I remember the new year eve a decade ago. A sense of excitement and hope as the new millenium arrived (Since BC 1 was followed by AD 1, the millenium should have ended on 31.12.2000 and not on 31.12.1999. Let us not quibble on a technicality and let bygones be bygones).
Many predictions were made. Some superfluous, some realistic. But the first decade of the new millineum has been quite lacklustre in more ways than one. It has been a pedestrian 10 years, with nothing dramatic happening worldwide in a positive way.
The 9/11 attack and the US repsonse to it set the world back a few years. In fact there has been bigger attacks elsewhere in the world that resulted in more casuality. But, US took umbrage that they could be targetted by terrorists and went out of the way to wreak havoc in many parts of the world. A classic case of overkill. Terrorism is here to stay. People have fought guerilla war fare and used terrorism throughtout the history of mankind. The new age terrorist is an evolution of the similar from the past. This is not to justify them, but to stress the futility of over reaction on the part of the State, as is the case now.
The post 9/11 recession and the bigger recession post Global Financial Crisis has had a profound impact on the world order. The so called super powers and the developed countries are looking shaky economically and even politically, and we might have laid the foundation for a new world order dominated by the BRIC countries. Couple of decades later, we might look back on this decade as the time when the change really started to happen. This could also be the decade in which the hegemony of the US and US $ began its count down to its logical fall, which could be good for a world suffering from two decades of US dominance, leading to a unipolar world.
The major change the last decade has brought in is the increased usage of the internet. Though internet started becoming popular in 1990s, people realised the benefit of it only in the last decade. I, personally, am thankful for this as I was to re orient my career based on this, which led to the creation of knowledge economy..
But many technical predictions made in 1999 did not become true. We were talking of 10 GHz computers then, but we are struggling to touch 4 GHz. The computers have become faster, but not THAT faster. The decade saw the demise of desktops and the arrival of laptops in a big way. Microsoft continues to dish out trash softwares, and we continue to use them. XP when it was launched was a disaster, though it recovered later. Vista should qualify as one of the worst products made in the decade. We were talking of the demise of Microsoft at the beginning of the century with it being replaced by Open Source Software - mainly Linux. But Microsoft has emerged stronger with the OSS losing steam.
The beginning of the decade also saw much being made of convergence technology - convergence of telephony, tv and internet. Though some developments have happened on the convergence of telephony and internet, they have not been able to integrate TV into this. Again looks like this is not going to happen. Wireless networks have become the norm rather than the exception and will continue to dominate our workspace in the future too.
The decade saw the slow death of print media, with TV dominating the space vacated by it. This trend is likely to continue. The decade has been the worst for Automobiles with most of the companies facing crisis, one way or other. Driverless cars, flying cars, vertical take off cars - all still remain dreams. The GPRS is the only real new worthwhile innovation in this sector. Nothing much is envisaged in the near future too.
As the most undistinguished decade passes by, let us hope that the second decade of the millenium brings more benefits to the people than the first one.
Enjoy the New Year Eve! To add to the beauty, it is a Full Moon Day as well. Also, it happens to be the second full moon of the month, something that happens only once every 2 1/2 years. A second full moon happening on New Year Eve???? Well, you have to wait till 2028 for that. So enjoy the once in the blue moon (as the second full moon in the month is called) phenomena. Don't forget to look up on the New Year Eve!!! Having a full moon when the year is born augurs well astrologically too. Let us hope for the best.
