The New Now: How Real Time Redefines the Now

Nova Spivack thinks that 21st century will be about the Now.

Spivack argues that prior to the 20th century, society generally was preoccupied with the past, studying history and reflecting on the past. In the 20th century we became obsessed with the future, a fact reflected in furious pace of inventions and social obsession with science fiction through the decades. However, the 21st century so far, is about the present. The emergence of the real time web is about the present, and the present impacts how we invent, Spivack argues. Over the next ten years, we are going to be looking for ways to deal with the near ubiquitous Internet connectivity and data around us, almost in real-time.

"With the real time web, the amount of information we have to handle is changing the Now," he said. "Now is becoming a lot denser. There is a lot more information in per unit of Now. The Now is getting shorter. The horizon is getting narrower. Now has gone from days to hours to seconds."

The big challenge: attention.

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