1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:15,200 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 3 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:18,560 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:21,639 Speaker 1: and how the tech area. You know, it's time for 5 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:25,240 Speaker 1: a tech Stuff classic episode, folks, and this episode originally 6 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: published on July twenty second, two thousand and fifteen. It 7 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:35,479 Speaker 1: is called disruptive technologies. Disruptive is an adjective that lots 8 00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,600 Speaker 1: of folks like to use for businesses that often have 9 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:44,200 Speaker 1: no business plan. That at least has been my experience. 10 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:47,680 Speaker 1: But let's take a listen to the classic episode. The 11 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: concept of disruptive technology. You hear it a lot, but 12 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: often it is not very well explained and sometimes, in fact, 13 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: often it is misused, uh just eruptive technology. Sometimes is 14 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:03,560 Speaker 1: being used just to mean something that has a lot 15 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,920 Speaker 1: of buzz around it, but doesn't necessarily mean it's going 16 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:12,399 Speaker 1: to be disruptive. The term itself is actually pretty specific. 17 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:17,840 Speaker 1: It was originally coined by Clayton M. Christensen in a 18 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:23,240 Speaker 1: book titled The Innovator's Dilemma, and specifically was talking about 19 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:27,279 Speaker 1: disruptive innovation, not just technology, but innovation in general. Because 20 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be a physical thing. It could 21 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 1: be a new way of going about doing something. And 22 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: Christensen was saying that disruptive innovation was something that in 23 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:44,320 Speaker 1: business meant adopting techniques or developing technology that eventually completely 24 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:51,120 Speaker 1: surpasses or replaces previous approaches, possibly harming whatever business back 25 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: the other older and in the long run, wrong technology. 26 00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: So I'd say a type of technology that disrupt an industry, 27 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 1: sometimes completely changing the way stuff is done, sometimes completely 28 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 1: invalidating long standing UH industries or business practices. So it's 29 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,839 Speaker 1: it's meant to be signify something that is really going 30 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:21,000 Speaker 1: to be transformative, not necessarily for the better. It doesn't 31 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:25,240 Speaker 1: mean that the disruptive technology is more powerful or more 32 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:29,200 Speaker 1: effective or more efficient. It might just be cheaper or 33 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:33,960 Speaker 1: easier to produce than the previous version. So here's an example. 34 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: You might look at a ah, you know, something that 35 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: was made by hand, like a handmade article of clothing 36 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: versus a machine made article article of clothing. One is 37 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:49,960 Speaker 1: not necessarily better than the other just because it happens 38 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:52,400 Speaker 1: to be made in a different way. You could have 39 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:57,960 Speaker 1: handmade clothing that is superior to machine made clothing, but 40 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 1: because the speed and the expense of using a machine 41 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 1: can be much lower, or the speed is faster, but 42 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: the expense is lower than if you were to rely 43 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: on a human being to produce that piece of clothing. 44 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:18,120 Speaker 1: The sewing machine and other automated ways of creating garments 45 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:24,839 Speaker 1: end up pushing the the handmade version to a niche market. Now, 46 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: you could argue that in cases like that, a person 47 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,680 Speaker 1: could still make a pretty decent living working by hand. 48 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: It's just that the nature of the business has changed. 49 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: In fact, you could argue that by marketing it as handmade, 50 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:43,520 Speaker 1: you could charge more for your product and thus make 51 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:46,440 Speaker 1: more money on a per product basis, and that could 52 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 1: be very helpful. But the industry overall, the giant umbrella industry, 53 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:55,440 Speaker 1: has changed significantly. So I'm going to look at several 54 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: different disruptive technologies. I'm pulling a lot of these from 55 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 1: an r iCal that we have on how stuff Works 56 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,880 Speaker 1: dot com. If you don't remember how stuff works dot 57 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:07,640 Speaker 1: Com is my employer, Tech Stuff is part of how 58 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: Stuff Works, and the article is ten disruptive technologies you 59 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: use every day. Now, there's one that's not on the 60 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:19,240 Speaker 1: list that you certainly use frequently. You have to if 61 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: you're listening to this podcast that I think merits special mention, 62 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:29,320 Speaker 1: and that is the Internet. The Internet is incredibly disruptive 63 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: and that it has changed the way we do lots 64 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:36,600 Speaker 1: of stuff. It has enabled platforms to exist on top 65 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:40,599 Speaker 1: of it that have completely shaken up the way things 66 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: used to work. Here's a you know, a simple example 67 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: is shopping. You know, back in the day, you had 68 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: to do one of two things. You ordered from a catalog, 69 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,520 Speaker 1: in which case you would go through a catalog, you'd 70 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:53,320 Speaker 1: fill out your order, you'd send it in, and then 71 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:55,040 Speaker 1: you would wait for stuff to be delivered to you, 72 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:58,960 Speaker 1: or you would have to go to an actual physical 73 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: store and purchase things. I guess theoretically you could have 74 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: a door to door salesman, so maybe there's three, but 75 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:08,360 Speaker 1: that that was pretty much your only choices, and then 76 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:11,080 Speaker 1: you were limited by the inventory of the physical space 77 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,440 Speaker 1: you went to. Uh you were you know, you had 78 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:18,360 Speaker 1: to actually make time out of your day to travel there. Uh. 79 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: You had to expend a lot of energy just to 80 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:23,039 Speaker 1: get from point A to point being. These days, we 81 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:26,800 Speaker 1: can do a ton of our shopping online, never leave 82 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: the comfort of our chair. Uh. The inventory is enormous 83 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:33,080 Speaker 1: because there are a lot of companies out there that 84 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:37,159 Speaker 1: either keep huge inventories or they can create on demand, 85 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:41,080 Speaker 1: depending upon whatever the thing is you're trying to buy. 86 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:46,520 Speaker 1: And so the Internet has really disrupted the shopping industry. 