Speaker 6

Speaker 5

Speaker 4

Well, it all sounds like a good idea at first, doesn’t it? You can take your skills anywhere in the world via the Internet without actually leaving home. But it’s not really practical, is it? I mean for one thing, most jobs can’t be done by telecommuting, even with things like videoconferencing and stuff like that. They’ve been talking about it for ages, but nobody seems to like working that way. Personally, I think you need human contact in most jobs. I know I do in mine. And I can’t see professionals in the EU and the US and Japan just letting people in South-east Asia and Africa take their jobs. I mean it’s bad enough exploiting cheap manual labour in those places already. But imagine if you also had low-paid engineers and lawyers and doctors working on the Net. The consequences for the professions could be devastating, not to mention the actual quality of service you might be getting.

Well, this idea that our kids are going to be achieving a hundred times more over their working lives sounds a little improbable to me. Surely it depends on what kind of job they’re doing. Everybody seems to think we all work at lightning speed these days. But, let’s face it, in some jobs, things haven’t changed all that much in twenty years. We’re not all computer geeks. I don’t think life itself is so much faster. It’s just that we want so much more out of it and that’s why we get so stressed trying to fit it all in. when I go on business trips to the States, it always amazes me how hyperactive everybody is. They’re fixing up a time to play tennis on the phone, having lunch at their desk while they do their spreadsheets, skin the Wall Street Journal and instant message their childminder to check their kid’s doing her math homework. You want to go out for a beer with them, you need an appointment! I think what they need is to come to Mexico and relax a little.

I think Naisbitt is absolutely right. As we get more technological, we also want to recapture some of the old-fashioned values of a simpler, slower, more natural age. I mean the quickest way to buy a book is through Amazon, which is a marvelous service, but it cannot really compare with the pleasure of wandering around a good bookshop. I have a lot of fun playing computer games with my seven-year-old son, but I still want to take him ice-skating or play football in the park. I work for a design company and, interestingly, if you look at many of the most popular industrial designs of the last ten years or so, you find they all have an organic, retro look about them: the iMac, for example, the Nokia mobile phone, the Dyson vacuum cleaner, the Smart Car. No straight lines, lots of curves and bright colours. Soft, subtle technology. As Naisbitt says, high-tech, but high-touch.

Дата добавления: 2015-04-30