I remember when I was a kid, a TV station bought a 10-minutes short video of the anatomy of an alien and broadcast it for a whole week. That clip became the hot talk in the city. If this clip pop-up today, I’d believe it would be circulated on the Internet rather than putting on the TV show. People would not be able to watch the full version of the video rather it will only be an edited version. And nobody will mention it after two days of viral. 

Everyone will be aware that the world is changing faster than we can imagine. My mum, who doesn't know how to use a computer, however, knows how to use the smartphone. And she even knows how to project the Youtube video through the TV. The Korea dramas from Nextflix became her new favourite. My mum knows the technology much better than 10 years ago, completely breaking the myth that people will not accept new things when getting older. Looking at my mum, I start to worry about my future. Changing the ideology take a long way. If the elderly are still growing, such as me, a man in middle-aged have to go faster and further. 

The futurist Gerd Leonhard, who visits Hong Kong to deliver a speech last year, believes that we do not need to be afraid of AI. He believes that AI can only assist humans in engraving work, and humans still gain a foothold. It's because AI can allow people to have more space and time to spark their creativity and imagination, to solve complex problems. I agree with his point of view, but Gerd only gets this opinion of AI from the human as a whole, not from the individual. What about me? What should I do? 

As the world is changing too fast, our lives or work pattern may undergo a major change in the next 5 to 10 years due to technological advances. Therefore, if we could understand thoroughly what is going to happen next, we can be more well-prepared. This is the reason why Futurology becomes so popular recently. 

According to Wikipedia, "Futurology is a new discipline that comprehensively studies the future trends, possible prospects, challenges, and countermeasures that should be taken in major human fields. Futurology focuses on a larger and more complex World System. Compared with natural sciences and even social sciences, its methodology and knowledge verification are much less. There are still disputes about whether this subject is an art or a science, but it seems like will be mainstream." 

The "Future Jobs 2020” published by the World Economic Forum last year is a research result of futurology. The report analyzes base on the data of the careers development, the job opportunities around the world, and the change of career of young people to figure out what types of jobs will have manpower shortage and what types of jobs will be eliminated in the next five years. You can easily get the result from the Google search. 

If your career is in the "Top 10 of the Professionals to be eliminated", no worries, you still have time to get prepared. As a career start to be weed out until it is being eliminated, it takes about 10 to 20 years. But if you are new to the job, you have to think about it carefully. 

Take driverless technology as an example, I think this technology will completely change our lives. But it will take at least 10 to 20 years to replace all drivers. Though the risk will be much less compare to a real driver. As long as just one single accident caused by the driverless car, people will be frightened by this new thing and be resistant. Moreover, the driver’s profession is not only limited to the driving technique. There is still a need for real drivers. The situation is similar to lift attendants. It took almost 20 years until the last attendant resigned and to be eliminated. 

Nowadays in society, science and technology are advancing very quickly but people are not easy to keep pace with, which still leaving room for society to adapt. What exactly do we need to do to adapt to such changes? Change is constant, know more about the future to prepare for the world changes would be a wise way to do so.

Simon So  Head of Digital Marketing