The world is being prepared for the ultimate digital revolution. Irrespective of the fact that people, communities and even nations are ready or not, tsunami has entered the shores of humanity. A revolution that will divide people into specific communities of interests and create new virtual worlds.
Just 10 years ago, it was very difficult to actually find out the total number of bikers all across the world. But now through social media and digital connections, they are more than 100 websites and applications that now connect bikers across the globe.
Along with this revolution comes an uncertainty. An uncertainty that has and will haunt generations to come. This is the first time where data is going to be the driving factor. For the last hundreds of years, humanity has been collecting and creating data. However at this particular juncture of time, data will now be creating its own version of humanity.
Some scientists are very afraid of this new digital revolution. Revolution where Facebook and other social media have more data than the intelligence agencies of several countries combined. Google provides you with a plethora of applications and services. However through those mediums it is also able to track every single second of your life. The predictions of Google have exponentially increased over the last 10 years alone. It can now predict what type of people are going to go where and buy what items at what given time. This is not a whimsical hunch. It is a reality in the flesh and blood.
The reality comes as a shock. A reality shock. How could man not be anticipating that this event would come? When you build networks of scale and pump data through platforms and integrations, you will create a virtual world.
Now the real question is what would happen to the communities of people who are not on the other side of the digital divide. What would really become of them? Some specialists even have a particular terminology for it. They say that millions of people will be digitally dead. “Digitally dead”: a virtual coffin for the people who are not up to the mark with social and digital worlds.
The reason behind that is the digital communications and revolution will control everything that you do. So if you’re not integrated with the mainframe then you would not have access to the data that will keep you alive. Imagine that there are people in this world who will not for any given reason have the right applications that could provide them with the data and information so that they can live a longer and healthier life. Imagine that is a particular disease in an area and the people who got that information immediately were able to get the vaccine and medications. But the people who did not have the applications and did not fill in the particular forms and go through the process would eventually die. This is just one case. Lack of information and lack of data will actually cause havoc to time, finances and even life.
Let’s look at it from even an animal perspective. They are new gadgets out in the market that are monitoring the very steps and techniques used by killer whales. Those applications that are tied to the whales can predict where these killer wales will attack next.
The only thing that we can now do is celebrate the new revolution. Highly recommended is reading upon the digital revolution and come up to speed on the applications and technologies that are existing today. We have become accustomed to Careem and Uber. These are only in the travel industry. There are many other applications in other industries that we are not privy to. Education is key. Start reading and listening to videos. Large scale online companies like Udemy and Coursera are doing wonders educating people on the digital revolution. Many online business communities and companies are working around the clock to create that balance.
Though many of us might have had a late start but that doesn’t mean we also have to finish the race late. We need to realise that time is of essence. If you actually fail to deliver then there will be a time when the data will forget you as well.
The author is a digital data specialist and an anchor on Business Plus.