Convergence  is my  personal favourite buzzword of the Newer, Shinier, Flatter world.

As Gen Y comes of age, they see the world very differently from the previous generations.

There was a time, not so long ago when the great institutions of the world were  defined by a scarcity of information.  This scarcity gave rise to class systems based on know, and know-nots . Institutions such as Medicine, Law, Science, Mathematics, astronomy each developed its own traditions, and erected barriers-to-entry to prevent the plebians and indeed, even members from OTHER disciplines from entering the inner circle. It could perhaps be illustrated as such:

Each had its own place and  they worked hard at build up the body of knowledge and experience together, we get the sum total of human ‘knowledge’ and human ‘knowing’.

Enter Gen Y and the internet.

This generation grew up in an age of information abundance. They  know that there are only 2 types of knowledge, that which you know, and that which you need to Google. Their world is a world of possibilities and they are not fettered by the ideological constraints of the previous generations that prevented cross pollenination of ideas.

They live to find their own space in the world and that identity could no longer be found in what they ‘knew’. The entire world is the palette from which they pick and choose the medium and colours  to best represent themselves and their tribe. And best of all, this expression is unfettered by the need to  further  an agenda or to pander to a committee. They simply do it and the end result  put on trial before the court of the internet  where  its worth is gauged.

and liked,

or not.

This has led to an incredible  outpouring of creativity like the lion king trailer  set to  the soundtrack from  the trailer of the ‘dark knight rises”

Or the invasion of the internet meme.Or the numerous  iterations of Friday – By Rebecca Black, including a death metal version and a Gregorian chant version.

I recently watched a Ted Talk about  using Medical imaging technology to model astronomy  images captured by telescopes.  (found here, and for the record, I thought it was awesome.) It started me thinking about how the next generation of global citizens would operate in their new world economy, one where ideas are  the main currency, freely shared and allowed to procreate, judged and developed.

However, as I allow myself the luxury to dream, I remember that before the institutions were formalized,  Newton, was a mathematician,  musician, artist, physicist, philosopher and theologian,  and Leonardo was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer.

Perhaps the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I look forward to the coming Braver, Newer, Shinier, Flatter world.