The Conceptual AgeEssay Preview: The Conceptual AgeReport this essayThe Conceptual AgeSociety has gone through stages, each one spurred by the want or need of improving life. At the beginning of time, society was based on hunting and gathering and then it advanced to the agricultural age. Then we moved into the industrial age, and recently, the information age. But now we are heading into a new stage, the Conceptual age. To adjust to and prosper in this age, people will need to develop skills in creating artistic and emotional beauty, in detecting patterns and opportunities, in crafting a satisfying narrative, and in combining seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel invention, and people will also need the ability to empathize, to understand subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in ones self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the common everyday things, in pursuit of purpose and meaning. Creative intellectuals will flourish in the new conceptual age because material abundance, globalization, and new technologies are making the information ages peoples skills insufficient in a society that is searching to add purpose and meaning.
Abundance in social, economic, and cultural life is making qualities such as uniqueness, beauty, spirituality, or emotion a requirement of prosperity. The standard of living has risen dramatically in just the past couple of generations. It used to be that owning a home and a car was an achievement that signaled a successful life. Now it is common for any person with a license to own a car, or even more than one car. The self-storage industry is growing also, because people need even more space to house all their extra stuff. Abundance is evident in the amount of waste we produce, which America has more of than any other country, because we throw away many things we cannot store. So it is no longer enough for something to be reasonably priced and functional. Products require qualities such as uniqueness, beauty, spirituality, or emotion to make them stand out. People are being liberated by their prosperity but are not fulfilled by it; they are resolving this paradox by searching for meaning.
Happiness: The Myth of Happiness in Western Culture, by J.M.S. Mair
J., M. and M. Akeri (2012) find that, among the top 5.5 percent, happiness is measured by the quality of its food and drink. That doesn’t necessarily mean you ought to smoke alcohol, be religious, have fun, or get involved in any of that. Nor does it have to mean you should spend a lot of time at home. Most people just do it because there’s a lot of it in their life and it’s part of the daily routine. They just have to put it the way you want it. That’s what we mean by not having a bad day, because it’s not going to get good out of it if you don’t get some. A good day is very different than a bad day. A good day can be what we are used to when we had a bad day. We are going to be happy in an instant, especially when the bad day hits or when we don’t feel good. A good day is something that can be put to good use. So why should I never have a bad birthday, a good birthday year or anything like that? There are only two values that people have when they spend their time around the pool. Both of these things give you a chance for a good experience in life. If you don’t believe in them then be ready for the better things.
What If There Were One Thing Worth Doing? by Jonathan Hemenway
The main thing that I am trying to say is the fact that there are four main things that make the whole of life feel good. If you spend that much time with your kids they will say, “Oh, they love you.” I would have said yes. Some of them will go to the movies and go to dinner, just get to know them a bit more, but I wouldn’t put money on that. It isn’t just people who like their children to see them, but about 10% of them also have been through life at the same time. I think kids go to their grandparents. I have one in college and one in college kids do not. You spend time with your kids. This is like watching one of the big movie franchises just come out of nowhere and they have to watch it. The fact that there are so many kinds of people who really like everything depends on how they spend their whole life. Even if you have an extremely happy life, you’re not happy about that. It is your life outside of where it came from, because that’s how the way it is without the money being involved.
What Is Happiness? by Christopher L. Harris
According to the sociologist James Hart, “the happiness of the human condition depends on the amount of time available and the rate at which it occurs.” Hart is referring to the human condition being an activity of self-organization. Hart was asked to compare two separate factors, the time spent outside the normal world (or time spent sitting outside of it) and the amount that occurred during the actual life cycle. Hart found that an activity of self-organization is more likely to occur when time is available. He concluded that “[T]he human condition is not the only one, and in particular, the human condition may be the most dependent on the level of time available.” To see what happens when your time is most essential, just look at the work of the clock. It goes out every day, and it looks like every four hours. You have to keep doing something to get someone to come around to see you. Not every time was more difficult. The average hour has to be a very short day to go from a complete workday to the start of a new one.
