What is Destructive and Disruptive Technology UP TO

Destructive technology simply put is when a new technology comes along and destroys an old one. One example that is very Amish is when cars displaced horses as the main source of travel.

The iPod not only destroyed the Walkman it also destroyed the established record companies distribution methods.

iPod’s from Small to Large for the current lineup

Who sells the most digital music? Is it a record company, nope, it is a company that sold computers and electronics before they got into digital music distribution, Apple Corp. They had another big boom that people laughed at before it came out called the iPhone, now App’s are not just for dinner at a restaurant. Since the Rise of the APP, software developers don’t charge nearly as much as they did.  I bought software that is free now for over $100 before App’s existed.  Oh how the economies of scale have re-balanced things.

Being a person on the bleeding cutting edge I have always enjoyed these shake up’s and enjoyed Disruptive and Destructive Technologies.

Google Fiber is my favorite new disruptive technology.

Google Fiber Logo

Broadband killed the ISP(Internet Service Provider). Now Google Fiber is making broadband shake and quake. I don’t live near where it exists but anywhere it does all the broadband companies need to adapt and compete or go away. Google Fiber gives you one gigabit per second uploads and downloads for $79.  If I paid on the same scale my internet would cost either .80 or $8.00 as they split the upload and download speeds unlike Google Fiber.

The way they sell broadband to the masses is a lot of Puffery. They have ads that say you get UP TO 10mbs speed as an example.

Am I really getting what I pay for?

It is puffery because they can’t prove what you get as they don’t measure these ‘speeds’. If you have an issue YOU have to go and measure YOUR SPEED with a speed test.  If your speed test proves your connection is bad, then they say your equipment is the issue.  Or the method you used for testing is the problem. What is funny is that they don’t measure how fast you fill the glass they just measure how full the glass is.  So they measure your total usage of the broadband and if you fill your glass too full they cut you off.  They bury this usage cut off deep in the fine print and don’t make you aware of it.  Maybe if you knew how much you could have you might notice just how slow you are getting it.  It is like trying to fill a pint glass with an eyedropper.

DEMAND GOOGLE FIBER SPEED AND WATCH YOUR PROVIDER STUTTER.

The Raspberry Pi was disruptive technology as NO ONE thought a $25 computer was possible.

Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi
Now someone is building CHIP the $9 computer and they have LESS THAN 12 HOURS till the Kickstarter is done. The Raspberry Pi also now has a $20 model and even Intel is getting in on the action with the Edison $55 computer. Yeah the Intel Edison is a lot more money than the CHIP but just a single Intel CPU before the Raspberry Pi existed was over $100.  Oh and Intel had no desire to build a whole computer for any $$$$ at that time.

The DVD Killed the Videotape.

The Blu Ray didn’t budge the DVD as the DVD was good enough.

DVD Killed the Video Tape

No one has made a 4K UHD Physical Distribution Format as it will be all digital. It is cheaper, easier, faster, and better for companies to go digital for distribution. Is it better for you? Can you sell your digital stuff yet? I hear an industry being born as I type “The Selling Digital Stuff Industry”. If you own it that is part of ownership, transferring that ownership.  I don’t technically own it if I can’t SELL IT.   I am just renting it.  I wonder how they have handled people’s Wills with Digital Media.

One of my favorite technologies are Cameras. 2 different products have radically changed the industry over the past 10 years.

The first is from a company that did not focus on the camera but on how you use it and what you experience with the camera strapped on. They never said “Hey we have a Great Camera” to point and click pictures of your family. They said STRAP IT ON and ENJOY YOUR RIDE. It is the GoPro.

Mid Roll with my BalanceCam GoPro Rig in the Park
Mid Roll with my BalanceCam GoPro Rig in the Park
GoPro sold more than Sony during Christmas at Best Buy, first time Sony didn’t win. How did GoPro do that? They focused on what people needed not on the spec sheet and what they thought people needed. They knew people wanted a camera to wear when doing dangerous things. So they built that.  They didn’t even have a way for people to see what pictures they were taking.  And guess what, people bought them, I did(I actually own 2). Most GoPro fans own more than one. Why? They do what you need. Once GoPro created their product the other companies saw their success and jumped on the bandwagon.  The newest GoPro product is pretty amazing as they now integrate the LCD in the tiny package.
The other company that focused on jumping forward and not crawling incrementally forward was RED Digital Cinema.

