An irrepressible aspect of the Human condition is a strong interest in exploring the unknown. Throughout history, the need to know has led to nearly all aspects of our physical world being explored, with the search now continuing further and further into space. Along the way, we have been carefully documenting our findings in various formats to ensure that those who inherit our future know what we have done before them. In recent times, there has been a shift from sharing our past experiences to capturing the present. Social media now abounds with countless reflections on the here and now. The future holds a different premise – the ability for humans to predict what happens next. We are seeing a transition in the need to know from capturing what has happened, to what is happening, and increasingly towards what will happen next.
Reading the past
Perhaps one of the earliest mediums for capturing knowledge in Australia was the use of Aboriginal rock art. Rock paintings can provide information about how and when people arrived, the environment at the time, how they lived and adjusted to changing climatic conditions, and allusions to their beliefs and values.
In ancient Egypt, the use of hieroglyphic writing arose from proto-literate symbol systems in the Early Bronze Age. Egyptian hieroglyphs developed into a mature writing system used for monumental inscription in the classical language of the Middle Kingdom period. From that, Johannes Gutenberg developed a printing system by adapting existing technologies to printing purposes. Gutenberg’s most important innovation was the development of hand-molded metal printing matrices, thus producing a movable type-based printing press system. The printing press spread within several decades to over 200 cities in a dozen European countries.
Capturing the present
90 percent of the data in the world today was created in the last two years alone. Much of it resides on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, where there is the opportunity to instantly capture a snapshot of life and then share it with the masses without filter. This is, of course, a much easier process than carving out a moment in rock to record it for posterity or pleasure.
With such power at their fingertips, users of the internet generate an average 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day, according to recent research cites by Domo. The Weather Channel receives over 18 million forecast requests every minute, whilst YouTube users watch 4.1 million videos, Google delivers results for 3.6 million searches, and Wikipedia users publish 600 new edits.
There is more time being spent capturing and analysing what is happening right now than is being spent analysing how the past may provide us lessons for the future.
Predicting the future
There is a revolution underway to reframe our education and jobs in ways that will require humans to predict the future instead of worrying about tracking the past and present.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres, collectively referred to as cyber-physical systems. It is marked by emerging technology breakthroughs in a number of fields, including robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, the Internet of Things, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), decentralised consensus, fifth-generation wireless technologies (5G), additive manufacturing/3D printing and fully autonomous vehicles. All of these technologies allow data to be captured and utilised to forecast potential outcomes.
In the near future, optimised use of data combined with machine learning will disrupt several industries. For example: travel companies will be able to predict when and where people may want to visit allowing them to better target travel experiences and to generate personalised offers for the travelling public. Numerous players in the health industry are already developing products and services which predict congenital conditions through DNA sampling. On our roads, predicting road conditions and congestion through forecasting traffic and identifying emerging hazards is already available on your smartphone. The data available to forecast and enhance road conditions is about to explode. AI and other technologies such as robots, drones, sensors and IoT will help collect data, as well the cars of the future which are forecast by 2030 to generate over 38 zettabytes (i.e. a whole lot!) of data annually. In one year, that would create over eight times the volume of the world’s current data.
Data 61’s Spark platform uses state-of-the-art science and new generation computing to predict and visualise the spread of bushfires. It draws from a wide range of geospatial data sources including weather, geography and environmental information. This knowledge is critical to improved emergency management operations, risk prediction and timely warnings to threatened areas. Spark has particularly helped to understand how power lines impact the potential for bushfires to spread.
At GHD Digital, we are rapidly expanding our team and leveraging our 90 year history of knowing what happened and what is happening with infrastructure assets from around the world. With our mission to create lasting community benefit firmly in mind, we are applying new skills and technologies to re-imagine a predictive future.
Colin is the Australian Digital Leader for GHD Digital. He has more than 30 years' experience in general management, project leadership, business development, client relationship management and delivering strategic outcomes across multiple continents and industries. Colin and his team focus on bringing the best value digital solutions and expertise from across GHD globally and applying them to local projects. As a strategic thinker and planner, Colin enjoys leading change initiatives with clients to deliver lasting community benefit.