The Conceptual Age

The Conceptual Age Society has gone through stages, each one spurred by the want or need of improving life. At the beginning of time, society was based on hunting and gathering and then it advanced to the agricultural age. Then we moved into the industrial age, and recently, the information age. But now we are heading into a new stage, the Conceptual age. To adjust to and prosper in this age, people will need to develop skills in creating artistic and emotional beauty, in detecting patterns and opportunities, in crafting a satisfying narrative, and in combining seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel invention, and people will also need the ability to empathize, to understand subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one's self and
to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the common everyday things, in pursuit of purpose and meaning. Creative intellectuals will flourish in the new conceptual age because material abundance, globalization, and new technologies are making the information age's peoples' skills insufficient in a society that is searching to add purpose and meaning. Abundance in social, economic, and cultural life is making qualities such as uniqueness, beauty, spirituality, or emotion a requirement of prosperity.
The standard of living has risen dramatically in just the past couple of generations. It used to be that owning a home and a car was an achievement that signaled a successful life. Now it is common for any person with a license to own a car, or even more than one car. The self-storage industry is growing also, because people need even more space to house all their extra stuff. Abundance is evident in the amount of waste we produce, which America has more of than any other country, because we throw away many things we cannot store. So it is no longer enough for something to be reasonably priced and functional. Products require qualities such as uniqueness, beauty, spirituality, or emotion to make them stand out. People are being liberated by their prosperity but are not fulfilled by it; they are resolving this paradox by searching for
meaning. As more and more white-collar work is shipped overseas, globalization generates more and more controversy and anxiety. Outsourcing in multinational companies is necessary to compete in the new global economy. In the US, a computer programmer's salary can be upward of $70,000 a year, whereas in India, a twenty-something can do the same high-tech work just as well and maybe even faster for about $15,000 a year. India, and other nations as well, are continually producing millions of extremely capable knowledgeable workers. So it is only logical for companies to send standardized, routine financial analysis, radiology, and computer programming work where it can be done cheaper and can be delivered to clients instantly through advanced technology. It happened in the industrial age, where production jobs moved overseas, and similarly workers now will have to learn new skills, which are central to the conceptual age, that cannot be outsourced overseas. These skills that cannot be done better and cheaper overseas would involve establishing relationships, solving great challenges, and coming up with the big picture. Increasingly, work that depends heavily on rule-based logic, calculation, and sequential thinking that is done by these knowledgeable workers will be completely done by computers, which are faster and more competent. Even the smartest and most skilled person can crack under pressure, make mistakes, and sulk over losses. This is affecting any career that involves routines, like computer programmers, physicians, lawyers, and accountants, which are all esteemed professions. To prove their worth, these professionals will have to develop services that a computer cannot provide. This happened in the industrial age; where machines could do something better than humans, and as a result human dignity was sacrificed. In the industrial age machines replaced human physical labor, and in the conceptual age, computers are replacing human brains. People are going to have to deal with being replaced and go beyond what a computer can do by adding creativity to the big picture. Even in the medical field, people can diagnose their own problems with information available online and with a computer's logical decision tree. So physicians need to provide a service that computers do not, which is empathetic advisement on patients' options. In the legal profession, new advice and informational services are becoming cheaply available. Lawyers will be forced to lower their rates and provide services software cannot, like counseling, mediation, and of course, trial work. People are increasingly interested in finding meaning in their lives. Making money alone does not provide for a joyous life, and in this age of abundance we have the luxury of more time to search for meaning. Materialistic thinking and wanting is being shifted to spiritual and meaningful thinking and wanting. As a central aspect of our lives and of our work, finding meaning is an extremely important cultural development that is being embraced by many people. Yoga and meditation are becoming increasingly popular for instance. Spirituality has been shown to improve one's quality of life, like decreasing stress and chance of heart disease. If companies stop worrying so much about being offensive by allowing or incorporating spiritual values into the workplace, people could find meaning in their work, and thus do it better. As work transforms into a person's calling, then the purpose of it is gratification and not the material benefits it brings. Finding meaning in life is an important quality to the creative intellectual. We need to embrace this transformation in society to prosper and lead joyous lives.
America especially is so concentrated on purely analytical thinking that it is limiting opportunities for the leaders of the future. Tests like the SAT, MCAT, ACT and others to measure intelligence are a gate which only lets high analytical intelligence pass through, when actually this kind of intelligence accounts for only a small percentage of career success. The most proficient and effective leaders are ones with skills these tests do not measure. As a result, many people with these skills who have a great potential to be leaders and managers might not even get into college. Some of these skills reflect a capacity for compassion, care, and uplifting the human spirit. Not to say that those aptitudes are the only requirements of success. One must be able to use these skills intelligently. Some career paths that are becoming more popular, and also drawing a higher salary, are nursing, counseling, and hands-on health care
assistance. Abilities required of the conceptual age are not impossible to acquire. Creativeness, capacity for compassion and empathy, and spirituality might be a little rusty because of the information age we have been living in, which has devalued non- analytical traits, but these are all a part of being human. All of society will soon realize the need to develop these conceptual talents to prosper in this new age. Technology will continue to advance and the change will not be completely drastic; however, people too slow to adapt will fall behind and the people who recognize and embrace this change will be the ones who get ahead. Creative intellectuals will flourish in the new conceptual age because material abundance, globalization, and new technologies are making the information age's peoples' skills insufficient in a society that is searching to add purpose and meaning. Our society has been based on farmers, then based on knowledgeable, analytical workers, and now it is based on creators and empathizers, or meaning makers. The knowledgeable, analytical workers are still indispensable, but they need to embrace the new conceptual age to prosper. Abundance is forcing producers to create products that are unique and spiritually and aesthetically appealing. Outsourcing and powerful, smarter computers are forcing people in the logical and analytical careers to reduce fees significantly or provide services that cannot be sent overseas or done by machine. As people continue to search for meaning in their work and lives, quality of life improves and better work is produced. The sooner society realizes the importance of the shift from purely left sided braininess to incorporating and making preeminent the right sided braininess, the better and more successful a society will become. Those who are stubborn and resist, and even those too slow to catch on to this change in thinking, will be left behind and not prosper. The abilities to create artistic and emotional beauty, to detect patterns and opportunities, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel invention would be essential. Also the ability to empathize, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one's self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the everyday, in pursuit of purpose and meaning is becoming central in our lives. Embrace the future now and lead a joyous life.