Contemplating the future: Where will you be at the next full eclipse, in 2044?

Good morning, from Longview, Texas on a sunny and cool Saturday morning.  I sat at the Silver Grizzly, drinking coffee, and reflecting on an unusual but great week.

Imagine the year is 2044, and we are reflecting on the eclipse of 2024, sharing the experience with family, friends, and children. I will hopefully be a healthy 79-year-old. Today that makes me 59 and actually 59 1/2, which, in terms of tax laws, makes me past potential retirement, as I can take money from 401Ks and other retirement accounts without penalty.

It is not that I feel older than I did a year ago, or maybe even ten years ago, but there is a recognition that I can't call myself "middle-aged" anymore.

I am also in an odd time, as the colleagues I work with daily are more than a bit younger.  

We live in a world and time where age, and more importantly, young age, is more recognized as valuable, and it does make me wonder if I am young at heart or ready for a calmer pasture.

On the one hand, I am challenged by TikTok, Facebook Reels, and other short videos.  Why will people put the most inane tasks on video?  I am more challenged as to why thousands of people will watch someone brush their teeth, get out of their car, or cook a meal.  I am also more concerned about the short cooking videos of people dumping different bags of food in a pan, such as frozen, packaged, bags of shredded cheese, and already cooked chicken, and calling it some great invention we should all follow.  Obviously, it is not innovative and, most of the time, neither healthy nor innovative.  One thing I have learned of late is that it is just as easy to follow a real recipe from scratch and cook something healthy and tasty as I am witnessing in these videos.

On the other hand, I continue learning more about AI, its potential to bring real value to businesses, and how best to leverage these tools beyond the hype and excitement to improve how I work.  I have a colleague who jokes with me that I don't need to use ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or other tools to improve my work.  That said, I didn't turn down word processing to help me write better college papers.  I didn't turn down email and voice mail as a better way to help me communicate with others.  I can also remember the excitement of my niece being in New York, getting my first iPhone, finding the nearest Mama Mia movie, and watching it.

Why would I not leverage new tools that can improve how I go about my job?  I had a good week of working with colleagues and talking to prospects for iSOA Group and IBM.  One advantage of age and experience is that as the digital world embraces the importance of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), APIs have been around for quite a while. Experience helps me understand their impact and potential today for prospects and clients.

I was happy to use AI tools to prepare for the calls, learn more about the companies we were talking to, and help me prepare for the call. That said, it was my human intelligence and experience that enabled the calls to go well. I also didn't reach out to these tools for the follow-up email and next steps, although I wonder, as I sit here on a Saturday morning, should I have?

Then, I look back to last weekend, which was about family and the eclipse.  Frank did a great job with his cousins and sisters to plan for what turned into a family reunion that culminated with Monday's eclipse.  Great get-togethers meals, and I got to know Frank's family better.  I was amazed at how well they got along and how easily everything came together.  I was lucky, as I think others, that my niece Donna and her husband Ben also joined us.

What I didn't expect, as it seems for many others, was how much the eclipse made a difference to my heart and soul. Here we were, Frank's family and others at the Cypress Cove lake.  Everyone was cheerful and somewhat anxious as to how the sun, the moon, and Mother Nature might come together.  The week before, there was a great concern that there would be clouds, and for many, the clouds covered up the moon, covering up the sun. 

Yet, the clouds parted for us, and the sun shone brightly until that moment when it was not.  For four minutes, adults, children, and the birds were stunned by this midday celestial dance, and I did not want that moment to end.  Not just because of the eclipse but because of the kindness and warmth that everyone shared, surrounded by the lake and the beautiful surroundings.

Does it make me closer to a calmer pasture to have learned to enjoy these quieter moments?  Yes, everyone had their phones out to take pictures and record the eclipse for their memory.  However, many were not sitting on TikTok, Facebook, or other sites watching a cooking exhibition, someone getting out of a car, or something even less exciting.  We humans are quite lucky when we just share moments that are beyond the need to be recorded and shared for the greater world to see.

Then, the shorter work week started.  Forty years ago this December, I started on this odd career journey with IBM.  I was a co-op in Atlanta focused on the value to IBM to sell software.  It was around the era of PCs and the beginning of relational databases. IBM became quite focused on how much hardware would be sold to run IBM software, picture that!  Times have changed, but how many in this industry can say they have spent most of their 40 years in the IT industry focused on software?

Then I wonder if I can be relevant after forty years.  Maybe my experience clogs my mind from seeing the future.  Will cryptocurrency, web3, and other technologies reinvent the web and how we all communicate?  The smartphone model with apps has existed since the iPhone's announcement in 2007—Google in 1998, Facebook in 2004, and web browsers in 1993.  It makes you wonder what may be next.   Are the future AI Powered agents and robots that take on the mundane tasks of our lives allowing us to leverage our intellect and potential for more than just recording tik-tok videos of how best to fold a fitted sheet, or will it enable us to spend more time recording these silly life moments?  

Let's all take a moment to think back to the eclipse. Less than a week ago, many experienced a moment that was not about technology.  It was about a moment when the stars and planets created a unique moment for humans on Earth.  Mother Nature was kind to us, and we witnessed this celestial experience that would have happened had humans not invented the wheel, much less the smartwatch on one's wrist.  It still amazes me how it brought humans together in a way no politician, celebrity, or technology can do.

There is an advantage to being a bit older; I have witnessed many changes over the years and have been able to adapt to them.  It also helps to know that society and technology evolve. There is not a moment where one technology era is turned off, and a new one appears. It certainly did not happen overnight that automobiles took over from horse and buggy.   It also means most companies have trusted computing solutions and applications that work for them today. They need to look at the latest innovations to help them continue to leverage what they have and evolve with new capabilities that fit their business.

Yes, I sat here this morning pondering the future, including my own.  As I was drinking coffee, watching young children play, and talking to their parents, I wondered what these children will see in the future. 

I am hopeful that their world will be more peaceful when the next total eclipse comes in 2044 and that the technology that I love will serve them well.  I also hope they are standing or sitting at a lake with their family and friends, focused on the eclipse and the community of humans.  I hope kids won't be dominated by technology, which can be a barrier to the human need for community, family, and love, which does not need technology, nor does the eclipse itself.

This is the path of the eclipse in 2044.

 

I wish you all the best for your friends, family, and community as we plan for the next full eclipse!