There was a time when there was no Internet. When I was in school, having a computer was a big deal. Luckily, my grandfather found his retirement past time in computers and I was very close to him. So I got access to Commodore 64 when I was probably in Grade 2. Getting to it so early in my life pretty much defines who I am today. I think I would have been a different person altogether if it weren't for that early exposure to computers.
As we as a society graduated from larger and slower computers to smaller and faster computers, continuing with the Internet revolution of the 90's and as we now stand in 2013, I think its pretty unimaginable now to think of life without a computer and let me generalize it a bit and say technology. We can't live without technology anymore, we are simply too dependent.
Imagine time away from everything and not having your smart phone or tablet with you or not being connected via Internet. While the world and the distances between people still remain, physically and emotionally, we as a society have been now wired to being connected all the time via the Internet.
I mean, I remember the first few years on the Internet for me when connecting was a conscious task. Dialing in using a modem, putting in a password for dial-up networking, the noisy modem sound, indicating that I am now connecting to the world wide web. The mind would change state slowly with the sounds of the modem connecting from being in a much more solitary, secluded version of the world with physical connections only to almost a "wow" state of mind, in awe, virtually connected to everybody else, in the whole world. WOW!
Not anymore. Now with Wi-fi, 3G and what not that follows as technology develops, there is no conscious state of connecting anymore. It is assumed that we are always connected, always wired in. Always on.
I am not sure if it is good or bad but the natural reaction and flavor of this blog post is negative. All this should be unhealthy. We shouldn't be always connected, always on. It doesn't sound natural. But then, what is natural? We do something for too long, the next generation inherits it and the one after calls it "natural". For example, working on a computer is natural now and not having a computer in the house is unnatural for today's generation. I can assure you this wasn't the case when I was growing up and if we ask our fathers and grandfathers, they will tell you a completely different picture of the world.
So maybe I observe this because I can see the change happening and being Always On, Always Connected as a threat to the quality of life that we want to live. Tomorrow, as our children grow up and the next generation comes in, this would be the way of life and not being online, connected or "on" all the time would be a threat to the quality of life.
How society develops. We are an amazing race, look where we have come to now and just keep watching how and where we will go to next as a civilization. I observe and I share as I notice something. Only possible because I am too, Always On, Always Connected.
The Weekend Theory
I haven't published a theory for quite some time and though there have been lots in the making, I haven't come around to blog about it in recent times. Well let's change that situation with this blogpost.
By the way, most UTP theories are developed while sitting in the toilet especially in the mornings. The benefit of the iPad mini that I recently bought is that I can record thoughts as they come and then elaborate on them later. I would not disagree that lot of theories get flushed almost literally as well however some break it through.
I present to you a prediction of the future as I see it about weekends, which I not-so-creatively title "The Weekend Theory".
I can see us grow into a society which will have more than just 2 days of the weekend. I know in some places around the world, it is still one day weekends even now but by and large, majority of the world enjoys 2-day weekends currently.
However, my theory states that not too far in the future (maybe by 2025) we will have 3 day weekends and probably in a few more years (maybe by 2050), even 4 day weekends. I will obviously back this up with logic, no matter how illogical it is. A logic is a logic and I am a very logical person.
So I stand by this theory based on 2 supporting points.
Number 1, Automation
With more and more things getting automated, we have moved from doing things manually to using computers and now letting computers do pre-programmed things is quite the norm. My job involves convincing people that even a computer software like MS Excel is a manual situation and you need to graduate to system automation. So already I am helping change the world through more and more automation.
I have a strong feeling that this will develop so well soon that by 2025 approximately, we will simply not require to work 5 days a week. The machines will do it for us. Hence I could see us squeeze through another day into the weekend. First it will be unofficial, some companies will do it but soon it will become the norm. It would be basically managing the automation for the next 25 years and by 2050, this will improve so much that we will just need to manage the automation that manages the automation. This would give us the 4-day weekend with the 3 days being used to just program or rather pre-program and monitor the automation.
Number 2, Burn-Out
The number of hours we work whether we are physically at work or not, is just a big stretch already on us humans. We were not made to do this much work. However, in this day and age of competition, you do more just because you are expected to do more and this is never-ending. The risk is that if you stop working and stretching more, somebody else would and hence we would be left behind. Unless you decide for yourself what the limit is, this situation is pretty limitless. The more you do, the more you are expected to do. This means that we will burn-out eventually in fact I am sure we already do get phases of burn-out even now which leads to us being sick and "needing a vacation" or simply being unproductive on some days. These are clear signs of burn-out.
Anyway, my theory is that eventually, not too far in the future, human rights and labour laws will start protecting us where we simply can't work for more than 4 days a week hence need a longer weekend. Now, I am not sure it will be 3-day continuous weekend or would it be a 2-day weekend with a day off on Tuesday or Wednesday, middle of the week, basically to re-energize but 3 days off in a week will be required. It may also be an alternate day approach where you get Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday off or Monday, Wednesday and Friday off, the latter probably for Muslim countries. Something like that.
Working in UAE, I get Friday and Saturday off. It kind of links to the logic that if I wanted to take a break on a weekday and it could be only for one day, it would be a Sunday as my first choice, Thursday as my second and then Tuesday as my third. Either of Monday or Wednesday would be the 4th choice.
I think eventually the burn-out risk would be so high that we would need the working week to be only 3 days and hence get 4-days off. We will do everything but kill ourselves with possibly longer working hours on the 3 working days but then have 4 days off. Again this would probably work with 2-day weekends and then 2-day mid week breaks or all 4 together though I think the former may be more productive.
So there you have it, my theory about weekends and how they would evolve. In the coming years the material world will become closer to how the natural world runs i.e. automatically. Doesn't matter if it has artificially reached there with machines, systems and automation, it will still be very much on its own with just needing monitoring and pre-programming.
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