1 year, 6 months ago
What would the impact be on the world if Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Apple united to join forces and integrate all of their offering?
Possible synergies, effects of diminished external competition and internal personnel competition, sociology, law, politics, world politics, human evolution, anthropology, over-human, nations, democracy?
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M$1 Answer
This is actually a real tendency. While various companies desire to maintain distinctive market advantages, consumers and enterprises demands interoperability between systems. In the past it was "okay" to be a technology silo. You could provide everything someone needed within your ecosystem. This is no longer feasible or desirable. Thus we see a great amount of cooperation occurring to allow interoperability. For example, Apple and Microsoft have worked closely to get Exchange Server (email) integration with both Mac and iPhones working well. Microsoft and Google are relatively interoperable companies comparatively - Facebook and Apple both have a long ways to go and attempt to maintain a lot of that silo aspect. They have been able to do so successfully b/c of some real in-house talent - but it is doubtful that they will be able to continue this us-only modality for the long-term.
I do not think we would or will see radical changes in the areas you mentioned above. Much of what you are asking about is already occurring through open source / crowdsourcing - and while it is making changes the changes are incremental rather than exponential.
That said, you may want to check out Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near for a indepth study of one possible future in which technological advancement occurs at an exponentially increasing rate and does foundationally transform reality.
I do not think we would or will see radical changes in the areas you mentioned above. Much of what you are asking about is already occurring through open source / crowdsourcing - and while it is making changes the changes are incremental rather than exponential.
That said, you may want to check out Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near for a indepth study of one possible future in which technological advancement occurs at an exponentially increasing rate and does foundationally transform reality.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
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