PERSPECTIVE
The Future Is Now!
By Dr. Wale Akinyemi
Living The Future
In the year 1962, a phenomenal animated
series called The Jetsons was introduced
to the world. The Jetsons followed a
family of 4 living in a comical depiction
of the future – a future not so far off
from the times we are living in. The
Jetsons introduced a generation to
the idea of talking alarm clocks, flat
screen televisions, smartwatches, video
conferencing, drones, flying cars and
space tourism among others.
While some of these things are not in
full effect today, they are all in the works.
Uber for example is working on a flying
car taxi that could be made available
within the next 3 years in some parts of
the world. Early episodes of The Jetsons
even introduced a transportation concept
remarkably similar to the Hyperloop - a
new proposed mode of transportation
introduced by Elon Musk. The point here
is that it does seem we are living in the
animated prediction of Hanna-Barbera’s
The Jetsons. It does seem that we are
indeed living in the future.
What exactly is the future? Well for
starters it is not a destination. It also isn’t
just ‘the years ahead’. In Peter Thiel’s book
Zero to One, he describes the future as
a time when the world looks different
from today. He goes on to say that if
nothing about our environment and
world changes for the next 100 years, well
then the future is over 100 years away.
This means if nothing about an industry
dramatically changes over the next 20
Until we start to take control
of the future we desire, we will
live our lives at the mercy of
those who have. History will
never forget those that create
the future, but those that mere-
ly exist in the future, eventual-
ly become history. Where will
you be found? The choice is en-
tirely yours.
58 MAL28/19 ISSUE
If we don’t let our imagina-
tion run wild enough to think
of things others have not done
before, we will continue creat-
ing alternate realities of our
present. If your mind can only
create ideas that resemble the
things in our world today - they
will have an expiry date. When
you create what hasn’t been
done before - you set the rules.
years - the future has not been realized. If
things however changed in under 2 years
- the future has arrived. massive 360 million people gathered to
watch other people play the battle arena
game.
When the Jetsons was released, color
televisions were not even common and
every television in the world had a ‘back’.
Digital watches weren’t released until
the 70’s, innovation where cars were
concerned was still relatively progressive,
video conferencing was a dream everyone
looked forward to, and the internet wasn’t
even a thing! In essence, the world where
the creators of the show lived in, shared no
resemblance to their imagination of what
their world can be. Today, we are living
in the same world the creators imagined.
Hanna-Barbera created a template for the
future we are all using and enjoying today. We are living in a world where you can
now be signed by an eSport team if you
play games exceptionally. Yes - the same
way great football players are signed to
the top football clubs in the world for the
sheer fact that they can handle football
exceptionally. We are living in a world
where people whose talent resides in their
ability to use a controller are now being
recognized by eSports organizations which
pay them handsomely to play on their
behalf. We are living in a world where the
Olympics is creating an eSports forum so
in the very near future, Olympians can also
include gamers. We are now living in a
world where gamers are the athletes of the
future. How about that.
Why is this important? Because we are
living in a time that bears no resemblance
to our past. We are living in a completely
different world. We are living in a world
where the most attractive and prospective
careers of our time are found in the
most unusual places. In 2019 being a
professional gamer is actually a thing -
people are making a living doing what
they were most likely punished for doing
at an earlier age.
Professional video gamers like Tyler
‘’Ninja’’ Blevins easily earn $500,000
monthly for being very exceptional at
the games they play. In fact, top global
sports like soccer, American football and
basketball are not bringing in as many
viewers as videogame tournaments like
League of Legends which amassed a
If your mind doesn’t catch up with the re-
alities of the present you will miss out on
the opportunities of the future. We can-
not just simply sit down and go through
time - we need to grab it. We must live
in the future. If you don’t take control
of your time and the opportunities our
world presents, you will be no better than
those who watched the very first episode
of The Jetsons in 1962 - you’ll always
watch what the future could have been
but never truly experience it yourself.
We are living in a world where our
entertainment has changed. We are living
in a word we no longer have to physically
buy music. All we need to do is pay a
monthly subscription to stream music
and get access to over 30 million songs
on platforms like Spotify and Apple
Music. We are living in a world where
cable subscriptions are dying because with
about $10 a month, you can use platforms
like Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO to
watch all movies and shows in the world.
We are living in a world where
transportation is changing daily. Electric
cars are taking the front stage through
companies like Tesla. Petrol and diesel cars
are counting their last days. Companies
like Apple and Google have teams trying
to perfect driverless cars and Uber is
developing flying cars.
We live in a world where innovators
like Elon Musk have proposed and
conceptualized entirely new forms of
transportation like the Hyperloop which
should be in use within the next few years.
We live in a world where companies like
SpaceX have finally been able to create
reusable rockets and are now in the process
of working towards humans landing on
Mars.
We live in a world where education has
changed. We live in a world where just
by using the internet, you have access to
millions of courses on everything from
artificial intelligence, machine learning
to rocket science on the internet at throw
away prices. We live in a world where you