Future of Productivity, Essay Example

The pace of technological progress over the last decade has been impressive by any measure but it Microsoft’s Productivity Future Vision (Microsoft) video is any indicator, we have only seen the tip of the iceberg so far. While few would challenge the argument that technology has penetrated almost all aspects of our lives, the role of technology will continue to grow. The video reminds us that communication technologies and access to information will continue to become easier and more intuitive over time.

If the video is a reliable picture of the future, then it is quite an optimistic future but at the same time there may also be certain costs, primarily due to even busier lives. One implication of the video is that communication and access to information will be instant and round-the-clock. Today, we primarily think of computers, cell phones, and tablet devices as our primary modes of communication and accessing information but in the future, almost everything will be computerized whether they are our office or home walls, our credit cards, the glass windows of our cars, or even our eye glasses. In order to make our experience seamless, these different computerized inventions will automatically communicate with each other in real time. The main purpose will be to save time and leave mundane tasks to technologies such as letting a hotel know of your impending arrival. While this may seem convenient at first, it will also mean some loss of control over personal information and will probably have implications for privacy. We already feel overwhelmed by the loss of privacy and the digitization of society is going to take a whole new form in the near future.

The video also implies that cross-border business and travel will only increase over time. In other words, geographical and language barriers will only become less relevant over time. First of all, the video shows devices will automatically translate different languages in both written and oral form. In fact, Google has already released an app that allows this though the technology is in early phases so the translation experience may not be entirely perfect at the moment. The video also shows work collaboration among co-workers in different countries in real-time and one also cannot help but notice the diverse cultural background of co-workers depicted in the video.

Last but not least, the video implies work lives will only get busier and this is one of the relatively pessimistic views depicted in the video. The first major indication of a busier work lives is implied by a folk music artist who accepts donations online for his performance. In other words, people would be too busy to allocate time to leisure activities such as attending a music concert that many artists may move their performance to the digital realm where it would be easier to reach their audience. The video also shows a little girl video-chatting with her mother and asking for her advice regarding a recipe. The video may show a perfectly content family but it is clear that the definition of family may change over time and relationships won’t remain the same. The technological progress shown in the video is impressive but it comes at the cost of deteriorating family and leisure lives

The future is fascinating and it may not be long before the technologies in the video become an integral part of the world we live in. Communication technologies will continue to improve and access to information will become faster and easier. The world will become even a smaller village, with geographical and cultural boundaries being less relevant. The real challenge is to find a balance between work and family lives because if the video is a reliable indicator of future, work lives will only expand at the expense of personal lives.

Reference

Microsoft. (n.d.). Future Vision. Retrieved January 19, 2015. Web.