Disruption, baby

Everywhere in California there’s a slick-haired, Stanford-educated tosser talking to anybody that will listen in some overpriced café while eating a $50 avocado that he’s got the next biggest disruptor. In other words, his idea is going to change the way the world works… for the greater good (he doesn’t mention that he’ll collect billions in the process).

Anyway, this person’s ‘disruption’ is just a shot in the dark. As much as people – including our dear stock market – talk about Amazon being The Great Disruptor with fear, greed, and loathing in their minds – online shopping is only 9% of world retail sales at the moment. Amazon’s share of that is GARGANTUAN (49% in the USA alone), and it wasn’t even the home of the first internet transaction.

The disruption comes with some good things (faster technology) but also bad things (that’s the ‘Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions part). These are in no particular order, so feel free to create a 'Disruption Draft' if you so wish or have nothing else to do. 

1.     Penicillin: Alexander Fleming finds penicillin – the first antibiotic – in 1928. It might have been a complete accident, but it saved the lives of God knows how many people. Since then, it is estimated to have saved 80 - 200 million lives. And although the germ-world has developed itself to produce strains that are penicillin-proof, more scientists are getting involved to combat that, too. So that’s quite an industry penicillin has created, too.

2.     Electricity: There are a lot of arguments as to who discovered it, but if you want something as astonishing as this, electricity is your answer. Electricity runs just about everything in the world. Sadly, still 14% of the world’s population do not have electricity, with 84% of that residing in rural areas and 95% living in sub-Saharan Africa or developing Asia. Sometimes, you have to wonder about those people without electricity: Who’s happier – them or us? Oh, and it’s used over The Atlantic to kill the very guilty (in nine states). They’ve even given it a nickname….’Old Sparky’.

3.     The lightbulb: Bing! Bing! Bing! Candles used to be the go-to, but Edison’s invention changed all that. Suddenly we are lit better than before. We can do the brights or the darks, and even artists are using it to look cool. Having said that, if someone puts a lightbulb between me and the Mrs instead of the candle during a Valentine’s Day dinner, I’m punching them in the face (Unless, of course the candle option means that you push one over and it sets fire to the napkins. Then, not so much).

4.     The motor car: German inventor Carl Benz invented the four-wheeled monster in 1889. It blew away the horse and cart travel method (unless you’re an Amish person) as well as the railroad. There are 1.32 billion of them in the world (estimated). The number of people who have been in a truck, car or bus is also stunning, too. Obviously, the good things (people can get to A and B quicker than by train sometimes) are great, but then there’s the bad stuff (air pollution, and ****heads in ‘Lambos’ or ‘Maseratis’ or ‘Audis’. Not everyone wants to drive because it can turn even the nicest person into an absolute tosser for the few hours they are behind the wheel. Also, driving lessons with the family come with the threat of death between learner driver and father. I should know about this. Also coming with the motor car are beautiful things like radios, air conditioning and, er, roundabouts. Lots of roundabouts.

5.     Nuclear: The good stuff? Nuclear powers 11% of the world’s electricity – and 20% in the world’s biggest market – the US. Of course, the bad point about nuclear power is the atomic bomb (see World War II), as well as nuclear accidents like Chernobyl which ended the lives of around 750,000 people. Since the bomb on Nagasaki, people have been using the ‘Nuclear Deterrent’ as a threat, and it’s become big business for some very, very bad people.  

6.     Television: Hammering the cinema, radio and book industries, TV became the new thing in the 1940s, and changed the way we consume films and news today – as well go to events, creating a country full of vegetables. 95.9% of Americans sit on their sofas squared-eyes for  3 hours of it per day in 2016 . Hey, it’s better than actually reading a newspaper and magazine, isn’t it? #sarcasm

7.     The aeroplane:  Mass transit changed again, with people suddenly not having to take a car or even a boat to go to places to go and see their friends or the-soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. People seem to love sitting next to an overweight, foul-smelling person for 8 hours AFTER having to fight their way through customs AFTER having to pay a crap-ton of money for an overly-heavy bag. The bad news is the impact on climate change, as well as creating a headache for the poor ****ers in the flight path. But hey – it’s not rich people who live just outside airports in the plane’s take-off and landing paths so who cares, right?

8      A) The computer/world-wide web: The importance of the computer and the world-wide web is that it’s really helped the porn and drug industry. Coupled with the world-wide web, you can pretty much anonymous and no-one will catch you out. Of course, there’s other stuff like helping office workers, but hey, that’s a product. We still need customer service to grade up a good plumber, butcher or doctor, but we can all bitch about them on Tripadvisor if they suck, right? Oh, and no-one likes a hand-written, specially-crafted letter when you can get someone clicking your name on Facebook to wish you a Happy Birthday. Oh, and computers make cell phones what they are today, which is a nation of people who would rather stare at their phones or take selfies than actually talk to each other. Gosh, we are so proud.

9      The washing-machine/dishwasher:  Changed the way that clothes and dishes were washed. Suddenly, people got hours and hours of their time back NOT washing the stuff, listening to the radio, and ignoring Granny chatting crap during coffee. Instead, you have to put the dishes in the machine. Unless you lie about it being bust as an avoidance tactic. Apparently, it’s a more economic use of water, too.

10   The machine-gun: Whether we like it or not, the gun has changed the way that fights happen and finish. Why? It’s a more effective way of destroying your enemy. And while the gun had been invented centuries before that, it was the machine-gun that changed the way that battles and wars were fought. Sadly, people are still fighting with them today. But hey, it’s made many-a-piss-poor actor a super-star (see Schwarzenegger, Arnold).