Griffin Barron 11/4/2012 Aging & the Longevity Revolution (Interview)

The past and the future collide everyday, painstakingly grinding out what humankind knows as the present. Like an estranged pair of Siamese twins, these two opposable forces resemble each other; reinventing themselves each and every day instantaneously fighting to instill their selfish will on the other. The future is arrogant and dominant, forgetful yet corrective, doing away with formalities, destroying and rebuilding age-old truths, concerned only with progress and perfection. The past is much more deliberate, both strong willed and wise, clinging to the proper order of things, constantly reminding the future of its infinite knowledge. You see, the future may always win, but the past is lurking quietly behind, chuckling as the future makes mistakes the past has already conquered. This volatile relationship is a necessary evil, however, as each would perish without the heartbeat of the other. As I begin to think more intensely about the implications of the future, it is evident that the past develops a blueprint for predicting the future. I had the pleasure of interviewing a gentleman of German descent by the name of Charles William Lankford. The 83 year old served in the Army during the Korean War, studied chemistry in school, and enjoyed a career as a chemist. I have always had an affinity to the wisdom possessed by the aged, doing my best to extract the knowledge that only decades of life could create. Through consilience, I hope to tie in insights from Mr. Lankfords perspective, in order to be a more efficient manager in the future.

I was particularly intrigued with a few words he said in regards to reality TV. I asked him what the biggest technological advancements had been in his lifetime; he stated the atom bomb and the television. After talking briefly, I had begun explaining reality television, seemingly skeptical of the idea, he said, Well I dont know why anyone would want to watch that. When I watch television I am trying to escape reality, not watch it. I found this to be interesting because we talk so much about informational and technological overload, and I see some parallels of a noticeable change in this thinking. With the so-called Augmented Reality, it is no longer possible to escape reality through technology (like television); instead, everything is becoming interconnected in a new, expansive reality. The lines are becoming faded and skewed, with each person creating a data footprint that is forever connected to their own reality. The Cloud is very real, and a lot of people are finding out the hard way the effects of decisions they make on the Internet, social media, etc., and the direct correlation these things have with their own reality. As a manager in the future, and with the coming singularity, I think there is another sort of singularity coming. We are headed towards a singularity of work life, personal life, academic life, etc. Managers need to do less managing, and more life coaching in the future. Managers will be charged with guiding their employees to build their personal brand, having a direct relationship with the companies of which they work. As credentials become less important, effective personal branding will become valuable, as businesses care more about being associated with people who have a positive social footprint, as well as the skills needed to perform the job duties. As personal privacy deteriorates, there is no escaping reality, everything is recorded, and social classes

develop not only based on income, but also based on profiles and online footprints. This built-in accountability, and merger of all aspects of life into one, has beautiful implications for the progress and interconnectedness of individual decision-making, but also frightening repercussions for the flawed, shortsighted issues with human nature and maturity. Our discussions led us in a number of directions, speaking of politics, technology, entrepreneurship, family, important life decisions, etc. I asked him about something that had happened in his lifetime that he never thought would happen, and he used cloning as his prime example. He spun that off into talking about how a doctor (currently) who is using harnessed light to heal neurological ailments. I had never heard of this way of healing, and I was very impressed that he was able to explain this topic. I saw a compelling contrast with this fact, he is very up to date with advances in medicine and things of interest to him, yet other things like social technology, computers, and a number of other macro trends he is completely in the dark about. People have the issue of unconsciously becoming blind to things that they dismiss based on their beliefs. In widening that scope, society as a whole also has this problem, as is evident in The Ghost Map, and the blindness to the source of the Cholera outbreak. As technology merges, we see computers, robots, and the like, that are much more advanced than humans, capable of destroying these barriers or blind spots. In the future, technology and artificial intelligence rule the world; humans only role is to guide the tasks of these machines, and that wont last forever. We are essentially creating the machines that will overpower and rule us in the future, and I believe one day our society will be slaves to machines, and it could be argued that we already are (voluntary slavery,

the tagged bear analogy). The insights I gained from this interview are exponential, and the 850-word restriction is debilitating to the number of avenues I could take in this piece. As my views of what is possible in my lifetime expand, and as I am exposed to more and more breathtaking advancements, (3-D Printing, Nanotechnology, Augmented Reality) I can only look on in excitement, awaiting my opportunity to put my mark on society. Mr. Lankford made one thing clear, the things he never did haunt him way more than the worst of his mistakes. In a world that is exponentially expanding the bounds of what was ever thought to be humanly possible, the only path that makes any sense is to ride the wave, life long learning and growth is the new norm, as people become out of date in a moments, not years. Another pair of Siamese twins is being born, the human and technology, and for now the one is vital to the other. How long until machines sever their ties with humans? Only time will tell.