If you're over the age of 20, chances are, you remember the sound of a dial-up tone pretty well. It's how we, as a nation, first connected to the Internet, before the days of cable, broadband, wireless and the rest. And it was part of what AOL Co-Founder Steve Case refers to at the First Wave of Internet.
He described the Second Wave as what was built upon the First Wave, such as companies like Google and Facebook, and said that is behind us as well. Case predicted that a Third Wave is ahead, of us which will entail “integrating the Internet seamlessly in every aspect of our lives.”
Case joined Jim on Monday night to discuss the future of technology, and what it means for us. “We haven’t seen a lot of this change in innovation in some of the most important aspects of our lives,” Case said. “How our kids learn, how we stay healthy, how we think about energy … even things like food.” Case also explained how The Third Wave will impact education from kindergarten classrooms to college. The Third Wave will integrate innovation and technology into important aspects of our daily lives.
They discussed how the Third Wave will influence the economy and income equality. Case said that Boston led in the First Wave but was “a little less important in the Second Wave.” But Case believes Boston will have a big role in the Third Wave, especially with GE’s move to the city.
Case said that he doesn’t think the presidential candidates are talking about things that are relevant to where we are going, especially in health care. “The real innovation is going to come from the start ups,” he said, not from the Affordable Care Act. Case said that the “connection between the innovators and the policy makers is going to be much more important in the Third Wave.”
