The next big thing

Another new app, another new social media channel. Everything was quieter and better before. Really?

A portrait of Yannick Mischler.
Janick Mischler
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From computer to human robot

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Digitization is turning entire business areas on their heads. Innovations change our everyday lives. Robotics Blockchain Analytics Big data Quantum computer And anyway: Who needs humans, when there’s artificial intelligence? Something along those lines is what you read in the media. But is it really true? Has the world really changed more in the past twenty years than ever before? And what exactly is different?

Not as wild as it used to be?

Let’s do a little field study by taking a look out of my office window. I can see railway lines, concrete structures, billboards and a fitness center. On the horizon the Bantiger television tower, snow-capped mountains and the Gurten are lined up next to each other. In front of the office there are buses, lorries, cars and bikes. Every few minutes double decker SBB or BLS trains whizz past. The office is only a bit more modern: white desks, ergonomic office chairs and flat screens with a laptop docking station.

Viewed from this perspective, we might as well be describing an office from the year 2000. The advertising is a bit more modern, screens are flatter and bicycles are quicker (at least those which have a battery to help with peddling). When I look more closely, I notice that the crowds of people on the platform are all staring at their mobiles. Perhaps it’s this portable all-rounder, which is a briefcase, library, digital camera, music player, games console and translator all in one device that sums up the changes of the past twenty years.

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A picture shows the changes of the last twenty years. From the typewriter to the computer. From the agenda to the tablet.

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Goodbye horses

A short journey back in time to 1920 shows that the world was already beginning to change incredibly quickly and dramatically back then. The first two decades of the new century saw the advent of epochal inventions such as the aeroplane, radio broadcasting, the hoover, colour photography or the increasing use of electricity in households. Henry Ford began to build cars on a conveyor belt. This made the wonderful machines affordable to a large portion of the working class and horses slowly disappeared from the streets. The first world war sparked a new age of industrial destruction – with machine guns, artillery, poisonous gas and tanks. In these twenty years it became possible to fly, turn night to day, get around quicker and transmit music and speech “through the air” to every household. At the same time, Max Planck formulated quantum theory and Albert Einstein the theory of relativity, laying the foundations for modern computers and GPS devices. The world was progressing rapidly even before digitization took place.

An (almost) invisible revolution

In comparison to the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century, or the chemical-electrical revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century, one could describe the past twenty years as more of an “invisible information revolution”. On the surface the world hasn’t changed a great deal – but smartphones and Internet platforms have had a profound influence on our lives. The crowd staring at their smartphones on platform 1 couldn't illustrate this change better. A significant difference between then and now is that we can escape digital transformation relatively easily by switching off our smartphones. Such an “escape” must have been more difficult at the beginning of the twentieth century. Planes, tanks, trains, electricity and even the war didn’t have an off button.

The external change of the digital revolution is perhaps yet to come. At some point in the next few years when robots take care of household tasks, voice driven holograms replace healthcare professionals, drones deliver lifesaving medication or driverless cars populate city streets. Until then I’ll glance out of the window occasionally whilst trying to create the next big thing at Swiss Post.

Pictures: iStock.com/PhonlamaiPhoto (evolution), iStock.com/elenabs (illustration)

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written by

Janick Mischler

Head Autonomous Delivery & IoT