How technology is turning the world upside down

Technological innovation in many areas and the increasingly strong 'network effect' ensure that existing paradigms's are overthrown. Companies that currently exist thanks to old economic laws are warned. That was the message of Martijn Aslander during his presentation at the 6th FHI member network/management event.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

Aslander, writer and 'stand-up philosopher', quickly gave the FHI members present examples of technologies that are rapidly changing the current world and replacing existing conventions, or paradigms. For example, he outlined how SMS, not so long ago the cash cow for telecom companies, was replaced by the messaging service WhatsApp. And he pointed out the success of Pokemon Go, a game with augmented reality elements that managed to attract 750 million players within two months.

According to the philosopher, who can also be found regularly in board rooms to spar with entrepreneurs, the surprise about the enormous growth rate in technologies can be heard even at the annual top in Davos. Artificial intelligence and deep learning are currently causing some fear among the gentlemen.

Floating powers

Aslander argued that few understand the underlying driving forces of this speed of innovation. In the philosopher's view, the network effect is one of the most important causes. He used the analogy of the first fax machine. The buyer of the first fax machine had a worthless machine in his hands, but that changed with the arrival of a second fax machine: messages could finally be sent. With each fax machine that followed, at an ever-increasing pace, the added value of the whole became greater.

Current manifestations of the network effect are, in Aslander's view, clearly visible in the recent teachers' strike. The unions responded tamely to complaints from the education sector, whereupon a number of teachers decided to take action themselves via Facebook, with success. Dissatisfied police officers and healthcare workers followed suit. And in the run-up to the Ukraine referendum, two smart developers managed to find a way to collect sufficient legally valid signatures via the web using open source software.

Building a dolmen

Aslander himself gained early experience with the power of networking. After the bankruptcy of his outdoor sports company, he decided not to sit at home in defeat but, partly driven by his roots in Drenthe, to build a real dolmen. In that project, partly via the internet, he managed to mobilize a considerable group of 14 thousand people who, without compensation and triggered by the idiosyncratic idea of literally stacking gigantic stones together. According to him, it formed the basis for his mindset and the philosophies that he now proclaims on stage.

In conclusion, Aslander suggested to the FHI members to look at technological developments differently. Due to the murderous pace of innovation, a product or service should always remain in the beta phase in his view, because nothing is ever finished. In this phase, the reasoning is: making mistakes is allowed, because it leads to improvement.

With that mindset in mind, Aslander started Permanent Beta, a platform where people often share knowledge about technology, science and art for free. This brings the stand-up philosopher full circle.