Ch-ch-ch-changes

Everything changes

You don’t need to take David Bowie’s word for it, change is, and has always been, one of the most important parts of our lives. As long as man has been aware of the changing seasons and has sought out  the best places to gather and hunt for food, has protected himself and his family from the weather and predators, so we’ve changed and, by-the-way, used the latest technology available to help us (why wouldn’t you?) And, in the evolutionary blink of an eye we started to turn our environment to our advantage, adapting and shaping the natural and animal world into tools, farming, animal husbandry, machinery, complex society, art, science, literature, Twitter and Minecraft! Ok, so evolution and natural selection doesn’t always guarantee a straight predictable path – there is, after all, no imperative for everything new to be better, and for only the ‘best’ to succeed in all competitions for resources.

(Ed. Did you know that ‘David Robert Jones’ changed his name to ‘Bowie’ because of the more famous David ‘Davey’ Jones of the Monkees!) 

I digress…

Back to the real reason for this post, to introduce the latest element from the IT Elementary School, ‘Change‘, ta dah. Part of the design of the Table of IT Elements was borrowed from the natural world and the immutable elements in Mendeleev’s design classic the Periodic Table. I was looking for the basic concepts that might provide a stable  roadmap to guide you through the fickle and changeable worlds of IT & technology.

Bowie, at the height of his fame knew about reinvention, he was the master of image and innovation, synthesis and antithesis (doing things differently). Although it wasn’t only – if at all – about seeking out the new for the sake of it, to shock the establishment and challenge the status quo (no pun intended!) Bowie and fellow artists and creatives do what they do because they can and because they have to, because learning and trying new things is closer to our true nature (I believe) than seeking the sameness of routine and predictability…with apologies to Zen masters and all retired golfers out there!

A final thought, there is a truism that only death and taxes are constant, but I would suggest a third wheel;

Nothing endures but change.

Heraclitus (540BC to 480BC)

What if, for example, in future we might choose to live forever (with or without our defunct carbon-based bodies), or advances in science and technology remove the need for governments to exist let alone the need to collect taxes; what would free energy for all and the super-abundance of genetically modified food mean for the normal rules of commerce, politics and power? I do not aspire to be a futurist or a science-fiction writer (you guessed!) My point is, change will always happen, until the end of time, but everything else is up for grabs!

(Hal from 2001 A Space Odyssey, imagine telling Dave, or should that be George, that you don’t want to pay any tax!)

Thank you for your comments on this post and the IT Elementary Table.

Tony

@ITelementary

(c) 2015 Antony Lawrence CBA Ltd.