The word “disruptive” has become commonplace during the first 15% of the 21st century.
This burgeoning usage is directly a function of scientific and technological innovation, mostly in computing, communication and transport. The private and public sectors latched onto these innovations and are still running hard, transforming many aspects of ordinary and extraordinary life.
The mobile phone you have today is a supercomputer compared to the one you had in 2000. The way governments deliver services and gather information to and from their citizens has been radically transformed. The demise of the advertising base for newspapers – and thus of the commercial survival of newspapers and other print media – is well underway. War is increasingly waged by remote controllers guiding pilotless weapons platforms in the air, with proto-platforms rapidly emerging for sea and land.
The prime targets of the new military technologies are also avid developers of new technologies to fight ancient feuds. The terror practitioners of the first 15% of this century – from 9/11 on – have been deft in their use of mobile communications as an organisational tool and social media as a recruitment tool. Much of their innovation has been in the zone broadly defined as “peer-to-peer”.
Like Airbnb and Uber.
Airbnb claims that in 2014 more than 25 million guests...