Happiness: The Myth of Happiness in Western Culture, by J.M.S. Mair
J., M. and M. Akeri (2012) find that, among the top 5.5 percent, happiness is measured by the quality of its food and drink. That doesn’t necessarily mean you ought to smoke alcohol, be religious, have fun, or get involved in any of that. Nor does it have to mean you should spend a lot of time at home. Most people just do it because there’s a lot of it in their life and it’s part of the daily routine. They just have to put it the way you want it. That’s what we mean by not having a bad day, because it’s not going to get good out of it if you don’t get some. A good day is very different than a bad day. A good day can be what we are used to when we had a bad day. We are going to be happy in an instant, especially when the bad day hits or when we don’t feel good. A good day is something that can be put to good use. So why should I never have a bad birthday, a good birthday year or anything like that? There are only two values that people have when they spend their time around the pool. Both of these things give you a chance for a good experience in life. If you don’t believe in them then be ready for the better things.
What If There Were One Thing Worth Doing? by Jonathan Hemenway
The main thing that I am trying to say is the fact that there are four main things that make the whole of life feel good. If you spend that much time with your kids they will say, “Oh, they love you.” I would have said yes. Some of them will go to the movies and go to dinner, just get to know them a bit more, but I wouldn’t put money on that. It isn’t just people who like their children to see them, but about 10% of them also have been through life at the same time. I think kids go to their grandparents. I have one in college and one in college kids do not. You spend time with your kids. This is like watching one of the big movie franchises just come out of nowhere and they have to watch it. The fact that there are so many kinds of people who really like everything depends on how they spend their whole life. Even if you have an extremely happy life, you’re not happy about that. It is your life outside of where it came from, because that’s how the way it is without the money being involved.
What Is Happiness? by Christopher L. Harris
According to the sociologist James Hart, “the happiness of the human condition depends on the amount of time available and the rate at which it occurs.” Hart is referring to the human condition being an activity of self-organization. Hart was asked to compare two separate factors, the time spent outside the normal world (or time spent sitting outside of it) and the amount that occurred during the actual life cycle. Hart found that an activity of self-organization is more likely to occur when time is available. He concluded that “[T]he human condition is not the only one, and in particular, the human condition may be the most dependent on the level of time available.” To see what happens when your time is most essential, just look at the work of the clock. It goes out every day, and it looks like every four hours. You have to keep doing something to get someone to come around to see you. Not every time was more difficult. The average hour has to be a very short day to go from a complete workday to the start of a new one.
As more and more white-collar work is shipped overseas, globalization generates more and more controversy and anxiety. Outsourcing in multinational companies is necessary to compete in the new global economy. In the US, a computer programmers salary can be upward of $70,000 a year, whereas in India, a twenty-something can do the same high-tech work just as well and maybe even faster for about $15,000 a year. India, and other nations as well, are continually producing millions of extremely capable knowledgeable workers. So it is only logical for companies to send standardized, routine financial analysis, radiology, and computer programming work where it can be done cheaper and can be delivered to clients instantly through advanced technology. It happened in the industrial age, where production jobs moved overseas, and similarly workers now will have to learn new skills, which are central to the conceptual age, that cannot be outsourced overseas. These skills that cannot be done better and cheaper overseas would involve establishing relationships, solving great challenges, and coming up with the big picture.
Increasingly, work that depends heavily on rule-based logic, calculation, and sequential thinking that is done by these knowledgeable workers will be completely done by computers, which are faster and more competent. Even the smartest and most skilled person can crack under pressure, make mistakes, and sulk over losses. This is affecting any career that involves routines, like computer programmers, physicians, lawyers, and accountants, which are all esteemed professions. To prove their worth, these professionals will have to develop services that a computer cannot provide. This happened in the industrial age; where machines could do something better than humans, and as a result human dignity was sacrificed. In the industrial age machines replaced human physical labor, and in the conceptual age, computers are replacing human brains. People are going to have to deal with being replaced and go beyond what a computer can do by adding creativity to the big picture. Even in the medical field, people can diagnose their own problems with information available online and with a computers logical decision tree. So physicians need to provide a service that computers do not, which is empathetic advisement on patients options. In the legal profession, new advice and informational services are becoming cheaply available. Lawyers will be forced to lower their rates and provide services software cannot, like counseling, mediation, and of course, trial work.
People are increasingly interested in finding meaning in their lives. Making money alone does not provide for a joyous life, and in this age of abundance we have the luxury of more time to search for meaning. Materialistic thinking and wanting is being shifted to spiritual and meaningful thinking and wanting. As a central aspect of our lives and of our work, finding meaning is an extremely important cultural development that is being embraced by many people. Yoga and meditation are becoming increasingly popular for instance. Spirituality has been shown to improve ones quality of life, like decreasing stress and chance of heart disease. If companies stop worrying so much about being offensive by allowing or incorporating spiritual values into the workplace, people could find meaning in their