How did planet Earth come to be? Life? Humans? The computer? The internet?
It is difficult to answer these questions — and in this text we certainly will not try to deal with them and their answers. These questions matter for one reason: what is common to every origin?
Connecting as a universal principle
What is common in the origin of the planet, life, humans, the computer, the internet and everything that exists — is connecting, joining, uniting, networking — or however we call that something that creates this world.
If we imagine that the thread — which is never static — is the one that connects beings already born of joining, and that these joinings further create new micro and macro systems, we come to a conclusion: everything that tends to join, that is, to expand through connecting, has an end where the expansion stops.
Expansion has its boundary, but the boundary itself is not static. At a certain moment it is merely the point where expansion stops and gathering begins — so that new connecting and expansion can occur. All systems that were limited in some way slowly die — until some part of them obtains a potential point of expansion.
Digital transformation as a point of expansion
If we are talking about the economy, business and companies — we can conclude that the key point of expansion is precisely digital transformation.
As a reminder: the computer was at one point only a technical tool that enabled people to make certain complicated calculations easier — faster and simpler.
The internet changes everything
The computer, even in a more advanced function, would have remained at the level of a tool like a typewriter or a calculator — had the internet not come about, enabling connecting, joining and networking. The biggest expansion was provided by social networks.
Online media turned one-way, limited communication into multi-way communication. Thus the computer went from being a tool to being a means of communication. The vision of Bill Gates — “a computer on every desk in every home” — has been extended to today’s: the computer (tablet, smartphone) is in every hand, from the age of one to one hundred and one.
Processor power and memory price
According to Klaus Schwab (2016), today one tablet (smart device) has the processor power equivalent to 5,000 desktops of just 30 years ago.
At the same time, the price of memory is almost zero:
- Today: 1 GB costs 0.03 cents
- 20 years ago: 1 GB cost USD 10,000
The basic need — connecting
This was not achieved because the computer made certain operations possible — those are only additional benefits today. It was achieved because the computer, through the internet, enabled people to connect — and thereby grasped the thread and almost unlimited possibility of expansion. Thus it merged with the basic need of people and of life on earth in general — which is connecting.
Conclusion
The conclusion is clear: every company today should know that its expansion point is in digital transformation — and connect NOW or IMMEDIATELY.