87 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:48,840 Speaker 1: You've got a lot of stores out there that are 88 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: struggling to continue to make their numbers so that they 89 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,160 Speaker 1: can remain open. We've seen lots of different chains close 90 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:58,680 Speaker 1: over the last few years, bookstores being a big one. 91 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: A lot of electronics store has have been having problems. 92 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: That's indicative of the disruption we have seen from the Internet. 93 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:07,440 Speaker 1: And that's just one thing that the Internet has disrupted. 94 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:12,839 Speaker 1: Another could be long distance communications in general. The first 95 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 1: one on our list in the on the side is email, 96 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: and clearly email has been disruptive. It is changed the 97 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:24,960 Speaker 1: way we communicate with one another. We have this immediacy now. 98 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:29,480 Speaker 1: We no longer have the long delay between writing something 99 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 1: and someone else receiving it and then responding because back 100 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:37,119 Speaker 1: in the old days, we would write letters and send 101 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: those through the mail, and then we have to wait 102 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: for the postal service to deliver our note. We have 103 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:46,760 Speaker 1: to wait for the person to read it, then write 104 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:48,880 Speaker 1: their own response, send it, and we have to wait 105 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 1: to receive it. So communication was very different by its 106 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:55,919 Speaker 1: very nature. It had to be I mean, you couldn't 107 00:06:56,320 --> 00:06:59,279 Speaker 1: be asking a question that you needed an answer, you know, 108 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:02,600 Speaker 1: within hours. That was not going to happen. But email 109 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:05,080 Speaker 1: has changed things dramatically. It's also kind of changed the 110 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:07,719 Speaker 1: nature of how we communicate. And you will hear people 111 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: occasionally talk about how letter writing is now a lost 112 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:15,880 Speaker 1: art that people no longer know or bother to write 113 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:19,160 Speaker 1: letters in a way that they used to because email 114 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: has supplanted. That has really changed the nature of communication. 115 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:28,640 Speaker 1: But emails cheaper, it's easier than handwriting a letter. There's 116 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:31,240 Speaker 1: no postage, there's no paper, there's no ink. Really, all 117 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: you need is an internet connection. So whether you are 118 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,360 Speaker 1: paying for internet service or you're going someplace like the library, 119 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 1: even to send a message, uh, you know, that's all 120 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:47,760 Speaker 1: you need really, and uh, of course it'll get to 121 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:51,239 Speaker 1: where it's going in moments, so if the other person 122 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,560 Speaker 1: is online, you could end up getting a response before 123 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 1: you have a chance to navigate away from the email window. 124 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:02,400 Speaker 1: So it's very different. It has completely changed the nature 125 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: of the postal service. Um, things like greeting cards and invitations, 126 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,200 Speaker 1: even those have started to decline. According to a two 127 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:15,880 Speaker 1: thousand eleven p Internet survey of adults in the US 128 00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:20,000 Speaker 1: who got online used email them used it on a 129 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:23,200 Speaker 1: typical day of all Americans used email to some extent. 130 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:27,320 Speaker 1: That might even mean that we're communicating more. It may 131 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:30,040 Speaker 1: not be the same quality of communication, but the quantity 132 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 1: certainly has gone up. And of course there's tons of 133 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:36,280 Speaker 1: other stuff that we send through email. So that's a 134 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:40,000 Speaker 1: good example of how the Internet has disrupted things. Beyond 135 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:44,079 Speaker 1: the shopping aspect, there are others as well. Social media, 136 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:48,040 Speaker 1: which is number nine on the list, also applies. Obviously, 137 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:52,560 Speaker 1: they are allowing us to have interactions with our friends 138 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:55,839 Speaker 1: and family, no matter how far apart they may be 139 00:08:56,080 --> 00:09:00,640 Speaker 1: from us. Um you can share in for nation, not 140 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:03,280 Speaker 1: just through text, but you can share links, you can 141 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:07,640 Speaker 1: share videos or music, you can share photographs. You have 142 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: this opportunity to have these interactions that before would have 143 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:17,040 Speaker 1: been limited to whenever you were with one another, or 144 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 1: perhaps you had to rely on something like the snail 145 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:25,120 Speaker 1: mail service. So again, incredibly disruptive, and we've even seen 146 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:32,640 Speaker 1: this this pocket get shaken up multiple times as new 147 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:38,840 Speaker 1: players have incorporated different strategies and disrupted social media. So 148 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:44,200 Speaker 1: while social media has disrupted larger industries, social media itself 149 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:48,120 Speaker 1: has experienced disruption. A great example of that is my Space, 150 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:52,280 Speaker 1: which used to dominate the social media area, and then 151 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:57,959 Speaker 1: Facebook comes along and ends up becoming incredibly disruptive because 152 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,640 Speaker 1: of its appeal to a large young user base and 153 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:05,800 Speaker 1: grew from there, and my Space eventually collapsed in on 154 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:09,120 Speaker 1: itself and had to redefine itself and still is struggling 155 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: to define itself as something relevant in today's social media landscape. 