The calm before the storm

That enormous piece of equipment is a 5MB hard drive in 1956. Produced by IBM, it was a technological marvel of its day. That chip in my hand below is a 1TB SSD card for my computer. For those keeping score at home, my SSD card holds not twice as much data, and not three times as much data - no, it holds 209,715 times as much data, and I can lift it with my fingers rather than a forklift. And my SSD card uses A LOT less electricity, as well. And is much faster and much more reliable. If you were to stack 209,715 of those IBM hard drives to store the same amount of data as my chip, that stack would be nearly 300 miles tall. My chip is more convenient.

Amazing, really. 1956 was only 68 years ago. Of course, 68 years sounds like a long time to us kids who are only 55 years old. I was born in late 1968, so 1956 seems distant. 1968 was recent. On the other hand, the time from 1968 to 2024 is exactly the same as the time from 1968 to 1912. In 1912 there were two horrifying disasters - the sinking of the Titanic, and the election of Woodrow Wilson. One of those disasters is still discussed frequently today, and the other one is still impacting us today.

55 years from now will be the year 2079. I wonder what the world will be like then? It's an interesting thought, but I suspect that the world will be very different 10 years from now, and maybe even 5 years from now. A lot of things are changing very quickly, all in the same direction, in a lot of different places. Changing in ways that Woodrow Wilson would approve of. And I would not.

That gentleman in the top picture - the one in the coat and tie, operating the forklift (Quick side note: How many forklift operators today wear coats and ties?) - he would be astounded by the chip I hold in my hand today. I suspect that we may be astounded what's coming, as well. And it may be coming sooner than 68 years from now, or 55 years from now, or perhaps even 10.

It may be good. It may be bad. But I strongly suspect that it will be very different.

Not everything will be all that different, of course. For example, the airplane he's loading that hard drive into hasn't really changed all that much over the past 68 years. There have been improvements, of course. But aviation hasn't seen changes like that - nothing remotely like the changes from his enormous hard drive to my tiny little SSD card.

So I suspect that parts of our world will remain comfortably familiar. For example, I suspect we'll still be watching the Masters every April. Gosh, Augusta National is so beautiful.

But parts of our world are about to be utterly transformed. It's happening in front of our eyes.

It would be fascinating, if so much of it didn't appear to be nearly as horrifying as the election of Woodrow Wilson. Iran, China, Islam, Russia, the UN, the World Economic Forum, and American Democrats all seem intent on creating centralized control systems which will be difficult to dismantle.

There's some friction between those groups. But they're all moving in the same general direction. So away we go. Carried by the current of international events.

I often hear people remark upon how crazy the world feels, right now. I see it a different way. To me, this feels like the calm before the storm.

I wonder what's coming?

I'm not sure. But I think it's coming sooner rather than later.

Whatever is coming next, I don't think it's going to take 68 years.

The guy with the forklift would be astounded.

So will we.