You had the quite brilliant Horizon programme about the future of invention Tomorrow's World: A Horizon Special
Where the rather lovely looking Liz Bonnin delved in to the world of invention, revealing the people and technologies set to transform all our lives. She examined the conditions that are promising to make the 21st century a golden age of innovation and met some of the world's foremost visionaries, mavericks and dreamers.
There really were some amazing things and some worrying too like reprogramming nature and bacteria to create fuel for us from sunlight - a brilliant idea but just imagine if it went wrong and this super bacteria did something else instead. And then there was crowd funding of new ideas, and even crowd sourcing and open data and big data - and all the things I love to think about.
Then after this programme was the equally brilliant (but not as nice looking) Charlie Brookers How TV Ruined Your Life: all about progress. Where from the moon landings to Blake's 7 to CSI: Miami, Charlie Brooker argues that television has warped our relationship with technology in his usual harpooning sardonic style - Warning: this episode contains a computerized Simon Cowell and a lady in a silver catsuit.
The two where placed together, right net to each other, one following another on the schedule - so if you watched TV continually and chronologically on one channel (who does that now a days) you had a wonderful juxtaposition of views about the future.
Which kinda got me thinking about it all and worrying a bit - as I can see myself on both sides of the equation.
On one side I see the future as an amazing thing - where the best is ahead of us - and there is almost countless opportunities and on the other I am a little gutted we are not all on hover boards as the Back to the future films said we would be by now.
I still want to own a rocket car!
Anyhoo, my other problem with it all, is focus and my lack of it. Programmes like Tomorrow's World: A Horizon Special just make me want to do something new and amazing with all the opportunities out there.
But then I have to think about where the money is for today - how are the bills going to be paid if I donate half of my working life to pie in the sky projects which might not do anything !
It also worries be that when I look at what interests me and gaze at the Hype Cycle - the two always seem in sync.
Every time I am into something or have a high tech start up client that is it's got 3 - 5 years to come to fruition!
Two years ago it was the power of tablets and mobiles in the marketing place and the potential for geo location and social analysis, last year it was mobile and augmented reality, this year it's gamifaction, HTML5 and mobile development.
All I have to do is throw in crowdsourcing and I have the full house on the rise of the hype hype hype of inflated expectations!
I suppose what I am trying to think about is - is it better to be a front runner - or do you need to be sponsored to succeed?
Research in Universities starts this off i.e. with graphene, then government does a little, then venture capitalists and then at the end private business becomes an established reality in the field - with all the money shared!
As Arthur Schopenhauer points out "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
Perhaps this is another way of looking at tech development - as I am sure Google Glasses is about to find out - as it gets ridiculed more and more :)
Does this indicate I should start crowdfunding to develop on it?
Answers in a bacterial code on a 3D printed hologram please.
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