Red Digital Cinema

If we had let Camera Companies do what they were doing we may never have gotten 4K. RED pushed the whole industry and the industry had to play catch up. RED Digital is just about to release an 8K camera. Oh and did I mention you can BUY a RED Digital Camera.  When RED started professional cinema cameras were not purchased in fact call ARRI or Panavision and ask if you can buy one of their cameras, they will probably laugh at you.

Turning an industry on edge shakes it up and makes everyone think different.

Leader Lead, Followers Follow. Having a new idea is hard and copying an idea is easy.
From my Instagram - Sitting in the Southwest Plane as the Sun Sets
From my Instagram – Sitting in the Southwest Plane as the Sun Sets
I don’t think the artist that is using Instagram Pictures for his Art Show is right. He didn’t take the picture(the hard part). He copied them and added words(the easy part). I consider his art show to be theft and a followers method of doing things. That’s Art though as everyone has their own opinions. From a legal point of view he is ‘allowed‘ to do it. That doesn’t make it right and doesn’t make him anything more than a cheap imitation follower, charging $100k per image. There is a long list of ‘Artists‘ that didn’t make the art they just sold it. That doesn’t make you a true artist in my opinion. Oh and if you create a Genre of Art you don’t ‘own it in your basement‘. You are considered a founder and you inspired what comes next you didn’t create it.

What is funny about Disruptive and Destructive technologies is that the core tends to repeat.

My first real disruptive technology was the Digi-View Personal Digitizer. It took images and put them on my Amiga computer.

Digi-View Personal Digitizer

Not really revolutionary now but it was at the time. It was low cost and high quality(for the time). That Red Green Blue Clear Color wheel concept was actually an older idea from a Russian Photographer who took Black and White Images and made them color. And since technology repeats itself. You will see that same RGB Color wheel on all the Single Chip DLP Projectors  So if you see DLP on a projector most likely it uses a color wheel to change Black and White to color.  It does that by spinning Red then Green then Blue then Clear in front of a Greyscale image.

Disruptive and Destructive Technology can also cause problems.

If you have had a child in the last 20 years you probably bought them Velcro Shoes.

Velcro Kids Shoes

What’s wrong with that? We now have a generation that can barely tie their shoes. If you don’t learn a simple bow knot how do you expect them to learn harder more complicated knots? Also that eye hand dexterity then translates to other things. Without learning it you could be at a serious disadvantage moving forward.

When computers originally came out they said ‘We will have More Jobs because of computers’

Ask anyone in Detroit if we have more jobs because of computers and I think they will laugh. Yes the jobs moved to more “cost effective” countries but the Automotive Robot made that a reality as well. The Robot can work 24/7 and doesn’t have a union leader, yet. Yes I said YET as computers are just technology slaves of the modern age. As all slavery revolutions have shown us, when the slave rises they usually lash back at the masters. Don’t think computers are any different and that is why they were in my DBMC Birthday Festival.

AND NOW FOR SHOES!!!

Yes this weeks shoe is the VELCRO SNEAKER

Velcro Sneaker

Not nearly as Fancy Pants as my previous shoes and that is the point.  Not all shoes are super fancy and you need to know that. Without these shoes I don’t think my Mom who has Rheumatoid Arthritis would be able to wear shoes.  You see her hands are a bit kinked because of the disease and she has had all of the joints in her hand replaced with plastic.  It is one of the reasons that I won’t stop spinning spheres to hopefully avoid this fate with my hands.

LOVE YOU MOM and your hands will always inspire me, #heheh.

So I ask you my reader

What Destructive Technology do you use every day? What did it destroy?

What did you learn that the next generation just didn’t need to learn?

Do you think the Machines will take over or have they already?

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Be Awesome, Make Awesome, Watch Awesome, You Are Awesome. Find that inner SuperHero and Fly with it (or whatever your Super Power is).

Rich Shumaker

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