Amélie :-) 

Thanks for reading and watching.. please leave some comments below. 

Chancey