{"id":25200,"date":"2020-11-22T15:34:27","date_gmt":"2020-11-22T15:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xatakaciencia.com\/tecnologia\/leapfrogging-cuando-sociedad-da-salto-tecnologico-saltandose-etapas"},"modified":"2020-11-22T15:34:27","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T15:34:27","slug":"leapfrogging-cuando-una-sociedad-da-un-salto-tecnologico-saltandose-etapas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/forocilac.org\/en\/leapfrogging-cuando-una-sociedad-da-un-salto-tecnologico-saltandose-etapas\/","title":{"rendered":"Leapfrogging: when a society makes a technological leap by skipping stages"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \"Leapfrogging:\n <\/p>\n

In China they have hardly used credit cards<\/strong>: they have gone from cash to mobile phone payment via QR codes<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Perhaps this is one of the most recent cases of leapfrogging<\/strong>, which describes when a society progresses technologically but not linearly, but abruptly, skipping natural stages. In Africa there is another surprising case with ebooks<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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African ebooks<\/h2>\n

Although it may sound counterintuitive, rapid progress does not take place in the most developed regions, but in the least developed ones. This happens because in more developed countries and regions, citizens are tied to a certain way of thinking or doing things, so it is more difficult for them to let go of the past.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Así es como China está dejando obsoletas a las tarjetas de crédito\"
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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\n In Xataka<\/a>\n <\/div>\n

This is how China is making credit cards obsolete<\/a>\n <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But as explained Michael Hannan<\/strong> in This studio<\/a> Regarding structural inertia, in less developed countries and regions, people adapt better to new radical changes, which offers a better observation point on the future. <\/p>\n

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A surprising and paradigmatic case, it's the ebook<\/strong>. In the most modern societies, its implementation is slow because users still find incentives for physical books. But what happens in a place where there are hardly any physical books? The same as in a China without credit cards.<\/p>\n

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For this reason, Africa could become, according to Mauro F. Guillen<\/strong> in his book 2030<\/em>, the world's first ebook reader, in the same way that it is already at the forefront of mobile payments. Snappflify<\/strong>, for example, is a South African company that has become the largest educational content platform on the continent and already serves almost 200,000 students. <\/p>\n

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\n \"Las empresas que no se adaptan a los cambios tecnológicos acaban esfumándose (si no reciben protección)\"
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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\n In Xataka Science<\/a>\n <\/div>\n

Companies that do not adapt to technological changes end up disappearing (if they do not receive protection)<\/a>\n <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For its part, worldreader<\/strong>, a San Francisco NGO, offers free access to a library of ebooks to schools in any developing country.<\/p>\n

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In rural areas, without coverage, it offers an integrated solution that includes solar panels, USB hubs, LED lights, e-book readers and access to the digital library.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Thanks to the magic of Leapfrogging, then, contentants like the African could receive aan unprecedented cultural and intellectual shock<\/strong>, suddenly, and in a few years; the equivalent of the shocks of thousands of years that the West received with the 38 most disruptive books for culture and science:<\/p>\n

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