Futurist embraces change in the shift age

David Houle, one of the leading futurists of the 21st century, spoke to attendees in the Hall of Honors on March 6 about what he feels is the biggest change of living taking place right now.
Humanity has left the Information Age, he said, and has entered a tumultuous transitioning period
that will bring about the largest amount of change in human history.
Houle has called this the "Shift Age" where all the technological, social, and ideological change
experienced in human history will be recreated in the next "10 to 100 years."
"The definitions we use for economics, our understanding of culture, and our concept of gender will all be changed onto a new level never before witnessed by history," he said.
In the Shift Age, people will place a higher importance on the environment and undoing the
mistakes made in the 20th century, will understand the concept of place as where in cyberspace a person is, and will fuse technology and biology to make bionics advances.
"Even though technologies such as 3D printing, cloud networks, and brainwave computer interface systems are in their infancy now, they will be perfected in the Shift Age," said Houle, whose latest book "Entering the Shift Age" was
released in January. He also writes a blog that can be found at www.evolutionshift.com.
Houle expressed that the time of women is now and that society will see women continue to reach new heights and that gender will radically be redefined by this generation. Houle likened the upcoming culture change to an earthquake.
"You may think you are built on solid ground with what you know, but when in every six, 12, or 18 months everything you previously believed is shaken up and changed, you know you're in the Shift Age," he said.
The first clue humanity has entered this new time period was marked by the five year recession
as the Information Age's economic model became outdated.
"The Baby Boomers caused the recession. It was the older people in charge of banks and businesses who refused to change despite the world moving on to untapped ventures without them." Houle said.
Instead of business practices focusing on the producer's design and bottom line, the new line of thinking in the Shift Age has zeroed in on the consumer's needs. The institution fell as the individual's choice became the new priority. He said that the previous generation's logic cannot work in a broadband world. People want massive change and a reshaping of values such as a greater emphasis on the environment and the changing of authority to social groups, not bureaucratic titles. He attributed that globalism has brought about the most changes so far with cellular phones, widespread social media, and the accessibility of the internet nearly anywhere on Earth.
"We see that there are seven billion people on Earth now and nearly six billion of them have
cellphones. There is no time or distance stopping human communication. There are more people who have phones than electricity or clean water. You have merchants in Africa who can find the
best prices in the city now instead of having only one buyer from their area setting the prices," Houle said.
Houle quoted 2012 sales figures that showed more mobile computing devices were sold worldwide than non-mobile devices, which has
enabled such a mass transition.
"This is going to be one of the greatest times to be alive in all of human history. We are going to see a complete overhaul in all ways of life and the quality of life for all people will reach new heights. Humanity is entering a higher level of
consciousness for the greater good of all people." said Houle.