156 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:16,920 Speaker 1: We'll be back with more of this classic episode of 157 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:27,959 Speaker 1: tech stuff after this quick break. As of early more 158 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,360 Speaker 1: than half of the people who use the Internet also 159 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:34,200 Speaker 1: regularly used social media, not a big surprise. In the 160 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:36,520 Speaker 1: US that tends to be on the high end of 161 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:41,960 Speaker 1: the scale, so about as of January, and other nations 162 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:45,760 Speaker 1: it may be lower, but it shows that people are 163 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:50,360 Speaker 1: really you know, they've incorporated this into their lives. It's 164 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:53,560 Speaker 1: not just something that is occasionally used. I mean, I 165 00:10:53,559 --> 00:10:56,959 Speaker 1: don't know about you, but I have Facebook open pretty 166 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:00,120 Speaker 1: much the entire time I'm sitting at any computer. And 167 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:02,800 Speaker 1: it may not be that I'm on Facebook the entire 168 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:06,560 Speaker 1: time solely, but it's always got a tab dedicated to 169 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,960 Speaker 1: it because this is how I tend to interact with 170 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:12,960 Speaker 1: my friends these days. We all are very busy, we 171 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:16,240 Speaker 1: all have schedules that pretty much prevent us from getting 172 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:18,679 Speaker 1: together on a regular basis. But this is a way 173 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:23,520 Speaker 1: I can maintain contact without having to, you know, put 174 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:28,319 Speaker 1: anyone to any trouble, which is nice now. It also, 175 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:33,480 Speaker 1: you could argue, is less satisfying than other means of interaction, 176 00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:36,000 Speaker 1: like an actual physical get together where you can hang 177 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:38,400 Speaker 1: out and spend time with one another. And I don't 178 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:42,319 Speaker 1: argue that at all. Again, the disruption doesn't necessarily mean 179 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:47,040 Speaker 1: it's better. Sometimes just means it's easier or more effective 180 00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:51,560 Speaker 1: in a way. So, uh, you know that, depending on 181 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:54,120 Speaker 1: your view of social media, you might see it as 182 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:58,240 Speaker 1: helpful disruption or very harmful disruption. There are a lot 183 00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: of other examples of disruptive technologies that have utilized the Internet, 184 00:12:02,840 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: streaming media being a huge one. This is enormous. A 185 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:11,959 Speaker 1: few years ago I talked about how people would be 186 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:16,080 Speaker 1: increasingly moving away from cable and using the Internet to 187 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:20,600 Speaker 1: get access to various forms of entertainment. At the time, 188 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:24,480 Speaker 1: you know, it was it was an obvious move. Even 189 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:27,199 Speaker 1: when I I said it, but it was still something 190 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:30,679 Speaker 1: that was only occasionally talked about because I think, well, 191 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:33,200 Speaker 1: for one thing, the big media companies were a little 192 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:36,120 Speaker 1: worried about where things were going because they relied on 193 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:39,320 Speaker 1: old forms of media delivery to get their message across. 194 00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:42,559 Speaker 1: So it's kind of scary to report on the potential 195 00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:46,800 Speaker 1: decline of the industry you currently are in, But that 196 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:50,640 Speaker 1: is exactly what we've seen happen. We've seen cable subscriptions 197 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:55,240 Speaker 1: for cable television decline as we've seen people start to 198 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:59,959 Speaker 1: use other services online more frequently, things like Amazon or 199 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:04,720 Speaker 1: Hulu or Netflix to get their their their entertainment. We've 200 00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 1: also seen the growth of new forms of entertainment, things 201 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:12,640 Speaker 1: like YouTube, where people who are not part of a 202 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: larger network are creating their own content and finding an audience. 203 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:22,319 Speaker 1: Uh that has become an incredibly powerful story where people 204 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 1: who normally would not have had an opportunity to communicate 205 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:30,040 Speaker 1: through the Internet suddenly have this outlet. And not only 206 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:32,080 Speaker 1: do they have an outlet, but people find what they're 207 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:36,400 Speaker 1: saying to be valuable, whether that's entertainment or it's news 208 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:41,199 Speaker 1: or just personal opinion or whatever it may be. There's 209 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:43,600 Speaker 1: now this outlet that that did not exist before, and 210 00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:48,439 Speaker 1: it's actually starting to take a big chunk out of 211 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:51,600 Speaker 1: the traditional media. Now, there's still a long way to go. 212 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:53,760 Speaker 1: You're gonna hear a lot of people talk about how 213 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:57,400 Speaker 1: this stuff is going to force the traditional media companies 214 00:13:57,440 --> 00:14:00,360 Speaker 1: out of business, and in the long run, maybe that's 215 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 1: going to be the case. I think it will probably 216 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:04,680 Speaker 1: even out where we're going to have a balance across 217 00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:10,040 Speaker 1: multiple platforms. That's my own personal guests, but it certainly 218 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:15,680 Speaker 1: has proven itself to be a valuable way of getting 219 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:19,240 Speaker 1: to an audience. It's been effective and it's just going 220 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:22,280 Speaker 1: to continue to grow. The big challenge moving forward, I 221 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:27,800 Speaker 1: think for content creators is getting noticed because this space 222 00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:30,400 Speaker 1: is getting more and more crowded. So it may turn 223 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:34,040 Speaker 1: out that until something else comes along and shakes up 224 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:38,880 Speaker 1: this industry, the streaming media industry, that you're going to 225 00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:42,880 Speaker 1: have a few really big players in the space and 226 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:46,320 Speaker 1: then a whole bunch of little guys. And as someone 227 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:50,720 Speaker 1: who creates videos and uh and podcasts that are not 228 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,880 Speaker 1: part of how stuff works, I can tell you being 