Welcome to The Future of Being Human!
A newsletter/blog/column/podcast (possibly) exploring the intersection of emerging technologies and society through the lens of what it might mean to be human in a technologically complex future
Well, I cracked and moved over to Substack!
Those of you who know me will know that I’ve been writing about technology, society, and the future, for well over a decade. While I started off writing blogs, I’ve focused more on articles and books in recent years — but I’ve missed the informality and responsiveness of a blog.
This hit me like a sledge hammer the other day when I was looking for a good link to something I’ve written on the potential risks of AI … just to discover that despite this being at the heart of so much of my work at the moment, I haven’t written much at all that’s neatly citable.
I was shocked!
It was also the jolt I needed to get back to writing a regular and relatively informal blog/newsletter/column (I’m not sure what you’d call this) on my current thinking, analysis and work around tech and the future — especially given the incredible technology transition we’re right in the middle of with large language models.
The hook here is the future of being human, which riffs off my current large initiative at Arizona State University that is pulling visionary thinkers together who are inspired by what it might mean to be human in a technologically transformed future, and who are passionate about exploring how this influences our thinking and actions in the present.
This is a powerful framing as it allows a focus on how transformative technologies may impact each of us personally, rather than the rather generally handwaving around “humanity” that usually goes on. And to be sure, we are at a tipping point around multiple technologies that could profoundly impact our understanding of what it means to be human — from gene editing and brain machine interfaces, to AI that is capable of modulating the very foundations of our understanding of self, sentience, and consciousness.
But it’s also a loose enough framing to allow me to talk about the trends and issues that grab my attention in an increasingly complex technological landscape.
If you are at all interested in where emerging technologies are taking us, how they will impact us, and how we can hold on to some semblance of being masters of our own destiny, I’d love for you to subscribe and follow along.
Thanks!
Andrew
Note: The image here (and images elsewhere on the site) are generated by MidJourney using prompts related to the future of being human and specific topics of posts. They intersect with a broader project on using generative AI to develop images around topics that inspire, challenge, and stimulate new thinking.
Welcome to Substack! Looking forward to reading your takes on AI and the future of us humans. I wrote a sci-fi anthology about us humans in the near future, if you'd like to see. The book is called 'No End Code' and it's on a crazy promo right now - free - if you want a copy. https://www.amazon.com/No-End-Code-M-Weaving-ebook/dp/B0B9682CQ6
Thanks for this interesting blog, which aligns pretty well with some of my interests. I'm new here, so for now I'll reply to this:
You write, "..how we can hold on to some semblance of being masters of our own destiny..."
One answer to this challenge could be simply to slow down. As example, imagine that you had to write all your articles at an ever accelerating rate of speed. That factor alone would likely increasingly lead to error.
I liked the graphic in your video which showed...
Problem => Innovation => Solution => Problem
The faster we go around that circle the less likely it is we'll get things right. This seems important because if the next problem we create with innovation is too big, it can bring our journey around the circle to a quick end. Nuclear weapons come to mind here.
It seems to me the fundamental challenge we face is philosophical. We're clinging to "more is better" relationship with knowledge that made sense in the long era of knowledge scarcity. But we no longer live in that old knowledge scarcity era, but in a revolutionary new era characterized by knowledge exploding in every direction at an accelerating rate. We aren't updating our knowledge philosophy to adapt to this new era. Technically we're racing forward, but philosophically we're clinging to the past.
https://www.tannytalk.com/p/our-relationship-with-knowledge
As I read through your site I'll be interested to see if/how you comment on this angle. Please feel free to direct me to relevant sections as needed.
You've picked a great topic for a blog, I'm guessing this project attract considerable interest.