Ahead But Behind
It’s been interesting to see how technology has advanced in some areas of life but remained so far above in others. When I see this, I’m reminded of the book Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin and Heidi Toffler where they go through different elements of society that can move quickly or slowly with technological advances.
Politics, the legal system, education systems — all of these move slowly in relation to other parts of society like commerce and trade. In countries with less built up institutions, while they lack the precedence to quickly move past roadblocks of problems, they also have less “crud” in the system to slowdown adoption of new ideas and tech. For these places, it hasn’t “been like this forever” and people can still remember when the crud first stuck, and unstick it when a quantum leap is offered.
The pandemic has been a test of our systems. It’s revealed much of the crud and has been an impetus to remove it quickly. In that realm, it’s been positive. When it passes, this might help propel forward with great velocity those places that were able to cope.
