We are witnessing an incredible acceleration of technological change today. We are blindsided by how quickly everything has shifted in just a few months. ChatGPT 3.5 came out in December, and then OpenAI released ChatGPT 4 which was described as “state of the art” a mere few weeks later. We’ve seen the development of plug-ins for the internet itself and other applications such as WolframAlpha and Expedia.
It is easy to compare this period of technological change to when the IBM PC, the internet, web, and the iPhone were released as these were all also potential “inflection points”, where the technology was revolutionary and it was hard to predict how their effects would shape the world. In the same manner, today we have a revolutionary new technology with the potential to completely redefine our relationship with computers, but it is still too early to determine the parallel impacts.
By looking at the grand historical context, the speed of this technological shift is even more astonishing: My grandfather experienced the dawn of the atomic age, the invention of the automobile, the airplane, and the rocket, and the rise of mainframe computers, all during his lifetime. I can relate because I accompanied on the journey of these adaptations. I remember using the first IBM PC, and through the 300 baud modem being able to access the text based internet. I even still have my very old Motorola brick phone and iPhone 3 around. Witnessing all this, I can truly say that I have never before seen change as quick as we are experiencing it today.
Docker CEO, Scott Johnston, also recently remarked on the comparison between the early days of the internet and the current events that we are living through. During a discussion with Ilan Rabinovich, the SVP of Product and Community at Datadog, it was no surprise that they both observed the striking similarities between modern time and those days when the internet revolutionized the world.
By recognizing the magnitude of the current changes and understanding the comparisons to the revolutions of the past, we can all become more familiar with the level of technological transformation taking place and be more prepared for possible outcomes of this period.
