Created by: MBAOnline.com
Will our obsession with technology progress so quickly that we render ourselves obsolete? According to one of my earlier posts, the answer to this question is no. The Internet, at least, cannot grow faster than the ability of our brains to digest what is out there. But is that really true? Out of all the easy-to-eat stats depicted above (this chart is making the rounds online), the one that is perhaps most chilling is the fact that worldwide iPhone sales outpace the global birthrate (also reported: here, here and here).
From Stuff.co.nz:
That kind of statistic almost certainly promises subterranean transhuman adaptation. We evolve to match our surroundings. IPhones outstrip births? The iPhone transforms society. Reproduction quickly becomes a function of enhanced communication. Mating will become ever more integrated into online communities. It promises a lot of cultural stress and political conflict, especially for developing countries, where tech gadgets are dropping into the midst of traditional societies. But the will to reproduce is almost certainly stronger than our will to make and use tools. On 21 March 2012, BBC TV confirmed that the latest social network to enable the growth of human life, even as that growth absorbs negative pressures from tech life, is the site, Modamily.There are now more Apple iPhones sold per second than there are babies born in the world.
In the December quarter, Apple sold 37 million of the world's most popular smartphone, at a rate of 4.6 per second.
This compares to the current global birth rate of about 4.2 births every second.
While the United Nations predicts the birth rate will soon climb to five births a second - as the global population surpasses 7 billion - the rate of smartphones sales is likely to grow even faster.
Foad Fadaghi, a research director at technology analysis firm Telsyte, says phone sales are not likely to slow any time soon.
''We are going to see the developing world adopting smartphones at a very rapid rate over the next three to four years ... particularly in countries where there is a lack of fixed-line infrastructure.''
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Great post! I admit that the other day while driving at a beautiful time of the day with the sun setting and the weather really warm, windows rolled down, music playing, sun shining on my face as it slanted in the sky, I sighed and watched fast moving clouds and people on bicycles and tapped my fingers to the music. I felt I was in my bliss. Every single car around me--ALL of them, had someone on a cell phone, barely watching where they were driving. Communication has become an addition. We are getting too much interaction and information every day so that we ourselves have become the computers. I know I had a vastly different commute than the others and I actually drove the long way to spend more time feeling the bliss.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Autumn. The here and now, especially on a beautiful day, has become more valuable now that we have so many distractions. We used to take it for granted.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4bezYG3LBg
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