Tag: tech

The two tiers of technology

Posted on by philipdodson

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Yesterday I did our usual weekly podcast with my mate Bernie and by chance, we had an opportunity to chat with Julio about Blockchain.

I have been trying to find out more about Blockchain, as it is becoming a much talked about technology. I know it’s been around a while, but we’re a bit backward in London!!

But the thing that struck me, while talking with Julio and we referenced it in the podcast, we are living in a two-tiered world when it comes to technology.

Brian Solis coined a fantastic term in his great book ‘What’s The Future of Business’, he called it ‘digital Darwinism’, where many are getting left behind as technological changes at lighting pace. He said ‘when society & technology evolve faster than our ability to adapt’.

We do have a generation c, a connected generation, however, posting on Instagram, sharing experiences on social networks, buying stuff online based on reviews is one thing, keeping up to date with technology and the real impact it could have on the world, is another thing entirely.

There are about 2 billion smartphone owners globally, so that means there are 5.5 billion who are unlikely to be part of the connected generation and are unlikely to know about Blockchain. However, out of those 2 billion smartphone owners, I wonder how many are familiar with Blockchain and how it could completely revolutionise the world?

I still don’t completely understand it and I am not sure how it will impact the world. But I am very curious to see how.

But we do have a two-tier tech world developing, where many are not even aware of what is there. That is not a criticism or judgement, it is an interesting fact of our rapidly changing world and is almost unique in the history of the human race.

I believe that many in the world will use technology to bypass the current established operating system and that will bring about great change, much of which the masses will not be aware of until it has happened.

Technology, used in the right way, has the ability to solve the challenges facing the human race, it is up to us to connect, find out more and get involved in helping this revolution happen. It is the only way we will change the historic situation of the few controlling the many to a world run for all the human race.

Finally, there is undoubtedly an unknown third tier of technology, that is kept from all of us. Let’s hope change can happen fast.

Sig Saly and modern tech

Posted on by philipdodson

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So I have just been listening to my favourite podcast, 99% Invisible by Roman Mars, this week it was all about the vocoder.

So this guy called Homer Dudley (not Simpson, doh!) and his invention the vocoder. He built a special one called the Voderette especially for 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. The machine was a giant speech synthesiser, which basically distorted voices and made silly noises.

But there was a serious technology behind it, which was to prove invaluable in encrypting wartime messages for the Allies. The technology helped to create the massive machines called Sig Saly.

So machines the size of whole rooms, with very temperamental electronics were used to send real-time messages between wartime Allied leaders that the Germans could not decode, and in fact were not even aware of.

The technology required two identical records to be played simultaneously at either end of the conversation, so one in Washington and one in London. They were effectively one off security keys. When the conversation had finished, they both had to be destroyed.

This was real groundbreaking tech, leading edge for its time.

After the war, much later in the 70’s and 80’s this tech was used in synthesised music (Kraftwerk), used for voice synthesisers for people like Stephen Hawkins and is used to encrypt and compress all manner of stuff in our digital world.

The thing is a good deal of what we take for granted was pioneered many years ago, in an age that we see as almost stone age in comparison to our super teched up digitalised smartphone world.

Today, sticking a better camera in your phone gets many frothing at the mouth with excitement and wonder. But the real tech star was Homer Dudley back in the 1930’s.

Much of what we take for granted in so many ways, is, in fact, the result of 100’s and 1,000’s of years of trial and error. Whatever you are looking to create, it takes a lot experimenting sometimes to get there.

Be patient and be a pioneer, not a polisher of something that already exists.