Relative Something

It is so hard to know what it is that is happening right now that will have a particular impact on the future, either in our lifetimes or generations that follow. One thought that struck me last night was how fast cell phones have been evolving. My good friend, Gary, recently pointed out that the little buggers have pretty much always been a challenge for hearing the incoming call without interruption, but instead of new designs that eliminate that problem, the phones have become much less about talking and more about keyboard layouts for texting, and view screens for surfing the web, and improved camera features. I haven’t noticed any advertisements for the big new speaker or the fancy souped up antenna design.

The thing is, with all these multiple competing companies marketing their phones simultaneously, phones that look deceivingly similar and offer the same core features of internet connectivity and miniature keyboards or touch screen navigation, they must have been all working on finalizing their designs at the same time. So, where were we when all this was going on? Seems like new designs are released yearly. Designs must be done in time to get released to manufacturers so they can build enough to actually have something to sell by the time all the competitors are hitting the market. When we were getting excited about having the latest Star Trek style flip-open phone, they were already well into the design of the ones that are the hot items of today.

Logic would have it that there are designs in the works right now that will be impacting the way the future phone communication will look. Do you wonder what it will be like?

What else is happening today that is going to determine some fact of life in the future? Does anyone notice the trend that seems to be happening pretty rapidly  regarding medicating children who are experiencing psychological issues? This would be a boost for drug companies and I’m not surprised to hear they market products in that direction. But I am disappointed to hear that toddlers are being given antipsychotic medications or that there are negative incentives built into our health care system for allowing a more person-centered approach to treating children’s psychological problems.

How will the medical trends that are in process right now impact the lives of these kids in 10 or 15 years? Are we making choices today that will help them for their future lives, or are today’s psychiatric practices with children intended to help us cope with them right now for our sake? Do people notice what is going on right now that will have a particular impact on the future?

For the most part, I don’t think we do notice. It takes a little extra effort to pay attention and even more effort to cope with it and come up with an idea of something to do in response. Plus, it would require going against the tide of keeping up with the next American Idol competition and the latest Wii game. Might as well get some entertainment out of today’s products that they were working on the last time we had no idea what they were up to.