GenNexus

This is a book recommendation that speaks to several of the dynamics and trends I have long written and spoken about. GenNexus is the first generation that will grow up with AI/TI. Born since 2020, they will largely be the children of the Millennial Generation [Gen Y].

This book is written by Jack Myers, a good friend, whose forecasts about the future of media and advertising have been extremely prescient over the last 40 years. Yes, he is a friend, but his books have been ahead of the curve in all cases. This short book is a quick read that starts with the generation Nexus and takes flight well into the 23^rd century. Myers uses the technique of having the narrative be from the future and looks back to the Now, and very near future. As a futurist, I have done that often from the stage and the pages of a book. If done well, it can convey a prospective future that is grounded in the Now. GenNexus is a bit science fiction in that it casts into the future of space colonization a couple of centuries out, but the concept of a Generation Nexus is both a sound one and one that dovetails with several over-arching themes of this newsletter.

First, in several columns here I have written about AI/TI – TI is Technological Intelligence – as the technological transformation of the 21^st Century. Given that the 2020s is the launch of the Age of Intelligence, Myers does well by stating that 2020 is the first birth year of this new generation. This of course means that the generation will be young adults in the 2040s and middle age by the 2060s.

Second, the title of this newsletter says it all; that humanity is moving to an evolutionary shift this century: the merging of humanity and Technological Intelligence. The Nexus Generation will be the first generation that, since infancy will have always known AI/TI. That means that they will have no trouble integrating humans, trans humans, and robots together as normal and part of what living in the second half of the century will mean.

Third, and this is a pet theory of mine, is that generation’s media consumption is, in large part, anchored in the media that was in ascendancy up to the age of 21. My deceased parents were both born more than 100 years ago, members of “the Great Generation” and grew up with newspapers, magazines and radio. That remained their chosen media in adulthood. They subscribed to two newspapers, a number of weekly magazines and the radio was often on, particularly for my mother who liked classical music and opera.

Then, in the early 1950s, we got our first black and white TV, which became the ascendant media of the 1950s and 1960s So we Baby Boomers became the first TV generation, and I venture to say that TV is the default medium well through adulthood. This meant moving from cathode ray to flat screen and over the air microwave to cable to lastly digital

The Boomers were followed by GenX, who, because of the double income households, were the first “latch-key” generation, growing up to Nickelodeon and MTV.

Then the Millennials[ Gen Y ] grew up with TV, personal computers/laptops and in early adulthood the smartphone. The Digital Natives [Gen Z] have grown up with digital and the smartphone. Whether there was a Gen Alpha is open to debate, being the children born from 2015-2020. They will obviously grow up with all things digital.

So, here are the generations and the new, ascendant media that occurred before each generation became of age at 21 years old.

Great Generation [1900-1925] Radio, Magazines, and Newspapers

Silent Generation [1924-1945] Radio, Magazines, and Newspapers

Baby Boom Generation [1946-64] The above, plus TV in all forms

Generation X [1965-1981] TV, Cable TV

Millennials [1982-1998] The above plus computers/laptops, Later smartphones

Digital Natives [1999-2020 ] All things digital, laptop and phone

GenNexus [2020-2040-45?] Artificial/Technological Intelligence

There are now four or five generations in the workplace. There are generational differences between generations that most often arise in parenting. I have heard numerous stories from readers and audience members about how they regard their Millennial children as their personal ‘tech support’. I have heard stories from grandparents about how much their Digital Native grandkids are digitally oriented.

The layering of new media technologies over the last 125 years is something that has been historically unprecedented. It was just about 165 years ago that the Pony Express stopped. Which means that it was only 165 years ago that human communication was measured in horse days; how many days might it take for a horse to gallop from one outpost to the next. In the history of humanity there has never been the layering of new communications technologies in such a short time.

This is the perspective needed. As we enter the Age of Intelligence, we must remember that horse days the metric of communication was only a century and a half ago. How far we have come. Which brings me back to Myer’s book GenNexus. He does write about the sci-fi possibilities that might come from the subsequent generations, but, given the last 165 years of growth, it is not at all a futile exercise to speculate on colonizing the Universe in the 22^nd and 23^rd centuries.

GenNexus will never know a world without AI/TI. It will be part of their reality. As young adults they will hang out with Intelligent machines, robots, trans humans and cyber intelligence. Online there are a lot of images created with AI/TI. We older generations seem to look at AI/TI through the filter of “ is it real or AI?” As a futurist I have been saying that what is seen online is “real AI”. Each new media creating technology expands and creates a new reality in society. Whether you like it or not, TV has changed global culture. Whether you like social media and other apps on your smart phone or not, they are now part of our lived reality. All new technologies change the prior existing definition of what ‘reality’ is.

Think about how GenNexus, the very first generation in history to know about AI/TI since birth, might evolve. AI/TI will be their reality as radio, magazines and newspapers were the go-to media for my parents.

How different will the children of GenNexus be to those alive now? What might that generation embrace before their 21^st birthday beyond the current vision of AI/TI?

Dreams of a futurist……..

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