IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head
(Meaning: My warped, personal opinions and musings)
From the Author:
Salutations.
I am JaiChai.
And if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance now.
I invite you to interact with everyone, learn, and have as much fun as possible!
For my returning online friends, "It's always great to see you again!"
The Process -
The process of mainstreaming of any idea or technology has a distinct pattern.
And barring some globally catastrophic event like war or a worldwide financial crisis, they [disruptive ideas/technologies] go through the same phases until public, majority acceptance is achieved - aka: mass adoption.
Here's a brief description of those phases:
Phase 1 "Birth of a New Idea" -
Virtually all disruptive technologies begin in the subcultures of our society (one rare exception being the invention of the transistor in 1947 at Bell Telephone Laboratories by a team led by physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley).
Phase 2 "Introduction to the Public" -
During the introduction phase, these new technologies are largely ignored; or at most, ridiculed and called "rubbish" or "radical nonsense" - until the number of supporters gains momentum.
Phase 3 "Growth" -
Continued inertia fuels the growth of the supporter base until it reaches a critical mass. This phase is marked by a plethora of debates between new, self-appointed pundits.
Phase 4 "We've Arrived" -
The "We've Arrived" phase is when critical mass is achieved and triggers a defensive response from a threatened, legacy market or industry - whoever stands to lose their industrial monopoly/oligarchy.
Phase 5 "Kill it while it's Young" -
Mounting fear and hostility leads to the "Kill it while it's Young" phase.
This phase can easily be identified by extensive smear campaigns, legal threats and suppression tactics launched by paid lobbyists, advertisement firms, and public corporation surrogates (AKA: Governmental Agencies).
Phase 6 "Mass Adoption" -
Eventually, what was once thought of as "fringe technology" garners mass adoption and becomes mainstream.
Good examples of this Disruption-To-Mainstream process are:
DC vs. AC electricity
The Automotive Industry vs. electric cars
Gas/Coal vs. solar.
And now:
Proprietary vs. Open Source Software
Fiat vs. Cryptocurrency
Centralized Corporations vs. Decentralized Platforms
Controlled vs. Shared Economies
Parting Quote
"Once upon a time, everything mainstream in our culture was not." - JaiChai
Thanks for stopping by.
Truly hope to see you again!
About the Author
Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.
In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he performed high altitude, free-fall parachute jumps and hazardous diving ops in deep, open ocean water.
After 24 years of active duty, he retired in Asia.
Since then, he's been a full-time, single papa and actively pursuing his varied passions (Writing, Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency - plus more hobbies too boring or bizarre for most folk).
He lives on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, longtime girlfriend and three dogs.