30 Centuries of Change in 30 Years

by Neal Patterson

We now have access to more information than we ever knew existed 30 years ago literally at our fingertips via the Web. We have the ability to communicate instantly via e-mail. We can buy almost anything with Internet access and a credit card--and sell it all back on eBay. We hear clearer music, live healthier lives and make more knowledgeable decisions than we did in 1974.

I am a "gadget guy." Whenever technology descends to a personal level, I buy early, often, and loudly voice my opinions. Fortunately, I enjoy it and, as CEO of a technology company, it is a core component of my professional responsibilities.

Despite my interest in technology, reflecting on the past 30 years is daunting. More has been achieved in the last 30 years of technological advancement than in the previous 30 centuries. Second, the very act of looking backward feels a bit unnatural to a self-professed technology guy and entrepreneur. I'd feel more at ease talking about the next 30 years--nanotechnology and the incorporation of genotypical and phenotypical profiles into bioinformatics--than the last 30 years.

Nonetheless, I'm glad to be forced into the exercise. For the exercise of looking back at technology provides two immense benefits. It helps us remember that the impossible is now commonplace. And of equal importance, it warns us of our future responsibility.

In 1975, it was not possible to go to a retail store and buy a personal computer. By 1984, Apple's new personal computer, the Macintosh, was being marketed at halftime of the Super Bowl in what many consider the most influential television commercial of all time. By the time another decade passed, more than a million Web surfers subscribed to America Online. Now in 2004, endless possibilities for connectivity exist in a full range of wireless devices with processing power unimaginable 30 years ago by all but Intel's Gordon Moore.

As each innovation expands its scope, it invariably overlaps with other innovations. The products of these convergences are extraordinary. Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology is just one example. Innovations from the space program to chip manufacturers to the communications field have overlapped to create tools for living that can lead a rescue worker to a person in need, help a golfer find the green, and open the car when your keys get locked in.

We now have access to more information than we ever knew existed 30 years ago-- literally at our fingertips via the Web. We have the ability to communicate instantly via e-mail. We can buy almost anything with Internet access and a credit card--and sell it all back on eBay. We hear clearer music, live healthier lives and make more knowledgeable decisions than we did in 1975.

In 1975, a rudimentary electronic messaging system existed on the Defense Department's ARPAnet, but e-mail and the Internet were years away. Similarly, outside our public consciousness were primitive versions of cell phones, wireless networks and Web sites. It is difficult to remember how any work was accomplished without these advancements, considering a mere 30 years ago information technology consisted of file cabinets and electric typewriters with correction tape in all but the most elite government and academic settings. The typical office of 2004 is connected, virtually paperless and endlessly adaptable. Furthermore, the "office" is as likely to exist in the form of a booth in a coffee shop or a seat on an airplane as it is in a corporate mega-structure.

And yet, while IT has allowed us to have virtual offices and do twice the work that would have been possible three decades ago, some would argue it has also created additional work that was unnecessary in 1975. It is the so-called "productivity paradox." Often, the promise of increased productivity through technology fails to materialize due to the layers of complexity added to our lives. We are "always on," reaching information overload, with interruptions limiting our attention span. And so, we must learn from our past that meaningful gains in productivity are only realized when we rule our technologies rather than letting them rule us.

Ingram's has chronicled a period of unprecedented technological advancement. The lasting result of this innovation, I believe, will be to empower the individual. Having spent most of 30 years in healthcare, I am convinced technology is changing the business of saving lives. In much the same way, technology's broad legacy is that it improves the business of living lives for everyone--not just this "gadget guy."

Neal Patterson is the CEO of Cerner Corporation. For more info. about Cerner please call 816.221.1024 or visit www.cerner.com.