The Egg

Around 30 years ago I attended a meeting in Shanghai with a Group of people who wanted investment to create ‘ The Egg ‘ . No , not a chicken but to create a virtual entertainment centre in cities across the world where you could visit and experience a night club in any city with different people, a virtual world.

I actually got it I understood but I didn’t know what I could see or more importantly how it worked. I returned to London explained it to Funders but they and my office thought I was crazy. I explained you could dance in London with a woman in Brazil live.

Stadiums today are empty but you can now attend the match by virtual presence. You can be at the game along with cardboard cut outs or that Brazilian woman. The technology is here it works. You can be on that beach in Mauritius while you’re still in Peckham. You can be in a Lions den whilst sitting at home or a jungle on the bus.

The Egg hatched. Think for the moment of the minds that see that are gifted to see where we will be. I often think of that meeting in Shanghai and see it as a missed moment. What am I missing today is the question. Where are we heading ? The creators in Hollywood the Spielbergs and Lucas’ see the future and are in that sense prophetic. The pause of Covid is almost preparation of the way life will be , it’s a gear change in every sense and it’s another ‘ meeting in Shanghai moment ‘

Of course it’s unlikely that I’ll make that 30 years time to see it, but what I do know is that the world will be an entirely different place and the signs of that are with us now. From what I see the emphasis is tuning faster and faster towards self and the concentration of lives alone , not shared but insular. A world of one bedroom flats, selfies, chip in hand, me me me , robot friends, Alexa to talk to, virtual partners and a world linked together by half a dozen Corporations. Families will be borrowed and populations decline, a pursuit of self and a self implosion. Travel will be Limited and public transport networks will take us wherever we want to go. Inner City flights in bots and delivery bots from Amazon bringing us our every need to our door. Going out will be less fashionable and home alone a permanent fix. We can track our health without a Doctor and Medicare alone.

The elderly will lament but the new kids on the block will embrace it and mankind will take a different turn. It’s not a world that I really want to be part of and I don’t think my parents would have wanted to be part of what we are in now. We are all for a time, all for a season and that’s exciting. I’m looking at where I’m going next and that’s very exciting but I’m also looking at the loved ones to come and looking out for those ‘ Egg ‘ moments when someone is trying to tell me something.

Wake up everyone, smell the coffee the Eggs are cooking.