Our Children's Future

Our Children's Future

What they'll be when they grow up hasn't been invented yet

My daughter wants to be a writer, an artist, a candy store owner, an app developer and about a half a dozen other things on any given day. The other night she was getting settled in bed and let out a long sigh.

“What’s up puddin’ ?

“Well, I was just thinking ... there are so many things I want to be and learn and do, how will I ever decide?" 

There was no sense pointing out that she was only 10 and had lots of time, that wasn’t the answer she was looking for. She’s old enough and smart enough to know the reality of that truth, she was going deeper that night.

Instead I told her what I believe, what I envy about her being 10 - that the world she is growing up in will allow for her the chance to be all those things if she wanted. At various times, at the same time and not for all time. Gone are the days of being one thing, I told her. You could own a candy store that you decorate with your own art and about which you write and, in your free time, you could develop an app that makes art out of candies. If people are even still using apps by then. Or eating candy for that matter. They may just put on a hat that lets them experience the happiness of eating candy without being within five miles of a lollipop. You may want to make those and be a Cranial Experience Helmet Engineer.

More on the subject -

Yesterday I read this great piece from a Gen Y mom. HAving read it I can say; "I wish I was 10 today and I'm so relieved I wasn’t 10 in 2000! 

Excerpt from The Question That Ruined Generation Y - by Lea Grover 

There is no, "What do you want to be?" There is only, "What are you doing now?"
And so I'm not going to ask my kids. I'm not going to imply that there's an end result -- that there's a final destination at which you have arrived, when you have grown up and are what you thought you wanted to be.
I'm going to ask my kids what they like. What they're interested in.
I'm not going to tell them that it matters what they get their degrees in. I'm going to tell them that opportunity is what you make of it, that your life is defined by your actions, and that whatever you're prepared for will be another door that can open for you.
I'm going to encourage them to study everything. Science, math, humanities, fine arts, business, languages. I'm going to encourage them to be Renaissance women, because there is no assurance that any jobs I know today, any careers, will still exist.

I Want to Be Born in 10 Years

The other day I was sitting with three friends around my age (50-ish) and we got to talking about what we thought the future would like. We all wished we were younger so we'd see more of it. We were born too soon. You don’t hear people say that very often, most folks wax nostalgic for their own youth or some generation before theirs into which they wish they had been born, romanticizing what was.

We four, on the other hand, all want to be around for what will be. We want to be kids today. Or better yet, born 10 or 20 years from now and be techno-babies rather than techno-immigrants. It’s going to a wild time up ahead. They say world knowledge will soon double every 11 days. Mind -boggling.

One of the group said he thinks this rapid accumulating knowledge will fix all the world’s problems from cancer and environmental issues, to long line-ups at airport security and sticking zippers. I am hopeful that he is right, especially about the zippers.

There are going to be some cool things all of which our kids will be exposed to, perhaps invent themselves or be part of. And I believe there will always be more good things than bad things - just as it's always been.

My kids are 10 and 8 and we often talk about what amazing things they may do in the future as a job, pastime, or simply in their day-to-day living. Flying, is always a big one. Curing disease is a topic my daughter is very adamant she will have a hand in. 

Recently we got around to discussing to privacy. I think there will be big dough in ensuring privacy. Clancy, my daughter, suggested maybe she could invent a piece of jewelry or special clothing that emits some sort of scrambling signal so no one could capture your image with a camera unless you want them to. I suggested my son could then develop the camera tech that would work despite his sister's invention and then she could update her gizmo to work against his new camera and so on and so on and they could keep each other in business by being friendly adversaries.

Who knows what lies ahead? I can’t help but wish I were younger and could be part of it. 

Here's some new and cool and 'futuristic' stuff - a 20 year old has invented a gel that stops bleeding and instantly fires up the healing process (and it wasn't the server at a local restaurant last week who didn't know there was such a thing as a soup spoon...for my soup):  Here's the article about the gel