229 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:56,840 Speaker 1: one of those little guys, it's tough. I mean, it's 230 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:01,120 Speaker 1: tough to get noticed, but uh, Ultimately, it all depends 231 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:03,400 Speaker 1: on why you're doing it. If you're doing it for fun, 232 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: like I do for my outside projects, it's not as 233 00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:10,040 Speaker 1: big a deal because you just do it until it's 234 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:12,240 Speaker 1: no longer fun and then you stopped doing it. If 235 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:13,680 Speaker 1: you're doing it to make a living, then it's a 236 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:16,360 Speaker 1: much bigger deal. Obviously, you have to figure out how 237 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:19,640 Speaker 1: to reach that audience so that you can get paid. 238 00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:22,800 Speaker 1: However that may be, whether it's through sponsorships or direct 239 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 1: contributions through Patreon or something along those lines. But these 240 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:31,760 Speaker 1: streaming services have really created a new story that didn't 241 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:35,880 Speaker 1: exist just a few years ago. Back then, I mean, 242 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:38,760 Speaker 1: the only way you could end up getting on television 243 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:41,640 Speaker 1: if you didn't already have a job there was through 244 00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:44,680 Speaker 1: like a public access station, or maybe if you went 245 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:47,640 Speaker 1: to college and they had a college television station, that 246 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:50,440 Speaker 1: was a way you could break into the industry. But 247 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:53,880 Speaker 1: otherwise it was pretty tough. So it's been amazing to 248 00:15:53,920 --> 00:15:57,960 Speaker 1: watch this particular transition. Next on the list is e 249 00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:02,640 Speaker 1: readers and e reader apps. Obviously one of the hallmark 250 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:06,760 Speaker 1: disruptive technologies to come along over the last decade. So 251 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:08,600 Speaker 1: e readers have been around for a while but it's 252 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:12,760 Speaker 1: only been you know, a few years since the first 253 00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:17,880 Speaker 1: e paper uh devices really became affordable to the average 254 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:24,040 Speaker 1: person and paired with the right you know service like Amazon, 255 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,200 Speaker 1: And by right, I mean it makes it really super 256 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:33,000 Speaker 1: easy to get stuff onto that book. They've become powerful tools. 257 00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:37,800 Speaker 1: So whether you like Amazon's business approach or not, it's 258 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,840 Speaker 1: impossible to deny their effectiveness Because you go out and 259 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:46,080 Speaker 1: buy a kindle, it is incredibly easy to purchase content 260 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:48,760 Speaker 1: for your kindle through the kindle. You know, you're buying 261 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 1: it through Amazon, and that was their business model that 262 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:56,440 Speaker 1: makes incredible sense, the idea of selling this piece of 263 00:16:56,480 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: hardware that makes it really easy for you to get 264 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,200 Speaker 1: intent and people are able to grab books and movies 265 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:08,000 Speaker 1: and music through Amazon and experience it through their various devices. 266 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:13,200 Speaker 1: It has been a huge blow not just too brick 267 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:18,000 Speaker 1: and mortar book companies, but publishers as well as music 268 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:23,840 Speaker 1: companies and film Honestly, home video clearly has taken a 269 00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:27,840 Speaker 1: huge hit. Whether it's the brick and mortar retail stores 270 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,760 Speaker 1: where you would go and buy a DVD or Blu ray, 271 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:33,960 Speaker 1: or it's uh, you know, rental places. There are very 272 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:37,000 Speaker 1: few of those left around you've got Red Box and 273 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:39,360 Speaker 1: a couple of others. And here in Atlanta, we've got 274 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:43,480 Speaker 1: some independent companies that are still around that are really 275 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:48,560 Speaker 1: charming and have very eclectic collections. Video Drome in Atlanta. 276 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:50,520 Speaker 1: If you were ever in Atlanta and you want to 277 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:56,800 Speaker 1: see a real quirky, weird video rental place, go to 278 00:17:56,920 --> 00:18:00,840 Speaker 1: Video Drome. UM. It's at the corner of Highland and 279 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:04,879 Speaker 1: North Avenue, and it is amazing. They have a lot 280 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:08,000 Speaker 1: of character. But obviously that business model, which used to 281 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:11,719 Speaker 1: be enormous, I mean, Blockbuster Video and other companies like 282 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:16,199 Speaker 1: it dominated various strip malls across the United States. You 283 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:19,720 Speaker 1: could not go very far without seeing another one, and 284 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:24,840 Speaker 1: these days they're long forgotten. Well, e readers UH and 285 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:28,840 Speaker 1: e readers and other devices, streaming devices and streaming media, 286 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,640 Speaker 1: as well as the shopping I was talking about earlier, 287 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:37,040 Speaker 1: have all contributed to seeing those kind of fade away. 288 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:41,280 Speaker 1: Smart mobile devices similar approach. It's also something that has 289 00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:46,000 Speaker 1: really been disruptive. It's number six on the list. Uh. 290 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:48,879 Speaker 1: It was just a few years ago that everyone assumed 291 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:51,480 Speaker 1: that cell phones were just going to continue to get 292 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,880 Speaker 1: smaller and smaller in the future, because that was what 293 00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:57,520 Speaker 1: was considered to be sexy, you would get a phone. 294 00:18:57,600 --> 00:18:59,920 Speaker 1: The next model would be even smaller and more compact. 295 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:06,440 Speaker 1: There were lots of UH sketches on television, particularly starting 296 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 1: that Live of characters who had comically tiny phones because 297 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:13,640 Speaker 1: it was a status symbol supposed to show how important 298 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:17,040 Speaker 1: that character was, or how important that character wanted to 299 00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:19,720 Speaker 1: seem to be. And that was the joke, was that 300 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:22,640 Speaker 1: it was just going to continuously get smaller and smaller. UH. 301 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:26,320 Speaker 1: Smartphones turned that all around. So smartphones disrupted the phone, 302 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:30,440 Speaker 1: the mobile phone market because once the iPhone came out 303 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:36,399 Speaker 1: and showed that there was a compelling way to access 304 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:39,480 Speaker 1: things like the Internet through your phone, it meant that 305 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,280 Speaker 1: you wanted to have a screen that was of a 306 00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:44,120 Speaker 1: large enough size for you to be able to read 307 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:46,800 Speaker 1: things and interact with it. And then we saw the 308 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:48,920 Speaker 1: trend start to reverse until now we're at the point 309 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,040 Speaker 1: where you start seeing the comically large phones, the fablets. 