As technologist we create things out of air. . . Okay – I know it’s all bits and boolean logic built on top of semi-conductors, but the magic that creates our revenue requires ley lines of wire and waves, and technology temples of data centers and cloud providers. All of these things require the flow of electricity to power our mana, and through the magical words of code and symbols – we create things out of nothingness.
But what if we lose the foundation of our magic? How do we eat? How do we make money, when the source of our power is lost?
If you never heard of the Y2K bug, well – you are probably young. We fixed that, and it didn’t become a problem. We’ve never had to worry about the terrorist who are supposedly coming for our power grids. If we look at the future, the one we see is Star Trek – or pessimistically to the life under Wall-E, where we are all hanging out on hover-rounds and everything is 3D printed.
The truth is, our value is entrenched in what we can fix as Operational and Development teams. If we win on the big things like the Y2K bug, maybe we won’t have to develop an old-world skill. Unfortunately – we haven’t always won. The Dark Web is filled with information on practically everyone – whether they’ve touched the internet or not. We lost at privacy – and we may never gauge just how much we privacy we currently have.
Our mana is also defined by the amount of electrical power available to us. Electricity and the concept of what it can do, exists for the entire globe – and yet there are vast regions of the current global economy that have little to none. And they are considered the left behind. As the amount of electrical power expands in a country, the greater it’s development and potential for magic. I remember visiting South Korea in the 1990’s when I believed Japan would be the top of Asia forever. Then China came along and boom. A different world. For me, it came so fast!
But that’s the point, isn’t it? Change happens so quickly, that sometimes – in order to focus on what’s important – we think only of the optimistic path. We don’t consider how badly a person can end goodwill within a country in 4 years, believing in the fairness of checks and balances. We believe our neighbors are like us, though a man on the radio tells them we are cockroaches and to cut down the tall trees. And we take for granted the source of our power, the foundation of our wealth, with the expectation that the flow will be forever.
My old world skill – leatherworking and hand sewing. When the electricity goes out, I’ll probably become a tailor. Now if I can just find a good treadle sewing machine . . .
