WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY?
Admit it, you likely think this question is daft, because the answer is obvious. But, it’s a serious question, and the answer depends on the time you live in.
If you lived in 3 Million B.C. then a hammer is “technology.” If you lived in 1 Million B.C. then it’s fire. 5,000 B.C. it’s the Wheel. 1500 it’s the mechanical clock and the printing press. 1800 and it’s the camera and steam engine. 1900 it’s the car, electric light bulb, the radio, and the telephone. 1950 it’s the Mainframe, Nuclear energy, and the transistor. 2000 it’s the internet and the PC. Today, it’s Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, the smartphone, and Virtual Reality (VR). Fast forwards to 2100 though and Humans are “technology” – through the use of genetic engineering technologies such as CRISPR which allow us to turn living cells into the equivalent of biological supercomputers.
So, as I said, it’s a serious question. And , as always seems to be the case with technology – time matters.
FROM DUMB PROSTHETIC TO SMART COMPANION
In addition to these perceptions technology is changing in more fundamental ways as our societies develop and as our ability to create increasingly sophisticated technologies matures.
Step back in time, even a decade or so ago, and our technologies were little more than a dumb prosthetics that people used to help them accomplish their tasks – we got in it or on it, picked it up, or turned it on and it did its thing. Today though, in a growing number of cases, it’s an increasingly smart companion capable of independent reasoning and thought, as well as self-development and self-optimization, and even self-replication. Technology today is not was it was – it’s something completely new and it’s changing society in ways that many people can’t imagine.
WHY TECHNOLOGY TODAY IS DIFFERENT
Again, and forgive me if this record is getting old … it seems like yet another obvious question. Just look around at the world and you can see how technology has changed in the past millennia, century, decade, even the last year, month, and increasingly week. From the AI’s behind the screen that chat with us, create our music, movies, and stories, and increasingly run our lives, to the children who are taking their classes in Virtual Reality schools, to the robots that build our devices, pack our parcels, and grow our food, to the vehicles that drive and fly themselves, and a million other changes.
When you really look at the world, and I mean when you really look at the world, we are already living in the world of science fiction. And that’s before I don my Futurist speaker hat.
As significant as all these changes and advancements are though we and the machines we’ve developed are creating so much more, and many people are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. We are truly remaking the world, and we truly live in extraordinary times.
AGENCY, INTELLIGENCE, AND SELF
While there are thousands of technology centric changes we could discuss there are just three to focus on that are societally the most important and impactful. They are also the three that the vast majority of people either don’t see or think about. And the only thing they change about our world is everything.
The first, in no particular order, is the development of machines – ostensibly AI and machines such as robots with Embodied AI – with Agency. Used to describe the ability of machines to perform activities and make decisions autonomously increasingly we are moving from a point in time where our technology followed a set of pre-programmed instructions to accomplish a task to the point in time where machines take information in and then decide for themselves on the best course of action to take. And this is a huge leap in technological capability and utility as we increasingly move from a world of so called Human “in” or “on” the Loop to Human “out” of the Loop. A simple example of this is a self-driving vehicle, today the cars can adjust their speed and brake according to the conditions but a person is still the final decision maker. However, in a future where vehicles no longer have pedals or steering wheels the occupants will be wholly reliant on the machine which will be the ultimate and only decision maker. And we can apply this same principle to almost any process, whether that’s buying stocks and shares, designing new drugs, or even building, operating, and scaling autonomous businesses.
The second change involves the development of intelligent machines. A highly emotional topic humanity has been discussing whether or not AI can ever be truly intelligent, and if so when that could happen and how we measure it. Those debates asides though we have already passed the point in time where AI has been able to create new knowledge to master domains such as drug discovery and gaming. This then, as organisations lean into embedding these increasingly sophisticated AI’s into their organisations begs us to ask the question: “Are our businesses today under going a Digital Transformation or an Intelligence Transformation?” If you think it’s the latter, and I and Accenture now think we are in the “Post-Digital Age,” then your whole approach to how you transform your company will instantly change.
The third, and by no means least, change is the move from dumb machines – machines that humans develop – to machines that design, evolve, innovate, optimise, and replicate themselves, as well machines that are capable of creating their own proto-cultures and societies, and other human-like emergent behaviours. And, they’re accomplishing all of this and more with increasing speed and sophistication, so we now live in an age where our technology, enabled by AI, has taken over its own development.
Combine these three observations together and it’s likely that your world just changed.
22 FUTURE SOCIETAL INFLECTION POINTS
FAB : THE SECOND HALF OF THE CHESSBOARD
UTILIZE : THE FUTURE OF AI
VODAFONE : DISRUPTION AND OPPORTUNITY
ARE ALL TECHNOLOGY SPEAKERS THE SAME?
Just as every individual is unique and has their own experiences and relationships so too is every Technology speaker. However, while some have deep domain expertise in one area or another, others have a broader base of general knowledge. Some are at the forefront of developing the latest technologies, while others are at the fore front of integrating those technologies into business operations, or finding new ways to regulate them and protect society from unintentional harm. Other speakers, however, are what the speaker industry calls “Flash in the Pan experts” – individuals who at best have a thin veneer of experience and expertise in a particular topic and who have simply jumped onto the latest hype train. Personally I believe that audiences expect the “Sage on the Stage” to know and live their domain expertise.
