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Exponential Evolution

Within the business community there is fequently a good deal of discussion around the idea of whether firms should pursue evolutionary—or incremental—advances or revolutionary breakthroughs. While I personally tend to favor the latter, I would like to submit the idea that evolution itself will soon be revolutionary. I’m not saying this in the sense that proponents of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution (of which I count myself a member) say “evolution is revolutionary.” Rather, I am of the opinion that due to exponential advances in evolutionary design—a process that allows computers to run through tens of millions of variations on an invention until it arrives at the most efficient solution to a problem—the business landscape will be transformed in almost unimaginable ways in the years ahead. (This is because soon computers will be able to run through hundreds of millions of calculation and then billions and, ultimately, trillions of different permutations.)

For example, I have written before about the emerging field of synthetic biology. The promise of the technology is that biologists will soon be able to create “designer bacteria” to efficiently create new biofuels, including ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen. As computers and algorithms continue to improve exponentially, this field could blossom sooner than most people realize and, in the process, it could revolutionize the energy industry by rendering fossil fuels obsolete.

Evolutionary design is also being used to create longer lasting memory sticks, new automobile and airplanes designs, new medical devices, more effective fiber optic cables, and even better pharmaceutical agents and drugs. This, of course, is just the beginning. Advances in robotics, nanotechnology, material sciences, and semiconductor and RFID design will also benefit from evolutionary design. And as evolutionary design undergoes exponential growth, the pace of technological acceleration across almost every sector will explode. Welcome to the Exponential Economy—where even evolution will be exponential!

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Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.

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