“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” – Albert Einstein

It is the end of another year on calendar, Year 2020, a Chinese Yang Metal Rat year. No other time in the past as I have experienced, has people so willingly wish to pass faster and move on quicker to the next. In the other years by this time, it was more the feeling of panic watching time once again slipped mysteriously away, and of aged unfruitfulness paralyzing us from tearing down the last page of the calendar on the wall. This year has been different to many.

Call it Nature’s response or not, Mother Nature apparently is kind enough to warn us when we may be heading for some infinite abyss or irreversible disaster. This year as if Mother Nature has pushed a PAUSE button in human society’s blinding dizziness in fast forward developments, consumptions, money, technology, population, conflicts … Instead of another year of hypergrowth, we got lockdowns, isolations, quietness, goodbyes, and for luck ones, the uneasy solitude – as if the seeming peace is all but temporary in an alternative reality.

Humans are conceited animals. We rarely observe the feedback of our path chosen with wise minds either constantly or periodically. We like to leave that exercise to a few historians. We march full speed ahead just like any large moving herd, except when somehow get stopped in that path with stunning failures. This year can be marked as one of those “stopping” moment. We in fact have experienced quite a disaster this year already, but are we ready to accept the warning and adjust? Likely not to many.

We saw reactions of all kinds in the face of a crisis that COVID 19 has unfortunately thrown to us. Many of those reactions were similar to children who simply couldn’t believe that their wishes of candies, toys or games could be abruptedly denied. We yelled, cried, cursed, kicked, struggled as hard as we could, but in the end in order not to journey to the underworld too soon, we had to quiet down and went back to our caves to start thinking. It is said that there is an uptick in the interests of science, history, religion, supernatural and esoteric from this year in the general public, but we only heard a few faint voices to question the path that we are on and our way of ardent pursuits in our daily life.

To accept changes is hard. It is even harder to change the way we think – because that needs knowledge, intelligence, wisdom of the ages, and most of all, will and willingness of the mass.

Mother Nature may have many more PAUSE buttons in-line to save us before hopelessly abandon all the creatures of this planet. Everything has a beginning and an end, along with the universe we are in. We may be able to find another place to leave our human’s ingenious marks, but would that be so much different than this one? Would that last forever?

As a Chinese proverb mentions, solitude is enjoyed only when one is at peace with oneself. It’s far from a peaceful world at the moment and we are all in it trying to find peace and balance in the utter uneasiness. May next year offer us more peace and time for true reflection.

“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.” – Bertrand Russell

The world is a hot bed for AI evolution at the moment. We believe so ardently our human ingenuity can make machines think just as fast as ourselves and even faster. We expect that they will expand our cognitive abilities and make us smarter in our dealings. We are beginning to design our ideal selves from our minds to reality with human-looking robots. The progress in chip technologies, algorithms and material science will surely make these robots more human-like than ever.  It seems it’s only a matter of time that the level of AI may indeed on par with humans to handle many of our daily business.

When robots can think, talk and walk just like humans with faster brains on many daily things, are we, those biological humans without technological modifications,  going to become of a lesser intelligence? The answer can be both: yes, if we stay the same way we live and think today;  and no, if we believe that as nature’s creation, biological humans also evolve with time and capable of adapting to changes. On appearance, we as humans look the same as our great-grand-parents  or great-great-grand-parents from centuries ago, but our life styles, life challenges we face,  information we receive,  and many capabilities required of us are no longer the same. Our brain evolves, as well as our capable level of intelligence.

Yet, we are shaped by what we have created. Whether it is a world of overwhelming information or superfluous connectivity, it triggers us to adapt physically and mentally. Automation, smart AI, etc. are going to help us everywhere, at home, at work, and on the road. However, as the technologies are getting smarter, are they making us smarter?

More than likely the answer is the opposite over time. As humans rely more on machine logics and help, our brain activities in fact decrease with time.  We may become part of a machine evolution – we think in machine logic and follow machines’ orders more than we trust the messages from our own brain or body. Maybe some of us will become “superhuman” with technological help,  or become super biological geniuses, but after all, it will not be the majority.

The convergence of physical, digital and biological world is considered as the central theme of the Fourth Industrial Evolution today.  The advances of neural science and computing technologies together promotes AI development which in turn trigger the possibilities of genetic and neural engineering.  Human-like robots and machine-like humans seem are going to walk side-by-side on the same street in the near future. Who are we then eventually?

Many complex neural illnesses, such as schizophrenia, have puzzled scientists throughout the history without the right answers or cures. In recent years through more extensive genetic comparisons, scientists are coming to terms to realize that some carry the markers of human evolution.  A 2018 study published by Australian scientists verified that 79% of the condition associated with schizophrenia is of genetic origin. If we are willing to think from an open perspective, we indeed have many unknowns in our own natural biological evolution. Maybe they bear the answers to those untapped abilities that we human have yet to understand or develop but will become useful in time.

Looks like we still have hope, but the best hope is likely that we are willing to listen to those possibilities that may sound like a distant drum beat at the moment.