And that’s what Matthew Griffin, one of the world’s most in demand technology advisors and speakers does on a daily basis. Simply take Generative AI as an example, as the hype increased we saw thousands of speakers who were overnight experts, and yet Matthew was the first to spot the technology emerging back in 2016, wrote a book on it in 2019, wrote a book with it in 2022, and by the time “it arrived” had already given hundreds of keynotes on the topic to organisations as varied as Accenture and Bloomberg, and AON and Episerver.
MATTHEW GRIFFIN TECHNOLOGY SPEAKER
TECHNOLOGY AND DEEP TECH ADVISOR . AUTHOR . FUTURIST .
A multi-award winning technology speaker and author with over 30 years of first hand international experience helping organisations develop, explore, integrate, and regulate hundreds of emerging technologies Matthew has never just hoped onto a hype train – search through his archives and channels and you can see the evidence for yourself.
We live in an increasingly complex world where technology development, for example, is also increasingly intertwined with Geopolitics, where the breadth of change is broader, where the depth of change is deeper, and where the pace of change is faster. So, as you scour the world for your next technology speaker yes, you can always have the flash in the pan expert whose domain knowledge is shallow and whose foresight is short sighted, or you can have someone who has a consistent track record of seeing what’s coming and helping organisations large and small explore and embrace it.
INTRODUCING MATTHEW GRIFFIN
“A WALKING ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE FUTURE!”
NASA, KYLE E., SPECIAL PROJECTS DIRECTOR
Matthew Griffin, is a multi-award winning geopolitical advisor, leadership coach, and Futurist who NASA have described as a “Walking encyclopaedia of the future” and a “Futurist polymath.” One of the world’s most renowned Futurists and strategic foresight experts Matthew is the 15 times author of the best selling “Codex of the Future” series, and is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working across the next 50 years whose mission it is to democratise access to the future for everyone, irrespective of their abilities or background. An in demand international keynote speaker, university lecturer, and mentor he is also the only Futurist to have been invited to speak alongside world leaders at both the UN COP and WEF Davos, and his two multi-award winning YouTube channels put him in the top 0.1% of YouTubers worldwide.
A rare talent in his past Matthew helped build and lead several multi-billion dollar business units for Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, and his ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77+ governments, and many of the world’s most respected brands including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Disney, Dow, EY, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, and many others.
Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.
MATTHEW’S KEYNOTE REEL
FORTINET : THE FUTURE OF CYBER RISK
PARTNERS GROUP : EMERGING TECHNOLOGY PANEL
TENTHPIN : THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE
MATTHEW’S DAILY WORK
In the most simplistic of terms our present day happens when different events converge – whatever those events are.
Some of these events are the result of things that were set in motion many years, decades, or even Millenia ago, such as the development of intrinsic human behaviours, others happen spontaneously, and the remainder fall somewhere in between. Unsurprisingly, the theory goes that the more of these events, or Signals, that we can catch early, the better able we are to model the impacts when they converge, then the better we should be able to forecast the Preferred, Plausible, Probable, and Preposterous futures. And this has been my personal mission for the past two decades, at Dell-EMC, IBM, and now at the 311 Institute – to identify as many Signals as possible, intensively research them all, including their behaviours and the forces driving them, and then work to develop the most accurate version of the future that we can.
One of the oddest comments I hear from Futurists, even some of the most renown, is that it’s impossible to predict the future, and that we aren’t here to predict anyway. But, I dismiss that point of view, because even with limited data we can predict things such as the continuance of Electric Vehicles, the continuous development of AI, and so forth. I also believe that the more Signals we can see, and the better able we are to understand their behaviours and impact, that the breadth of futures that we can predict can be increased. And, for those occasions when we don’t have data and or are working with imperfect data I developed the Anchoring Constants Foresight Model which so far has played a pivotal role of keeping my own predictions on track. Predictions, as you can see below, such as the emergence of Generative AI and autonomous AI companies, the democratisation of skills, and many others.
However, while envisioning the near and even medium term future is difficult, the further out we go the fuzzier the future gets.
WE ARE THE FUTURE
SEE EVERYTHING AND SUCEED
MENTORING THE NEXT GENERATION
RAISING EVERYONE UP
REASONS TO BOOK MATTHEW
SEE EVERYTHING . EXPLORE EVERYTHING . SUCCEED .
The reason to book me as your next keynote speaker is simple: I can help you see EVERY FUTURE and SUCCEED.
Unlike other speakers I can show you the whole future, not just the 30% of it that others will show you. And then I can share the tools and thinking you and your audiences need to explore it, understand it, and lead it. I understand though that you may think of this as so much marketing hype, so to prove that it isn’t I encourage you to test me, and if you can find a topic that I can’t discuss at an expert level, and in greater depth than others, then I’ll DONATE $10,000 TO CHARITY.
Are you ready to take the challenge!?
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