Futurist says world won't end in 2012

Beverley Head
Friday, 09 December 2011 14:31

If Ross Dawson had been given a computer as a teenager he may have ended up a hacker not a futurist. A self-confessed geek, Dawson is today umbilically attached to social networks, blogs ceaselessly and constantly spawns new projects and businesses.

He's also one of Australia's better-known futurists and has just released his predictions for 2012.

Of course 2012 is a big year for the future according to some interpretations of Mayan records. Dawson doesn't subscribe to the notion that the world will end next year, although the world as we know it might shift significantly he says.

'Some believe that the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012 heralds the end of the world. Others have long pointed to 2012 as the year of the 'Singularity', when exponential technological growth finally creates a world beyond human comprehension. The world will not end, but it may well be transformed. While we will likely still recognise most aspects of our world a year from now, the accelerating pace of social as well as technological change may well mark 2012 as a turning point in human history.'

So there. You have been warned. You might also want to consider Dawson's other 2012 forecasts that it's the year when:

• Privacy will all but disappear thanks to a combination of social networks and biometric identification;
• Technology and social connectedness will challenge sacred cows and long established institutions - only the popular will survive;
• The consumer will assume full control of the purchasing experience, going wherever they fancy for their retail therapy - online or in-store - and smart retailers will have to be clever about how they lure their interest;
• Cyber-war will become even more of a problem with attacks waged against governments, corporations and individuals;
• Social will be the new paradigm for everything from education to shopping, media to music. But there will be a deep divide between those people who live completely connected lives and those who opt out of social networks;
• Social networks and online communications will bring increased transparency - and with it expose companies and individuals to unprecedented levels of scrutiny;
• Companies will look increasingly to source talent internationally, in some cases turning to marketplaces such as Freelancer.com, instead of hiring full time employees; and
• Technology will come with new human-friendly interfaces. Not only will we be able to direct technology using voice commands, we will be able to access augmented reality applications wherever and whenever we want.

Today Dawson spends an enormous amount of time thinking about what the future might look like and what that means for companies in a range of different industry sectors. But no one goes to see a career advisor at school and says; 'I want to be a futurist.' It takes time to tackle the future.

Dawson was born in Canberra in 1962. His mother had a degree in psychology, his father was a wool economist at the Board of Trade. The youngest of three children, Dawson moved with his family to Geneva when his father took on a role with the United Nations' trade organisation.