Software Revolution

We live in a software revolution. It is just a matter of when it will explode. What happened a very long time ago with (big) hardware in the industrial revolution is going to happen again with software (and then again with ai). We live in a day where Machines aren’t specific anymore. A 3D printer can make a piece designed to be made by a machine half the world away. We don’t need to import highly specialized machinery from Germany to build car parts. We can print metal, circuits, and everything, anywhere. We will need the design of that required piece, and we’ll be able to print it anywhere from Australia to Manhattan.

During the industrial revolution, we needed machines that could do the work of thousands of people faster, cheaper, and better. Now, we require that software that powers machines as efficiently as possible. We need software that sends the design and controls the manufacturing devices. The value will be in the design and the software that controls the machine.

This shift of value from hardware to software generates a new problem. The logic parts are easier to steal, copy, to send across the internet. The software has to be able to hide the core from the user and generate more value from it. If I send someone the file of a new song, it could be copied and sent across the world. If I buy Spotify instead, I will get millions of songs, and I wouldn’t be able to share the file. It’s a win-win situation. There must be a perfect balance in giving the user what he paid for: what you need, how you need it, and when you need it.

Cars will no longer be german. Instead, they could be german-designed. That means Mercedes will sell unique cars engineered in Germany, with software made in California. Software is the net revolution that will change how things are made like the industry did: faster, cheaper, and better. It will make entering markets easier, manufacturing better, and achieving better results.

The same goes for analog instruments, coffee mugs, to art. The logic is what counts. Art in the future will not be paintings; it will be logic, software, and design. The new products at the MOMA will be games and software. The developers that made the game “Monument Valley,” for example, are the artists of this generation.

We are living in the software revolution. It’s just a matter of when it will burst. And when that happens, there will be a significant shift. Millions will be unemployed, and those with logic, design and coding abilities will be the new ones in control.