Season’s cheers and season’s blues … That’s especially true for the Christmas time in Seattle. Solution: out to a sunshine place instead of a local crowded coffee shop.

Comes the sunshine, comes the new way of travel, too. Want to meet the locals and have a nice place to stay? Try AirBnB. Transportation? Let’s Uber or Lyft it with a fraction of the taxi fare. Amazingly many high-end hotels and airports have added a designated spot with a new sign “Uber/Lyft Pick-up location”. The driver will happily tell you where to go and to have fun, with a sunny smile on the face.

By 2016, Airbnb is estimated to worth more than Hilton and Hyatt combined at around $30.2 billion market valuation. For Uber, some valuation puts it above the market value of GM, Honda or Ford. Taxi companies? No one mentions them that much anymore.

With the help of these new business models on web and mobile, individuals are taking their lives into their own hands: no need upfront capital, no need set up a company or find a partnership, no need extensive training or experiences. These are simply common people who are making money handily for themselves and offering values to the broad customers at the same time.

Even just gradually, changes are there: individual power has been enhanced and traditional market space is rattled and squeezed. How about the old-fashioned companies and businesses then? Often they have to offer similar services and competitive advantages, or they are buying the start-ups to stay relevant. After all, they either get bigger or disappear.

Are we already seeing a glimpse of the future? Do we see Wayne Enterprises? (But let’s hope that we won’t live in the city of Gotham in Batman movies.) They are giant conglomerates, powerful and omnipresent, and they can do many things. On the other hand, we have millions of Joes and Bobs who are running their businesses as individuals. Yes, the world may get more polarized even before the appearance of the robotic workforce in quantity.

For now, let’s cherish our changing time and hope that by next Christmas season, there will be some new learning again.

Another tour of global travel this year strengthened the signal in mind that familiarity is the new reality around the globe. Big businesses and known brand names are everywhere with little differences in or outside any country’s borders, from American Walmart or Starbucks to French Carrefour, German Mercedes-Benz… The name of the town is? It really doesn’t matter that much.

Although still acting up in some scattered pockets of the underdeveloped world, it is in fact the same wave that has been sweeping through for several decades by now, where big businesses gradually eliminated the cute papa and mama shops on the streets. This is an age often called: “The name of the town is a big corporation(xxx).”

Now, another wave from the horizon seems to be roaring over and maybe indeed a new age has begun. Similarity everywhere will be even more pronounced.

Walmart just announced that it will layout thousands of back-office workers due to automation and online initiatives. The competition or efficiency needs of the modern businesses and fast advancement of the technologies inevitably will trigger such a reality. Technology automation will reduce human labors from many manual and repetitive tasks. Further more, cloud computing today will eventually promote centralized IT and back-office management across the globe, which in turn will reduce more traditional human resources in these areas. Cloud-powered AI and robotics will eventually be able to replace even the higher-level jobs that usually require certain situational human experiences or judgements.

Many jobs will be at risks, but on the other hand, humans may benefit from the freed-up time by engaging in more creative and leisure-based activities. Would we see more start-ups or art fairs in the making? Certainly. However big businesses are already buying start-ups at record speed. Inequality, resource scarcity and uncertainty may also render many small creative work less economically feasible for a wealthy living.

After a couple of decades, what would we call the name of our town? Let’s hope that it won’t be called a District 9. World peace, policies and education may well decide the fate of our town.

We used to live in an expert-based society and often refer to the phrase “based on expert opinions” as our safe bet. Not too long ago, we had experts in every specialty of the industries. We invited them to help solve our very specific problems and we all want to become one of them in our vocation. However now, we may have second thoughts.

A customer can be thrilled immensely today by all the built-in high-tech gadgets in a shining luxury new car, either a Mercedes or BMW: touch screen display, bluetooth connection, navigation system, rear-view camera, lane-changing assistance, parking sensors, keyless entries, built-in WiFi, etc., etc… If the features are not intuitive and the customer has no clue on how to use any of these, reading the manual may be the best resort. If the manual is poorly written, then figure it out yourself. Asking the salesmen? They are most likely of little help – simply because no salesman can understand all the new features. Call the warranty department of the manufacturer? Good luck with the time spent, because each part of the feature is likely developed by a different department or vendor, even from a different country. The situation is not any manufacturer or saleman’s fault. Customers want these fancy high-tech features and they are added in at a much faster pace than generations of mechanical features.

No other age in history makes it harder for anyone to claim an expert on anything. Broad range of changes, facilitated by modern technology advances, are accelerating at such a speed that it renders yesterday’s experts no longer today’s best know-how resources. In computer industry today, who can claim an expert on open source? Taking the legal industry as another example. When common laws and judgments can be processed by computer programs in the future, should a prospective law student learn more details about the laws or the computer skills?

What would constitute the key factors to survive in a modern world of no experts? How do we solve problems of our own and those big issues of business, economy, society or world peace in the coming age? – Broad experience and perspective, abilities to learn fast and learn on our own are likely among those that are surely needed.