310 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:54,680 Speaker 1: I own one of those. I have a next to six. 311 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:59,040 Speaker 1: It's enormous, So that trend ended up reversing. We've also 312 00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:04,120 Speaker 1: seen the they these devices have disrupted other industries, including 313 00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:08,040 Speaker 1: e readers and tablets, and we've seen them disrupt some 314 00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:12,080 Speaker 1: gaming industry too, because of the way that apps have 315 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:17,560 Speaker 1: reshaped the gaming landscape. You have gamers who are truly 316 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:23,720 Speaker 1: dedicated to specific consoles or two computers to PCs, and 317 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:26,880 Speaker 1: then you have others who are happy to play whatever 318 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:31,360 Speaker 1: on whichever platform. And mobile devices are incredibly handy because 319 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:36,320 Speaker 1: you almost always have one with you, and the experiences 320 00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:40,720 Speaker 1: can be really satisfying depending upon the design of the app. Obviously, 321 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:45,240 Speaker 1: not all apps are created equal, but we've also seen 322 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:51,280 Speaker 1: smartphones replace other stuff, things like uh, day planners, which 323 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:53,960 Speaker 1: you might think, well, that's not that big a deal, 324 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,840 Speaker 1: but there are companies that just made day planners, or 325 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:00,159 Speaker 1: they made day planners as part of their business us, 326 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:03,639 Speaker 1: and there's less and less reason to go out and 327 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:07,640 Speaker 1: buy one of those. Or digital cameras. Back in the day, 328 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:11,359 Speaker 1: we used to have digital cameras as standalone devices because 329 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:16,240 Speaker 1: they took much better photos than our phones could. Phone 330 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,439 Speaker 1: images would be really low resolution, very grainy. But today 331 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:23,440 Speaker 1: we're seeing better and better sensors incorporated into phones, and 332 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:28,880 Speaker 1: I rarely carry around an extra camera. Sometimes I do 333 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:31,520 Speaker 1: in very specific circumstances, but most of the time I'm 334 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:33,880 Speaker 1: happy to just carry my phone. Same thing is true 335 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:36,760 Speaker 1: with MP three players. I used to be the person 336 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:40,119 Speaker 1: who wanted to have a n MP three player dedicated 337 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 1: solely to MP three playing and that's it. But as 338 00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:48,560 Speaker 1: phone uh storage got larger and larger, and as cloud 339 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:52,360 Speaker 1: storage began to become a thing, I stopped doing that. 340 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:56,000 Speaker 1: Cloud storage would be another great example not on the 341 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,919 Speaker 1: list here, but I'll talk about for a second. Cloud 342 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,640 Speaker 1: computing and cloud story in general, has been incredibly disruptive 343 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:06,760 Speaker 1: because by offloading the processing and storage requirements from a 344 00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:11,160 Speaker 1: localized area to the cloud, you disrupt all the businesses 345 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:15,200 Speaker 1: that used to provide the machines that either processed information 346 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,440 Speaker 1: or stored it. So more and more companies are moving 347 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:22,560 Speaker 1: to cloud based services. It decreases the demand they have 348 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:27,480 Speaker 1: for powerful machinery on the front end, and it means 349 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,719 Speaker 1: they can make a lower investment. So in other words, 350 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:34,880 Speaker 1: the employees at a business might end up with cheaper laptops, 351 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:37,560 Speaker 1: but in the end it doesn't matter because the laptops 352 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:40,679 Speaker 1: aren't really doing all the work. A lot of the 353 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:44,280 Speaker 1: work is being offloaded to the cloud. So very disruptive. 354 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:46,920 Speaker 1: It also means it creates new opportunities if you're the 355 00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:52,200 Speaker 1: one making those inexpensive laptops. You've got a powerful business 356 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,600 Speaker 1: now because of these other companies that have created these 357 00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:59,159 Speaker 1: powerful cloud services. We've got more to say in this 358 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:02,400 Speaker 1: classic episod sort of tech stuff after these quick messages. 359 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:13,000 Speaker 1: Next on the list, we have mobile payment options. There's 360 00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:16,399 Speaker 1: so many of these, Apple Pay being one that's in 361 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: the news quite a bit, but there are other ones 362 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:23,280 Speaker 1: as well, things that end up taking the the the 363 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,919 Speaker 1: sting out of having to, you know, keep track of 364 00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:31,080 Speaker 1: all your various cards, reward systems, things like that, all 365 00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:33,119 Speaker 1: of that being wrapped up into an app that can 366 00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:37,240 Speaker 1: keep track of everything for you. Very powerful, also extremely disruptive, 367 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:42,000 Speaker 1: really good example in this list. So there are a 368 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:45,920 Speaker 1: lot of different options here. I mean there's the Google Wallet, 369 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,040 Speaker 1: there's Apple Pay, there's into it go payment, There's lots 370 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:54,760 Speaker 1: of stuff out there. And this applies both on the 371 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:59,480 Speaker 1: user side and on the vendor side. You've got companies 372 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,960 Speaker 1: that are are using this stuff in order to be 373 00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:06,480 Speaker 1: their point of sale, and it's really a great tool 374 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:10,399 Speaker 1: for them because they can end up offloading that and 375 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:13,840 Speaker 1: they don't have to invest