The paradox about “making America great again” is the statement itself sets the country up for failure because its proposed fixes look through the rear view mirror and want to re-build a past. The US has caught a cold that many other countries have – seen in everything from BREXIT to heated discussion about amalgamations that aim to move away from the now quaint notion of towns situated a day’s horse travel apart. Discontent and fear about the future is spreading.

What cold have we caught? Let’s call it Adaptus. We simply aren’t keeping up with the only constant: change.

Consider that: Betty White is older than the invention of sliced bread; the fascinating “Pong” TV game of the early 70s is today’s passing fancy with Pokemon Go that converges game and virtual reality; a world of knowledge that existed in an Encyclopedia Row on a bookshelf a short time ago has been eclipsed by our creation of as much information in two days as we generated from the dawn of modern humanity to the early 2000s (Ref 1); a rotary phone of my youth where I hated the long-dial number nine and put holes in the wall by stretching the cord and accidentally letting go of the cord at its limit is today’s every-purpose cell phone. A month ago on TV, I watched a robot that looks like a human – with an adaptive brain – carry on a conversation in real-time like you would have with your grandma (Ref 2).

In November, 2016 – a robot truck made its first delivery of 50,000 beers (Ref 3). Today, some now argue that any job that is repeatable is redundant as automation infiltrates all facets of work life. Elon Musk argues that robots will require society to consider universal income (Ref 4) because there won’t be enough work to keep us all busy. We’re becoming the Disney-Pixar movie WALL-E.

Listing technology wonders isn’t meant to blow your mind. It’s meant to blow you off a lily pad of complacency. Gandhi may have say “become the change you wish to see in the world.” Sure – as a matter of social conscience that makes sense. But as a matter of mindset it’s more a matter of “adjust to the change you see in the world.” We let the technology horse out of the barn and it’s not coming back.

As futurist Ray Kurzweil argues (Ref 5), humans are linear while technology is exponential. His “Law of Accelerating Change” argues the 21st century will witness 20,000 years of progress.

If we feel unsettled, others are even more unsettled. Consider that income inequality both within and among countries is viewed as one of the most serious challenges facing the world. Forty two per cent of total world income goes to those who make up the richest 10% of the world’s population, while just 1 per cent goes to those who make up the poorest 10 per cent (Ref 6). For example, if you think terrorism is just a thing, think again and dig deeper. It’s rooted in inequality. Developed economies can’t continue to build their castles, then complain when the impoverished outside the walls lash out in anger or resentment. Within countries, we can’t continue to structure policy to benefit few at the top at the cost of many at the bottom. We call this dynamic a pyramid scheme in the business world – and it’s illegal.

Charles Darwin concluded that “It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent that survives. It’s the one that is most adaptable to change.”

We simply need to prepare ourselves to adapt more quickly than we are comfortable with. We have much work to do and I think it begins with a simple question: “How do we harness change at a personal, community, country, and global level to capitalize on the future?”

I think at its core we need to restructure our education around curiosity, learning, flexibility, and entrepreneurialism, and provide retraining opportunities for our aging workforce. We can’t be positioning people for jobs; we need to position people with skills that maximize adaptability. Few will have one career. Most will have many careers. We need to work out from there – from policy to politics – that addresses both adaptability and inequality.

If we can open our minds to the change we see around us, we open the door to the opportunities it creates, not the cost. If you want to resist change, you will fight and we as a globe may fight but you won’t win and we won’t win. Conflict is generated in the disparity between what was, and what will be. We need to narrow the gap.

Ref 1 Src: https://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/schmidt-data/

Ref 2 Src: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-charlie-rose-interviews-a-robot-sophia/

Ref 3 Src: https://www.wired.com/2016/10/ubers-self-driving-truck-makes-first-delivery-50000-beers/

Ref 4 Src: http://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-we-need-universal-income-because-robots-will-1788644631

Ref 5 Src: http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweil-law-of-accelerating-returns-2015-5

Ref 6 Src: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/hot-topics/worldinequality.aspx