How Smart Are You? Are You Ready for the Smart Age?

The golden wheatsheaf — not only a symbol of rural heritage, but of the farming community that has shaped so much of our history. These fields of honey-coloured crops are scattered across the British countryside, harvested by welly-wearing farmers using agricultural practices that have evolved over thousands of years.

Amongst the crops and fields to the west of these isles lies another symbol, one that's been described as a powerful testament to human ingenuity, imagination, and creativity — Stonehenge.

Of course, we can marvel at the feat of our prehistoric ancestors moving and positioning such large stones into such a formation, but the real question is why? There have been many theories, but given the stones are aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice, a strong contender is that it was an early calendar.

Why would Bronze Age settlers need a calendar? To know when to harvest the wheat, of course!

With the recent discovery of another stone circle off the coast of Israel, researchers established a link between agriculture and these circles. As agriculture spread, so did the appearance of these circular monuments — a prehistoric viral trend.

But more than circles spread during this time. As we moved into the Bronze Age, we upgraded our techniques and technologies using metals, replacing older stone tools and enabling us to build more sophisticated societies. And that pattern continues even today, as we find ourselves in the Information Age.

So, how smart are you?

The reality is we are not much smarter than the Neolithic and Bronze Age communities that settled around Stonehenge. The modern human brain hasn't evolved much in the last 300,000 years, so those ancestors shared the same brain features that we have today.

What hasn't stopped evolving, though, is our tools.

Are you ready for the Smart Age?

We're now seeing some of the latest technological advancements transform even the oldest industries. Farmers, for example, will soon be able to use a combination of smart sensors, artificial intelligence, and mobile devices to accurately predict not only the best time to harvest crops, but also the best time to sow seeds to produce the highest yield.

We are evolving from a world full of smart devices to one with smart ecosystems — and enabling this requires a smarter workplace. One built with digital skills and self-serve solutions that let us be more agile by removing friction, optimising productivity, and improving our overall employee experience.

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