7 min read

The Future That Should Be Here Now

I recently shared some thoughts on how surprisingly hard it has been to adjust to how mundane and bureaucratic everyday activities still can be in otherwise tech-advanced Silicon Valley, compared to back home in Estonia. The video from Stanford GSB YouTube channel:

This is probably the longest-prepared short speech I’ve ever delivered, as a finale of a whole-winter-quarter-long LOWKeynotes program at Stanford GSB in 2013. A text version is below the fold, and if you got anything out of watching this, I’m sure you would enjoy all of the videos from my peers in the program. All of the outcomes were worthy of the effort put in, but if you need help from where to start, try the videos from Lukasz Strozek (on digital hoarding) and Evan Moore (on not believing in God) first.

Due to the iterative presentation development process of the LOWKeynotes program, I actually have a much more thorough written trail of how this story came together. Including two versions below, the final draft (which the video version came structurally pretty close if you would rather read) and for historic reference also the first idea cut (scroll all the way down):

The Future That Should Be Here Now – FINAL DRAFT

I am 35 years old and I wrote the first cheque in my life a few months ago. It was for something or another at my son’s public school, and for some reason they were not willing to accept debit card, credit card, Square or PayPal. I didn’t even offer a wire transfer – the only time I’ve tried to do that in the US, I had to take an hour to physically go to a bank branch and fill out 2 sheets of forms. So, I wrote a cheque to the school, pen on paper.

Two weeks ago I went to San Francisco, parked my car on the street — using my mobile phone as any normal person would. I got a ticket 2 minutes later. When I went to the Transport Agency’s [SFMTA] website to challenge it — figuring that if you can pay fines online, proving you’ve done nothing wrong shouldn’t be any harder — I learned I again need to print two pages paper, sign them on paper, get an envelope and a stamp from somewhere, and send it to San Francisco by snail mail to start a few weeks of dialogue just to argue I was actually legally parked. I did nothing wrong and spent a few hours at least on this.

* * *

These little adventures back into the 19th century would be just amusing, and well aligned with the horses and carriage my US bank proudly wears on their logo, if they weren’t so tragic. Today I want to talk to you about…

  1. the miserable waste they generate for the society,
  2. how unjustified these pains are,
  3. the future that should be here now.

* * *

First, everyday frictions cost a lot to us personally and to the society. Why is that when Facebook is 2 seconds slower than usual, you are starting to get anxious — but another hour wasted at the DMV is a necessary evil you’ll just bare with?

Let’s say that we are all spending, on average, 10 minutes a week  on this analogue bureaucracy.

10 saved minutes a week is about 1 full working day** **a year.

Between 38M people in California alone we’re talking ****100,000 human years wasted in a single year. Or, if this “years per year” construct is too abstract, think of it as 1,500 human lifetimes wasted a single year.

If you want to think entire US – add a zero**.** 15,000 human lifetimes.

And by the way, I’m afraid wasting just an extra, unnecessary 10 minutes a week on things you have to do, rather than want to could be a slight underestimate, don’t you think? The stories I shared above were all several hours each to sort out…

* * *

Secondly, let me remind you, it is 2013 and we are in the middle of Silicon Valley. In the one place that is infamous around the world for creating all these beautiful technologies meant for consumers on the internet. The newest and coolest tools for social networking and search and sharing pictures and buying things and meeting people and listening to music and watching movies — they are often born in the Valley and then expand to take over the rest of the world.

There is no way to argue that these pains of being a good citizen are about lack of understanding of technology, lack of talent or ability to design human-friendly services. Think about it – If Apple designed the DMV’s retail experience, what would it look like?

* * *

I came to Stanford from from Estonia. How many of you have heard of Estonia?

Those of you who raised a hand, let me guess what you’ve heard. Maybe that unfortunate incident when we were occupied by a certain Communist superpower for 50 years? Or that it can get quite cold and dark and snowy so far up North?

What I guess many of you might not have heard is a Freedom of the Net Report published by Freedom House in Washington, DC, United States ranks honourably #2 in the world for internet freedom. Surprisingly, the #1 spot belongs to Estonia.

We have a million people online, which wouldn’t be anything that remarkable if you didn’t consider we have less than 1.3M people in Estonia over all.

The country is covered with high speed wireless broadband and for the large part it is free. 100% of schools and government have been online for a while now.

80% internet penetration is pretty similar to US, but more importantly, let’s look at what that ubiquitous connectivity is used for. *SLIDE* 99% of bank transactions are online. We joke that these 1% of transactions are made in banks by the truly rich – those rich in excess time.

94% of tax reports are filed online. And by the latter I don’t mean that there is a web form you have to fill, but that you click “next-next-submit” to verify a pre-populated electronic data and, in majority of cases, get any returns on your bank account 2 days later.

We put a nationwide digital signature in place since 2001, which means that by today 92% of the people carry digital certificates on their ID card or in their mobile phone. This allows them to legally sign any document or log into any site proving that they are who they claim to be. As one application, in 2005 we were the first country in history to hold nationwide elections on the internet and in 2011, already a quarter of all votes for our Parliament came digitally. But more importantly, as many other parts of the open infrastructure this is not “a government thing”, but something private people and companies can freely use to securely transact with each-other too.

* * *

I am talking about the Estonian example here only because that’s where I’ve spent most of my life. I’m sure there are people in the audience who come from Singapore or South Korea or Finland or the Netherlands – they would have similar stories to share.

The point is not to brag or compete here. Given where we’ve gotten to with the accessible computing power, with the fact that every one of you is carrying it in your pocket right now and you’re always connected: Things that we have to do shouldn’t be so much harder than the things we want to do.

There is a future that should be here now. Because it is already here for many people who have similar or even less tech than you have in Silicon Valley.

When you leave this campus, into businesses or non-profits or government — or just your role as a citizen, I call for all of you to demand that future, or even better – dream it, define it and deliver it every day.

And if you could use some further inspiration, some tiny countries around the world would be happy to share. Thank you.

And for history, this was Week 1:

LOWKeynote on being a digital citizen – IDEA PROPOSAL

  • coming from small Nordic country, tech advanced
  • shocked when coming to US, how big are the differences
    • how people perceive technology
    • how people barely use tech for a good citizen
      • file taxes
      • make a bank transaction
      • sign a contract
      • park a car
  • paint a picture of the world that could be
    • how tech could help people in their daily lives outside of social networks and search engines
    • Digital Society Components (E-Estonia)

UPDATE: re-used the content above to experiment with Medium: the post with inline slides.

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