Whenever I see the changes occurring within our system caused by emerging tech, I can't help but think that all of these crazy future scenarios we discuss are much closer to major system changes than even radical predictions suggest.

One thought that came to me last night was that our predictions for a system change may be conservative because our years are getting shorter. All this means is that more changes in a year. And by change I mean that more gets done. Our system is getting increasingly efficient. Our global conversations are happening at increasingly fast paces. And all too often people don't really factor in "the ratchet" or exponential change. When I see that Watson is now going open-source and developers are going to be able to use Watson to build all types of "Watson-apps" related to education, economics, etc. and when I see that smart phone and tablet penetration in the developing world is likely to reach full penetration before 2020... I can't help but think about the power that will be in all of our hands. Not-to-mention all of these devices will have very smart operating systems in the 2020s. Everyone will have a great doctor. Everyone will have a great teacher. And they will all learn with us and consequently be personally tailored to our needs.

Basically, shits about to go down.