The Age of Quality

If you grew up a sci-fi nerd like me, then you’ll remember the many different ways future and alien technologies were presented in films, and comics, and on book covers. Sometimes the  technology was overt: all flashing lights and spinning gears. Other times it was discreet. Microscopic technologies powered with incredible efficiency. 

As a child I always preferred the more obvious style. It gave me a sense of how the thing - spaceship, robot, ray gun - might work. It felt more real. But as I look at the coming waves of technology, the latter style feels more realistic. Future technology will not be obvious or flashy. It will be invisible, efficient, and ubiquitous. It will be enduring. Tomorrow’s technology might be one pillar of an Age of Quality.

Early signs in The Broken Age

We are not, it is fair to say, in an age of quality right now. It would be hard to apply that descriptor to our institutions, our infrastructure, or our consumer goods. Short-termism abounds in our approach to so much: construction, production, consumption, policy. 

But as the cliche goes, the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed. If you look for signs of the Age of Quality, you can find them. But in order to look for those signs, we need a definition beyond ‘sci-fi book cover’. What does technology look like in an Age of Quality?

Efficiency: Technology in an age of quality must be efficient, in every sense. It must make minimal use of consumable resources, of energy, water, materials. 

Enduring: Quality technology should not be disposable but have a long lifespan so that it fails infrequently, and is easily repairable if it does. It should be upgradable to meet changing needs.

Intuitive: Technology in this age should be easy to use with minimal learning required. Note that this potentially conflicts with the efficiency: the more work the machine has to do to be easy to use (e.g. processor overhead for an AI interface), the less efficient it can be. This isn’t always true: great design doesn’t need to be expensive in terms of overheads. And high usability should reduce wasted use - and abuse.

Discreet: Quality technology should be quiet and unobtrusive. It should simply fulfil its function as if by magic, with minimal fuss.

Quality Technologies: Streaming?

So what technologies fit these criteria today? I can think of a few but I’m not sure everyone will agree with my choices.

For example, I would argue streaming media is ‘quality’. It might consume a lot of energy for computing, but aggregating all of the media storage into one place and eliminating millions of tonnes of physical media must, over time, be a more efficient option. Especially if all the streamers meet their net zero commitments - easier to do for a handful of data centres than millions of homes. Plus, there are the playback devices. Instead of multiple devices for different formats, we mostly use converged devices like phones and tablets that have many purposes.

The songs themselves might be at risk of not enduring as I doubt streamers are worried about purging never-accessed songs from their catalogue. But the software and codecs themselves can be endlessly updated. 

From a design perspective, the streaming platforms are highly optimised for intuitive use. And as apps we can access with a simple voice command, they are certainly unobtrusive, even if some of the supporting infrastructure (I’m looking at you Sonos) has been somewhat fussy.

Batteries? Autonomous Vehicles?

What else is ‘quality’? You could make an argument for lithium ion batteries. They have endured much better than anyone expected. There are still first generation Nissan Leafs going strong today. They are getting more efficient with each generation. And though the recycling industry hasn’t taken off as expected, it ultimately will.

How about autonomous cars? They will certainly be more efficient than their human counterparts. And likely endure much longer as well, with unstressed driving and minimal servicing requirements. Plus, operated as a fleet, they will be well maintained. They’re as intuitive as an Uber and very discreet, not taking up drive or road space when they’re not needed.

I’m sure there are other early signs of quality technology out there. But for many we might need to wait for the next waves of advancement in science: materials, computing, energy, connectivity. I think they’ll come though. And future tech will look less and less like tech, and more and more like the cover of a sci-fi novel.