The Age of Questioning

50 years after the 1960s, another age of disturbance on a global scale seems to be here. This time, although similarly imbedded with human societies’ underlining differences and contradictions, it is triggered not by any open war, but by the massive accessibility of the modern technologies to every corner of the world. Here come the suspicion, curiosity and new awakening to the age-old basic questions and answers.

Almost every establishment is being questioned. The roles of the government are seriously being questioned(from the structures to the laws and actions: the Wall Street rescue, the healthcare, the tax and wealth disparity, the NSA, …). The worldwide economic systems are being questioned after the latest crisis. The structure and functions of the corporations as the main employment and social vehicles are being questioned. The long touted ways of how science and research are conducted are being questioned. …. We no longer can live in peace with what we were told or what has been working in the past, including the social norm, tradition, value and belief, the existence.

The big bang of modern technologies facilitates the questioners and questioning process. Scarcity-enabled technology innovations of the poorer countries are challenging those of the richer places M-PESA, etc). Bitcoin is challenging one of the core threads of human civilization: the currencies. MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses)  movement is challenging the esteemed system of college education. 3D printing is challenging how every little thing can be made, including medical replacement parts. The coming of human robotic surrogates is likely not too far from what’s been showing in the movies. Many more … A gigantic wave of changes are coming, to each culture, each country, each organization, each profession and each individual.

This is an age of questioning,  alongside of which may be confusions and disturbances, but this is definitely an age of innovations, an age of entrepreneurship and an age of many new beginnings.

Reference articles from the web: