Future Shock - too much change in too little time - is often characterized by realizing you're in a future you didn't anticipate. I think we've now lived through enough cycles of future shock that I'm noticing a slightly different phenomenon of future impatience. As the rate of innovation accelerates, it's not just impatience for the things that you know may be a decade off, but things that you know will, or should be, right around the corner, but just aren't there yet.. A case in point, then I'll get back to work, is this morning dropping off the NetFlix DVD at the post office. NetFlix shocked video rentals, DVD shocked VHS, VHS shocked the clock. But as I'm dropping off the DVD at the post office, I'm already impatient for having everything I want streaming on demand, whether through NetFlix, Amazon, Google, Apple, the next thing, etc. But Star Trek Voyager season 5 (for some reason!) is still only available on DVD. I know the future is just around the corner, but until then, so is the post office.
[Update: well, now!]
[...] like I said in a previous post, I’m already expecting the future already, and whichever service offers the most abundant [...]
[...] In a previous post, I talked about the phenomenon of recognizing next stages of tech evolution and feeling impatient for them. OK, I’ll be looking back on DVDs in the not too distant future, thinking “remember when…?” [...]