in, you know, larger technologies 376 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:16,560 Speaker 1: like cashiers and things like that, or cash registers. I 377 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:21,080 Speaker 1: should say not cashiers, and uh, you know, we're seeing 378 00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:23,119 Speaker 1: more of this sort of approach where you can do 379 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:27,240 Speaker 1: the tap and pay, and that ends up decreasing the 380 00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:32,560 Speaker 1: need for sales personnel. Thus, this is a disruptive. It 381 00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:34,400 Speaker 1: means that people who would normally be able to get 382 00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:38,320 Speaker 1: a job doing that, being a sales representative at a 383 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,439 Speaker 1: retail establishment, they might find it harder to get that 384 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,919 Speaker 1: kind of job because there's less need for it. So 385 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:50,479 Speaker 1: sometimes disruptive can mean pretty tough consequences for people, at 386 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:53,199 Speaker 1: least in the short term, until you figure out some 387 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,040 Speaker 1: other place where you have a need that people can 388 00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:58,719 Speaker 1: go and work at and fill that need. Plus they 389 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:00,399 Speaker 1: can go and you know, get pay aid for the 390 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,520 Speaker 1: work they do. So disruptive does not always mean great. 391 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 1: It might mean great things for that whatever technology is 392 00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:09,960 Speaker 1: just doing the disrupting, but it could have other consequences 393 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,840 Speaker 1: that roll out to lots of other people. Self checkout 394 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:17,160 Speaker 1: stations is similar in that way. It's also on the list. 395 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:21,119 Speaker 1: It's at number four. Very disruptive. Obviously, if you go 396 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,239 Speaker 1: to a grocery store and you see that there are 397 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,639 Speaker 1: only three lanes open, there's twenty lanes there three of 398 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:30,920 Speaker 1: them are open with with cashiers and the rest are 399 00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:35,280 Speaker 1: are empty. And it's because these self service lanes have 400 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:37,440 Speaker 1: taken a lot of the load off. You don't need 401 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:42,240 Speaker 1: to employ as many people to handle the shopping requirements 402 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,919 Speaker 1: of your customers. I mean that's powerful, and again, just 403 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:47,680 Speaker 1: as I was saying with the other one, it means 404 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,520 Speaker 1: that it might put some folks out of a job. 405 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:55,119 Speaker 1: That's tough. Number three in the list is wearable fitness devices. 406 00:25:56,119 --> 00:26:00,080 Speaker 1: This is interesting to me. Um, We're still kind of 407 00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:03,520 Speaker 1: casting about for the perfect one. There are a lot 408 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:05,600 Speaker 1: on the market, and a lot of people have been 409 00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,879 Speaker 1: testing out different ones, and companies keep coming out with 410 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:15,760 Speaker 1: new ones. And whether it's something simple like a fitbit, 411 00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:19,200 Speaker 1: which is what I'm wearing right now, or it's more 412 00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:23,919 Speaker 1: complicated like a smart watch that also has uh step 413 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:28,320 Speaker 1: tracking and maybe a heart monitor and other items that 414 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:34,080 Speaker 1: are related to fitness apps. Uh. They're everywhere and they 415 00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:39,159 Speaker 1: are disruptive. Uh. They are also you know, really powerful 416 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:43,400 Speaker 1: in the sense of they raise awareness at least of fitness. 417 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,480 Speaker 1: Whether they actually drive fitness is still a matter of debate. 418 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:51,440 Speaker 1: I've seen studies that suggest that if you are already motivated, 419 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:55,159 Speaker 1: then you are likely to use these properly, but in 420 00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:57,320 Speaker 1: that case, you're using it to help keep track of 421 00:26:57,320 --> 00:26:59,919 Speaker 1: what you are already going to do. It's not like 422 00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:03,600 Speaker 1: the fitness device encouraged you to do, you know, to 423 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:07,760 Speaker 1: be fit, but rather that it enabled you to keep 424 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:10,720 Speaker 1: better track of it. So it may be that these 425 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:15,600 Speaker 1: devices really just replace more simple devices like your standard pedometer, 426 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:20,199 Speaker 1: but still pretty disruptive. Uh. The last two on the 427 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:22,560 Speaker 1: list of I've actually already covered because there's cloud computing 428 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:25,040 Speaker 1: in the Internet. They are, uh, the number one and 429 00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:27,880 Speaker 1: number two. Um, but I already mentioned though, so I'm 430 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:29,080 Speaker 1: not going to go through that again. There are a 431 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:30,720 Speaker 1: couple of others that are not on the list that 432 00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:33,520 Speaker 1: I wanted to mention that I think have been that 433 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,960 Speaker 1: are either incredibly disruptive or have the potential to be 434 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:42,040 Speaker 1: really disruptive. One is the Internet of things. Obviously, the 435 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,680 Speaker 1: Internet of things, we've talked about it so many times, 436 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:46,840 Speaker 1: but just in case you're new to the program, you 437 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:49,240 Speaker 1: haven't heard about it, or or you're kind of confused, 438 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:52,040 Speaker 1: what does the Internet of things really mean? Internet of 439 00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:56,119 Speaker 1: things ultimately refers to a world in which you have 440 00:27:56,520 --> 00:28:02,080 Speaker 1: Internet connected sensors and actuators, things that can either take 441 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:05,639 Speaker 1: information from the environment or interact with the environment in 442 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:09,960 Speaker 1: some way, and they're all connected to the internet, uh 443 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:14,440 Speaker 1: in order to process information or send information. So here's 444 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:19,359 Speaker 1: an example. Let's use a house as our model, and 445 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:21,800 Speaker 1: you have you walk into your house, and you've got 446 00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:25,360 Speaker 1: motion sensors that are connected to the internet. UM. They 447 00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:28,640 Speaker 1: activate your lights and a sound system. When you walk in, 448 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:33,960 Speaker 1: the sound system plays from a playlist that you have selected, 449 00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:38,240 Speaker 1: or maybe it