By 2044, Americans May Never Need To Leave Their Homes

I’m convinced that within 20 years working and gathering as humans will happen primarily in virtual space. Here are the clues I see leading me to this answer:

Growing Incentives To Stay In

• Advancing tech capability has been a constant truth in our lives. Things are possible now that we couldn’t even conceive 20 years ago, like AI chat and image generation. Virtual gathering spaces are already in the comfortably believable realm where it’s just a matter of time and progress.
• The quality of virtual gathering currently falls way short of the real experience. The former is a fixed-value offering, so the gap will only get smaller — deeper and more impactful interactions will become available and keep improving. Already, many young adults have ‘internet friends’ that they’ve never met.
• So often, technology is applied first and foremost to meet our growing human cultural expectations for instant gratification and convenience. Technology will be pointed toward feeding these monsters as quickly as it’s available and, already, most of what we ‘need’ can show up on our doorstep with minimal human interaction.

Declining Incentives To Go Out

• The current trend of extreme weather events will not stop until more drastic and holistic action is taken to combat climate change. Searing summers, inhospitable winters, terrifying storms.
• COVID had a terrible impact on the planet, even with a recorded mortality rate of around 1%. It has already altered attitudes and approaches to in-person gathering. Should another virus rear its head — with a higher mortality rate — imagine how quickly attitudes will shift.
• Post-COVID, we’ve seen a trend of families and employees move back to gathering but most often in the context of ‘because it’s really worth it’. The better virtual tech gets as above, the less ‘worth it’ you’ll have.

How are you preparing for a truly ‘native digital’ future?

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog