We are living in the Transformative Age.
Much like the Industrial Revolution, we can expect a fundamental shift in everything we know - not only in the speed at which all these changes are taking place, but also in our increasing reliance on connectivity.
This is the signature difference of the Transformative Age: being connected, whether it's to data, interfaces, people or experiences.
I think EY have got it spot on - what they call the Transformative Age is about being connected - hyper-connected. Increased connectivity leads to massive complexity and "a fundamental shift in everything we know" - an inherently unpredictable world.
We are entering a new era, one in which we need new ways of making sense of things, decision making, strategizing and working together. To me, this is the challenge. We need to co-create the world we would like to see and not allow technology to blindly shape it for us.
In 100 years, what will history call this new age? We might call it the transformative age, or more likely The Fourth Industrial Revolution as it is being called now by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.
But in the broader sweep of time it will be part of the Anthropocene - a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems.
Various start dates for the start of the Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution 12,000–15,000 years ago, to as recent as the 1960s.
As do others, I favor the date of the first detonation of a nuclear device in 1945, code named the Trinity test. This date corresponds to the end of the second world war, the birth of computers and digital communications and the hyper-interconnected world in which we live today.