even interacts by checking the information from 450 00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:41,280 Speaker 1: a wearable you have on that detects your heart rate, 451 00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,600 Speaker 1: and based on your heart rate, the house selects music 452 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:48,720 Speaker 1: that should complement your current mood based upon just the 453 00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:53,120 Speaker 1: limited information it has. UH. Maybe it has information about 454 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:56,680 Speaker 1: what you had for dinner last night and has suggestions 455 00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,320 Speaker 1: on things to eat tonight that might be interesting to you. 456 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:03,640 Speaker 1: These are all based on simple things that end up 457 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:07,360 Speaker 1: monitoring information, sending it to some other source where it 458 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:12,200 Speaker 1: gets processed, and then the processed information comes back to 459 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:17,080 Speaker 1: affect you in a meaningful way. Another great example would 460 00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,720 Speaker 1: be traffic infrastructure. So let's say we have real time 461 00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:25,040 Speaker 1: sensors out along the various roads of a busy city 462 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:29,239 Speaker 1: like Atlanta. It's a great example, and those sensors are 463 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,360 Speaker 1: picking up traffic patterns and sending it to a centralized 464 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:36,760 Speaker 1: processing station which is able to monitor the information and 465 00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:41,480 Speaker 1: make useful conclusions such as, maybe it needs to adjust 466 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:45,040 Speaker 1: the timing on certain intersections so that traffic can flow 467 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:49,120 Speaker 1: more freely through there to alleviate some traffic congestion. It's 468 00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:52,000 Speaker 1: of being a smart traffic system. Well, the Internet of 469 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,760 Speaker 1: things is like that, but imagine that with everything. So 470 00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,560 Speaker 1: you might have an experience where when you step outside, 471 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:03,360 Speaker 1: the are very much tailored to your preferences or your 472 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,960 Speaker 1: current state of being, and so you it ideally would 473 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:12,240 Speaker 1: have a very wonderful experience wherever you went all the time, 474 00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,560 Speaker 1: it was always going to be catered to you. The 475 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,480 Speaker 1: reality will probably be a little less science fiction Ee 476 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:23,440 Speaker 1: and Disney than that is. But we're already seeing examples 477 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:25,680 Speaker 1: of this, and so the Internet of things is going 478 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:31,280 Speaker 1: to be really disruptive as it makes regular tasks more efficient, 479 00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:38,000 Speaker 1: more effortless, where we don't have to have middlemen to 480 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:43,360 Speaker 1: kind of negotiate things on our behalf, you know, we 481 00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:47,200 Speaker 1: were able to have that stuff happen kind of automatically. Uh, 482 00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:50,560 Speaker 1: that's going to be really disruptive. Um, it doesn't necessarily 483 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,000 Speaker 1: mean it's going to put lots of people out of work, 484 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,560 Speaker 1: although I imagined that first at least some things, that 485 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,800 Speaker 1: will be the case. But it definitely means that it's 486 00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:01,680 Speaker 1: going to change things. And again, it may not necessarily 487 00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:04,280 Speaker 1: be better. It may just be that that's the easiest 488 00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:07,040 Speaker 1: way to do things, and so it might not be better, 489 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,560 Speaker 1: it might be the way things are. The last one 490 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:15,520 Speaker 1: I would pick to talk about is autonomous cars. Autonomous 491 00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:18,600 Speaker 1: cars are definitely going to be disruptive. They've already started 492 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,000 Speaker 1: to be disruptive, and they're not even something that consumers 493 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: can get their hands on yet. Autonomous cars will be 494 00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:26,760 Speaker 1: disruptive for multiple reasons. One of the big ones is 495 00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:30,360 Speaker 1: that it will open up the potential for people to 496 00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:36,080 Speaker 1: no longer own a personal vehicle. The idea here is 497 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:40,000 Speaker 1: that you could have a fleet of autonomous cars in 498 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:43,200 Speaker 1: a city. Let's say this would really only apply to 499 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:45,880 Speaker 1: folks who are living in urban environments for the most part. 500 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:49,000 Speaker 1: So imagine that you get a fleet of autonomous cars 501 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,360 Speaker 1: and they're on the street, driving very safely because they're 502 00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:58,600 Speaker 1: relying upon high tech sensors that allow them to react 503 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,640 Speaker 1: in a tract and of the time it would take 504 00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:04,880 Speaker 1: a human to react. So we've got these safe autonomous 505 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:08,200 Speaker 1: cars roving around. When you need to go somewhere, you 506 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:10,560 Speaker 1: use an app and say, hey, I need a ride, 507 00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,920 Speaker 1: and one of these autonomous vehicles pulls up and you 508 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 1: get in and it drives off. When an autonomous car 509 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:23,680 Speaker 1: needs to rest, like it needs to refuel or probably recharge, 510 00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,440 Speaker 1: because I imagine that this is going to be largely 511 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 1: an electric vehicle fleet, then it'll just take itself off 512 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,640 Speaker 1: the grid and another car would come online to replace it. 513 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,520 Speaker 1: And this would mean that you would travel whenever you 514 00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:40,280 Speaker 1: needed it. But otherwise you know you did, you wouldn't 515 00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:44,400 Speaker 1: need a vehicle, So people would not have to spend 516 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,440 Speaker 1: the money on a personal car. They could just rely 517 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,240 Speaker 1: on this service. Uh. You know. It's one of those 518 00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:54,240 Speaker 1: things that has actually been bandied about as a possible 519 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,440 Speaker 1: business model. Uber is looking into it. There have been 520 00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:02,480 Speaker 1: studies that have owned that such a model could potentially 521 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:09,160 Speaker 1: reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from cars by n Now 522 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:12,120 Speaker 1: keep in mind that