Ode to Technology - The Future

CALIFORNIA'S LT. GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM

By Joseph Blair

"Designed in California," Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom read, pulling out his shiny iPhone 4 and pointing to the small letters imprinted on its back. “I love that.”

Then he read the next line, where the words “Assembled in China” were printed, and cautioned that if we take the arts out of California education, we will end up with phones that are engraved with “Designed in China, Assembled in China.”

As the state prepares to make another round of budget cuts, including potential cuts to education, Newsom’s words ring like prophesy, not political hyperbole. Preserving the arts is practical, he said, and directly related to our state’s ability to generate fresh ideas and cutting edge technology.

A Marin native, Newsom lived near Joe Wagner Field in Larkspur and graduated from Redwood High School before studying political science at Santa Clara University. His first job was delivering papers for the Marin Independent Journal, but today he’s more likely to be on the paper’s front page than dropping them off around town. 

Newsom made his professional transition, into politics, in 1997, when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 2003, he became the youngest mayor elected in San Francisco in 100 years. As mayor, he made headlines for granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Newsom pushed for citywide healthcare, clean energy, and worked to overhaul services for homeless people in the city. Then, enigmatically, he left the mayor’s seat midway through his second term to become California’s Lieutenant Governor in 2010. Today, he also hosts a show on Current TV, “The Gavin Newsom Show,” where he talks about the latest and greatest technology. 

“The world you guys are walking into is extraordinary,” Newsom said. “I’m jealous.”

FastForward reporters met up with Newsom at the futuristic gallery of Autodesk, a cutting edge software company, based in San Francisco. The gallery was filled with new technology and prototypes, including 3D printers, digital art, and an electric, pedal-powered bike, creating an ideal environment to hear the Lt. Governor speak on behalf of the wonders of modern technology and the promises of the future.

Newsom is a natural politician. He shook the hand of every FastForward reporter in quick succession, smiling broadly and making quick jokes. He’s young and handsome with slicked back hair and a nice suit sans necktie, and he’s got one of those Hallmark style beautiful families too. His toddler daughter, he explained, can use an IPad better than a print magazine. Our generation, he said, are a group of “digital natives,” whereas Newsome’s generation are “digital immigrants.” 

It’s true, our generation has stepped into a world in which computers are as ubiquitous as trees. Newsom pointed to the new “Google glasses,” which basically layer computer generated images, such as Google Map technology, on top of reality—literally right before the wearer’s eyes. He also mentioned self-driving robotic cars, and 3-D printing technology that will change our world in ways we can’t yet imagine. 

 “This technology is real,” Newsome said emphatically. Not only that, but “All of you are going to be able to go to space in your lifetime,” Newsom said.

To the room of eager reporters, whose eyes widened at the thought of their childhood space-traveling fantasies moving one step closer to reality, Newsom was the bearer of unbelievable good news. This was a welcomed break from the usual global warming and population bomb bad news.

Although Newsom is somewhat of a tech nerd, and therefore naturally excited about techno knickknacks, he explained that technology is also having a profound impact on politics. 

“Technology democratizes voices and allows more people to participate and engage,” he said. 

With social media, he continued, individual people have the same opportunities for power as large corporations. This can be seen in Egypt and Tunisia, where Twitter and Facebook served as a medium for people to communicate openly, and change their governments. Furthermore, the cost of technology has dropped dramatically, closing the technological gap between social classes, and making these tools accessible to nearly anyone.

Yet technology’s role within our government, Newsom explained, is lagging behind private use. The digital divide between classes has been replaced by a digital divide between the people and the government in the US, which fails to use technological tools at hand to its advantage. 

“In the US, we’ve stopped investing in our future,” Newsom said. “And as a result, the world we invented in so many ways is now ahead of us.”

On his recent trip to Estonia, Newsom was surprised to discover how complete technology is integrated into the government there. 

“They even pay parking tickets via smartphones,” Newsom said regretfully. Meanwhile, in most parts of the US, people still send in paper checks via snail mail. Newsom believes that the United States has been living off its legacy and not building toward the future. Meanwhile, countries such as Estonia and China have been able to leapfrog the US, technologically. Newsome seemed flustered, explaining that our government hasn’t invested in new tools.

“California needs to get back in the future business,” Newsom said.

So how can we get back in this “future business?” Newsom suggested we start with reimagining California’s school system; transforming the system that’s all about sitting down and taking notes to a system that’s about gathering collective creativity, learning to problem solve, and learning to create the future.  Students should be taught, Newsom believes, to ask better questions and invent their way out of problems. And technology can be the enabler of this type of learning, he said. 

Newsome’s assessment of public education was surprising. He wearily opined that the public school system had structural problems that were bigger than the most optimistic budget could fix and we need to come up with more creative solutions than just coming up with more money.

While some politicians argue the world needs more STEM (scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians), Newsom argued that this acronym should really be STEAM, adding in the “A” for artists. 

“It is an economic imperative to invest in creativity,” Newsom explained, revealing that he never once cut funding for the arts in San Francisco schools during his time as mayor. Creativity gives California an edge on other states and other countries, he said. If the state continues to cut arts, it will only end up further behind. 

Considering that California’s economy is driven in large part by the tech industry in Silicon Valley, cutting education could have larger than anticipated impacts on the future viability of the states economy. Silicon Valley is dependent on college graduates, many of them from the UC system. By cutting budgets for higher- education, California is putting its own economy in peril. In addition, this industry depends on creative people to fuel its growth. 

Though his solution for fixing California was complicated, his message was simple. We are in a position where our attitudes will choose the future for us. If we keep an optimistic attitude and concentrate our energy on innovation and shaping the future, we can become the thriving nation that we once were.