"We Don't Need Roads"
Updated: Apr 29
Generational technology has arrived in the present, but how will we use it? To tidy up the messy machinations of the past, or to dream and define an unknown future?
It's 2026, and Doc Brown is about to hand you the keys to the DeLorean. Back in 1885, where we last left him, things weren't going so well. After a rough go with dysentery, his lovely Clara croaked from smallpox, inspiring him to build a another time machine -- this time from a steam engine. When he picked his destination, he chose to 2026 for good reason: this year, he predicted, would be when AI technology would take its first real stride towards adoption. But for all of Doc's stellar technological and scientific predictions, his foresight into politics has been a bit off. He, of course, whiffed on Reagan ("the actor!?"). And now, much to his shock, "Biff" is in the White House. (Again.) "He must've somehow procured ANOTHER Sports Almanac!? How else can you explain such an irrefutably irregular, non-replicable catastrophe!" Apparently, Doc hadn't predicted reality television, either.
Even worse -- along with his personal finances compromised from past hijinks and future misadventures, Doc's research grant has dried up due to Biff's government funding cuts.
To save science, Doc devises a method to achieve yet another impossible invention: pseudo-reformed capitalism. But how can he achieve such a vast macroeconomic shift, especially without the money or influence to do it?
Suddenly, his eyes wild with epiphany, he has it:
"MARTY! (he calls everyone Marty.)
"Take this AI technology BACK to the year 2000, and build a lucrative company that knows no bounds! A company that will prosper in the past and transform the future -- today!"
After an "Ah geez, do I hafta, Doc?" to get in character, with a puffer vest on your chest and revolutionary technology in hand, you fire up the flux capacitor, hit 88 MPH, and land in Silicon Valley during the peak of the .com boom, on a mission to transform an existing company or create something entirely of your own.
So, how would you pitch AI in 2000? How would you think to use it?
Keep in mind: AI can't pull data from the future -- only from the internet and information of the time where it exists.
Most would immediately recognize AI's ability to improve the present: build a killer website (all the craze), a new tech tool to streamline operations, a quicker way to marketing and advertising.
And that would work wonders... but not for long.
Because, no matter how great things are going, the whole .com bubble is about to burst -- and almost everyone with it. Your AI-powered competitive advantage today means squat tomorrow.
Instead of just focusing on today, what if you pitched AI as a way to interpret tomorrow? Rather than building a better website or streamlining accounting, what if you used AI to expand research, unlock the creativity of those around you, and prepare for where the world could possibly go?
Some may entertain your "woo woo" take for a while, but most would likely zero in on what they know: the issues and tasks at hand. "Look kid, that sounds great and all, but we already know what we need.
"So, let's do it faster, cheaper, and better than our competition.
"That's where the money is."
But what if you bumped into Jeff Bezos? Forget a new website to sell more books and CDs; if you caught pre-HGH Jeff in 2000, he'd hear you out. In fact, he'd likely explain how AI could help define "e-commerce," and predict, shape and lead it by reimagining the digital marketplace and building a whole new system of logistics.
And what if you met up with Steve Jobs? From his perspective, why would he iterate on existing UI/UX and product hardware, or settle for the same boring brand initiatives at a discount? He can already see the future -- and AI could help him and his team realize it.
Whether it's 2026 or 2000, when new technology tantalizes us into focusing on today's tasks and inefficiencies, we risk confining ourselves to yesterday's frameworks and behaviors, held captive by the past in the present.
Fixing things has its benefits; but in limiting ourselves, we abandon the one thing AI cannot simulate, streamline or substitute: our ability to imagine tomorrow.
In other words, why just focus on yesterday's "roads" today when...
"Where we're going... we don't NEED roads..."
If looking back tells us anything about the future, it's that those who look boldly ahead, that "Think Different," will be the ones who shape the decades to come.
Take a peek for yourself. You don't even need a DeLorean to do it.
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