11.14

Today Feels A Lot More Like Yesterday Than Tomorrow

Why are all these politicians so out of touch? Does Joe Biden really think turning on the record player sounds less inept than putting on the TV? You know what I’m saying? Mayhaps my point would be better illustrated with a simple graphic:

As each generation is influenced by the technology of its era, the graph above illustrates the ever growing generational technological gap. Of course some people will stretch themselves to stay up to date, but there are limits. In the example above, people in generation 4 might be able to learn and adapt to the technological era of 5, 6, 7, maybe even 8, but just two generations later people will grow up in a technological era that has doubled in complexity.

Michael Haupt has written a great deal more about this phenomena. It is almost impossible to predict what the world will look like in the next ten years, and soon it will be impossible to predict the next four.

Which brings me back to my original idea. Politicians serve for far too long. We should reduce term limits along with making it much easier to interrupt incumbency. The average age in the 115th Congress is 57.8 and 61.8 for representatives and senators respectively. That’s insane, we are being governed by a group of people who grew up in a world without microwaves, cordless tools, and birth control just to name a few of the inventions over the last 60 years. How can they possibly expect to govern a citizenry on the cusp of an exponential explosion of technological innovation.

Germaine

November 14th, 2019