car greenhouse gas emissions, that's a problem, 523 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:16,280 Speaker 1: but it's a tiny fraction of the overall greenhouse gas 524 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,680 Speaker 1: emissions that we see so clearly. If all of those cars, 525 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:23,800 Speaker 1: those electric vehicles are being powered by coal fired coal 526 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:29,120 Speaker 1: fired power plants, really you haven't you haven't really addressed 527 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:31,320 Speaker 1: the underlying problem, which is that you need to find 528 00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,960 Speaker 1: some other means of generating electricity that does not dump 529 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:39,400 Speaker 1: out that many greenhouse gases in the process. It's always 530 00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:40,680 Speaker 1: one of those issues where you gotta look at the 531 00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:44,400 Speaker 1: bigger picture. But that autonomous approach could end up disrupting 532 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:50,520 Speaker 1: the automotive industry. If people don't need personal vehicles, then 533 00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:53,720 Speaker 1: that's going to be a huge hit to multiple companies. 534 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,040 Speaker 1: Of course, any company that is the one that's actually 535 00:33:56,120 --> 00:34:00,760 Speaker 1: supplying those autonomous fleets, they're gonna make it killing, but 536 00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:02,440 Speaker 1: everyone else is going to have a real hard time 537 00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:06,320 Speaker 1: of it. On top of that, things like taxi companies, 538 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:08,759 Speaker 1: they'll have a real hard time. I mean, it'll be 539 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:11,399 Speaker 1: a lot harder to get employment as a taxi driver 540 00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:14,640 Speaker 1: if you have all these robot cars that are available 541 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:17,120 Speaker 1: and are really efficient, and you don't have to worry 542 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,319 Speaker 1: about a robot car having a weird conversation with you 543 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:22,000 Speaker 1: because it's just gonna take you to where you want 544 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,839 Speaker 1: to go, as opposed to you know, talking about some 545 00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:28,240 Speaker 1: weird thing in the news or an odd personal problem 546 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:30,919 Speaker 1: that sometimes you get with taxi drivers. So it could 547 00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:35,200 Speaker 1: be incredibly disruptive. Now, this is just a selection of 548 00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:38,840 Speaker 1: disruptive technologies. There are tons of other ones that we 549 00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 1: could talk about. VR and a R, virtor reality and 550 00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:46,239 Speaker 1: augmented reality. Another potentially disruptive technology, hollow lens in particular 551 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:51,040 Speaker 1: Microsoft's approach and Magic Leap being another could really disrupt 552 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:55,120 Speaker 1: things like if you can turn any surface into a monitor, 553 00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:58,040 Speaker 1: you don't need to buy a monitor anymore. You just 554 00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:01,319 Speaker 1: need the headset, and so there's a possibility that you 555 00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,040 Speaker 1: could change these. You also could have a new means 556 00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:08,719 Speaker 1: of interacting with your computer using voice and just your controls. 557 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:13,040 Speaker 1: If it's compelling enough and easy enough and versatile enough, 558 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,760 Speaker 1: that could be incredibly disruptive. We have seen the model 559 00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:20,360 Speaker 1: of the PC to be largely unchanged since the early 560 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,400 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. You know, you've got your keyboard and mouse, 561 00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:26,960 Speaker 1: and that's the chief way you interact with computers these days. 562 00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:31,279 Speaker 1: But it's possible that if you created a system that 563 00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:33,839 Speaker 1: is easy enough to use and does what you needed 564 00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:38,120 Speaker 1: to do, we could finally see that model fade away. 565 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:42,360 Speaker 1: Or at least end up competing with a different model. Uh. 566 00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:44,560 Speaker 1: I don't know if that's necessarily going to happen. I 567 00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:47,680 Speaker 1: haven't had my hands on a hollow lens yet, and 568 00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,640 Speaker 1: there are probably going to be plenty of applications where 569 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:53,400 Speaker 1: you're going to think, no, I want a computer with 570 00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:55,840 Speaker 1: a keyboard and a mouse to do this. It doesn't 571 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,720 Speaker 1: make sense for me to do it using this other model. 572 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:04,479 Speaker 1: But they're might be enough cases where the hollow lens 573 00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:08,080 Speaker 1: could be truly disruptive and be the next or you know, 574 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:10,680 Speaker 1: not just the hollow lens, but augmented reality in general 575 00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:14,279 Speaker 1: be truly disruptive and be the next step in how 576 00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:19,160 Speaker 1: we interact with information. So that's another great example. There's 577 00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:22,759 Speaker 1: tons of other ones obviously that have been in the 578 00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,200 Speaker 1: news on and off, and I'm curious to hear what 579 00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:27,719 Speaker 1: you guys think. I want to know what you think 580 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:32,279 Speaker 1: is the most interesting disruptive technology. And keep in mind, 581 00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:35,879 Speaker 1: disruptive technologies are not a new thing. There have been 582 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:39,520 Speaker 1: disruptive technologies for as long as there's been technology. Great 583 00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:44,160 Speaker 1: example is the printing press, very disruptive technology. It ended 584 00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:49,759 Speaker 1: up disrupting all those monks who are illuminating scripts. Um so, 585 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:51,960 Speaker 1: this is something that has been around pretty much as 586 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,600 Speaker 1: long as technology has been around. I hope you enjoyed 587 00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:59,719 Speaker 1: that classic episode about disruptive technologies. If you have suggestions 588 00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:02,840 Speaker 1: for topics I should tackle in future episodes of tech Stuff, 589 00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:06,120 Speaker 1: reach out to me. You can let me know on Twitter. 590 00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:08,840 Speaker 1: The handle for the show is text Stuff H s 591 00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:13,840 Speaker 1: W and I'll talk to you again really soon Y. 592 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,160 Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more 593 00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:24,640 Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 594 00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:27,920 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.