How Technology Changes Us: Canada In 10 Years

Post written by Niaz T., Senior Solution Architect / SAP BW Consultant at Ideaca. Read more about SAP HANA on her blog: Discover In-memory Technology.

The theme of the Ideaca Blogging Network for the month of August is a very interesting subject. Certainly, technology changes the way we do things on a daily basis. Not only in Canada, but also globally. There could be some specific cases in Canada, such as Green technology to combat climate change. However, most of the technology changes impact us globally, specially in more advanced countries.

The first thing that it comes to my mind is technology will enable us to convert Zettaflood (10 to the 21st bits, or a thousand exabytes) of data in to meaningful information which we are very dependent. Like it or not, business intelligence already has an increasingly important part of our life. The challenge will be how to deal with the explosion of data coming from all types of gadgets and smart technologies because value-based intelligent information helps us to get things faster, better and easier. The speed of rising adoption of cloud, mobile, real-time applications and social technologies and exponential data growth is a big challenge of staying current.

How technology solves this challenge? Some of the biggest improvements have been around networking. We will be able to move more data faster from many sources and applications to where is needed. We won’t have any restriction in terms of capacity, scalability and processing speed. Organizations will be able to leverage the three “V’s”, volume, variety and velocity, of data to augment the value of data for their decision making. Powerful in-memory technology such as SAP HANA enable us to design complex predicative and preventative models for all type of data from structured and unstructured like audio and video files. Next generation of data visualization and intelligent reporting tools empower users to slice and dice information any way it is demanded. We will be able to tell stories with data by connecting millions of data points to get a bigger picture. Big data will change our world and it will blow our mind by providing us tons of opportunities. It will make our word smaller and we will be all connected.

I believe in the next 10 years, another significant change will be human and machines interaction. It seems that human interaction, communication and relationships will be more efficient, faster and stronger through smart technologies. Also, we will be able to have better understanding of machine behaviors and machines will have a better understanding of ours. Ideally humans and machines will work alongside each other and hopefully not replacing human with machines. Although there are ongoing developments and opportunities to replace human with machines, it’s required to consider all potentials dangers and associated risks.

Personally, I’m very excited to see how technology will enable us to access information easily, increase our potential and creativity, improve our lifestyle and promise of longevity, and improve communication and social networking. On the other hand, I believe we need to keep things in balance with respect to human identity and our social behavior. For example, neuroscientists are concerned about how modern technology is making us not use our brains to their full potentials. Based on the evidence, loneliness and depression is increasing and people are less happy in modern society. It’s been observed that the newer generation—equipped with all kinds of smart technology—is less effective in terms of communication skills and human interaction.

The bottom line is we use technology to change the world to suit us better. The important thing is to control it so it doesn’t destroy human intelligence and social interaction. For instance, it would be great to get a relaxing massage after a long day by a smart robot that has already taken care of the house chores. However, nothing will replace a nice face to face conversation with your favorite person or a warm friendly hug to someone you care about. I don’t think we could ever replace our human connection with human-robot connection.