The existence of God is imminent.

To put it extremely lightly, the existence of God can divide a room. If I put it any lighter, that statement would float.

The generally accepted school of thought for the believers is that God created stuff, that’s why we’re here today. Cool, fair enough.

Non believers say that God is simply a construct in our minds, created to help us make meaning of our existence.

Thanks to this divisive issue, wars have been fought, blood shed and arguments had. It’s driven families apart and schools into disarray. Makers of holy bread and bullets seem to be the only ones thriving.

But what if both sides are wrong. Or more accurately, both right?

As leading futurists and general talkers of sense suggest, we are moving towards a state known as singularity; where the gap between humans and machines shrinks to nothing and we become one. Instead of having phones in our hands, they’ll be in our head, that kind of thing. A purer example would be uploading our minds and conscious to computers where they can be stored and operated s indefinitely, giving rise to (a version of) immortality. Already, machines have been developed to respond to brain impulses and provide feedback straight to the brain. But as we move towards a state where humans and computers become one, the interconnectedness creates a global state of consciousness. All that has ever been known, we will all know. All that can be seen, will be seen by all.

This is a long way around to explain that I think we’re evolving into exactly what we claim God to be. All knowing. All seeing. All understanding. I don’t think God was the starting point for humanity I think it’s the end point.

What happens after that though, God only knows.

The Internet of Eggs

We’re on the cusp of another pretty incredible tech revolution. If you haven’t heard, it’s called the internet of things; a movement that will see all objects equipped with their own monitors to collect and transmit information to other objects within their network, the companies that made them, and the people who own them. It’s hyper-connectivity, and it’s coming home with you.

It might mean you get a text when you’re running out of milk, or an email when your pot plant need watering. Lights will adjust to the music you play, and art will be projected on your wall according to the weather outside.

On one hand, it’ll be nice to see the internet utilised for things that matter, rather than pornography and cat gifs. However there is a bigger issue at hand.

The way the internet of things is being sold to us is by appealing to our egos. Companies like Cisco tell us that we’ll be the king of the system; gifted ultimate control of everything around us, and the information to do it right.

But the idea that we are masters of it all is bullshit. What a total underutilization of the technology; having us in control of it all, when the algorithms in their technology used far outweighs our ability to make decisions.

It’s nothing more than a sell to get us to buy into the internet of things - to feel like we'll maintain a level of control, still being an integral part of the system. The reality is far different. Why would we automate everything but our role? It makes no sense.

The truth is that pretty soon after the internet of things takes hold, our role will become entirely redundant. In order to operate to its full potential, it needs to cut us out of the deal. The machines will talk to one another, and they’ll be getting shit done way more effectively than we ever could.

Of course, there still needs to be the illusion of control.

It’s like packet mix for cakes. If you’ve ever made one, you’ll know that packet cake mix needs an egg to make it. There has been the technology to include the egg component in the mix since packet mix was first invented. However, by leaving the responsibility of cracking an egg to the “baker”, there is a sense of importance and responsibility derived that wouldn’t exist if we were just to add water.

That’s why the internet of things will resign mankind to a of future ‘packet-mix humanity’. We will fulfill a purely token role, passengers in life, under the illusion we are in control when the reality is the results and outcomes of our existence are largely controlled by everything else around us. And that’s when we shall experience a new revolution, or more accurately, devolution. Seven billion different components all collecting and transmitting information to one another - The internet of eggs

Framing the future of advertising.

They say the consumers shape the future of advertising. I say more specifically, it’s their attention spans do. So if we want to know what the future holds, all we have to do is look back in time.

I’d have loved to advertise to the cavemen. Those guys had crazy-long attention spans. For them, entertainment was a week spent stalking a woolly mammoth til it was riddled with enough spears to make it look like an 80’s cheese platter, at which point it would keel over and die, and only then would the show be over.

In the Roman era, plays would last for days. And it’s not surprising. Men were killed on stage back then, it takes a while for the plot-line to bring the crowd back around to a harmonious finish. They also had to have an interval whilst the blood dried. Health & safety has always been a hassle.

Over time, performance-length dwindled. Operas only lasted for a measly six hours. Plays pushed out to a few hours at most. The 90 minute film was born. Half-hour TV slots were shortened to 22 minutes, interjected with a series on intervals, or ‘ad breaks’ as they were known. YouTube gave rise to the 5 minute hit of entertainment, which has been stripped back to 1-2 minutes as the medium evolved. The spread of Vine is yet again threatening to condense audience attention spans, this time to just a few seconds.

It’s said a picture speaks a thousand words, but a six second video only speaks 140 characters; so it’s fair to say the future is condensed. In time, we’ll see content shrunk to shorter and shorter mediums until one day, our attention spans demand stories that are so short, there’s only time for a single frame. They’ll then be mounted and displayed on every surface visible to man. It’s inevitable.

So, if we can learn anything from history, it’s this: Print media isn’t dead, we’re just not ready for it.

Being connected sucks.

Connectivity has changed things- I used to check my phones for texts, get home and check my emails. There was excitement and anticipation. I had to wait til I got home before I could be disappointed.

Not anymore.

Now I've got a smartphone. Now, I carry all that stuff around with me. There's undeniable proof that no-one, nowhere in the world is trying to get in touch with me.

The only way people contact me outside my smart phone is by mail. And the only I get in the mail these days is my phone bill.