Shift Happens

Captain Charles V. Balch MEd, MBA, PhD

Off the Grid• Keep it Simple

40 ft Sailboat – $35KEvery major island in

the Caribbean (for $200 fuel)

2 Solar panelsSix BatteriesLights, fans, stereo,

notebook computer– No fridge– No hot water

What to with Limited Resources

• Learn to use less – Greater efficiencies– Sacrifice/Do without

• Appreciate what you have• Steal from someone else• Find alternatives– It’s fun to buy food daily

Third Stage of the Industrial Revolution

• First Machines extended muscle• Second Machines extend senses• Third Machines extend mind

Expect Change

• The top ten in demand jobs for 2010 – did not exist in 2004

• We are currently preparing students for jobs that do not exist…

• Using technologies that don’t yet exist…• To solve problems we don’t know are

problems … yet…

New Communities

• If MySpace were a country it would be the 5th largest in the world (between Indonisia and Brazil).

• There are 31 billion Google Searches each month

• The first text message was sent in 1992 – Today the number of daily text message exceeds

the population of the planet.

Name this Country

• Richest in the World• Largest Military• Center of world business and finance• Strongest education system• World center of innovation and invention• Currency the world standard of value• Highest standard of living

England in 1900

Future Computer Trends

• Smaller, faster, cheaper– Cell phones are a million times cheaper, a thousand

times more powerful, a hundred thousand times smaller than computers built in 1965.

– What used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket– computer will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years

• 500 years to figure out book technology• Facebook, Google, Twitter, Ebay– More ideas out there

Computers as Smart as Humans

• By the year 2030.• The next half century will see 32 times the

amount of innovation of the last half.• We can expect a super computer that exceeds

the computational capabilities of the human brain by 2013.

• By 2049 a thousand dollar computer will exceed the capabilities of the human species.

Man versus Machine?

• Machine– Straight storage and retrieval of information– Defined calculations

• Human– Able to love– Association of different strands of information– To look ahead/plan– Creativity

Survival of the FittestWhat is the Skill Set Best prepares?

• Darwin’s Peppered Moth

My Winner Predictions

• Ability to see the big picture• Ability to quickly find and comprehend

needed facts• Love of life– Virtual Reality will be the ultimate addiction

• Charismatic communication