The next great space age – inside the human brain
n a recent piece in the New York Times, Thomas L Freidman’s article ‘If I had a hammer’ discussed the new book by Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee’s new book ‘The Second Machine Age’ and the development of computing power now making even complex employment positions redundant. Whereas in the first machine age, human muscle was supported and enhanced, the second age depicts work without the need for human intervention. Which though fascinating, sounds a bit bleak for the large majority. And at the same time, the computation advances are opening up the next space race – the area inside your brain.
Freidman’s article can be found here and it’s a great read.
But onto the next space race. We’ve had the ‘space out there’ race, the big search for extra terrestrial life and alternative planetary homes. The latest imaging confirms the existence of exo planets quite some way away. We’ve known about but really have barely touched the hydro-space: the seas and oceans at depth and the expectation of new species or alternative locations for civilisation. And now with the additional of better instrumentation and imaging, we’re delving into the human brain in ways barely though possible just a couple of years ago.
To an extent, this development is spawning ‘neuro-marketing’ along with the greater insights into the way our brains work and function, especially when they overcome the limitations our biology imposes upon us. The early claims of neuro-marketing were really claims about the human mind – a different structure from the physical operation of the brain. The early images displayed far greater understanding of activity areas of the brain in action. Personally I think we have a way to go before we’re able to delve quite as far into the ‘mind’ of every individual and I’m wondering whether the brain imaging shows a ‘shotgun’ approach to activity, rather than a laser like level of activity, and I digress.
What the next space race indicates in its initial stages is that our awareness of our own decision making can not only be identified, it can be predicted with relative accuracy. For those who’ve read some of Leonard Mlodinow’s work, you’ll see how he suggests that not only can we now work out what you’re thinking, we can know it before YOU are consciously aware that you do. It’s an amazing idea, not yet supported by simple wearable mechanisms, but we’ll get there soon enough.
For now though, appreciate that the information you seek, access and engage with (and that includes information in product, services and in digital forms) says more about you than you could ever understand in simple terms. For recruitment, people management, decision making and marketing, the space race is well and truly on
Futurist Marcus Barber will be joining ABC’s Vicki Kerrigan in Darwin for the first of an ongoing discussion about the future this Wednesday. Each week on Wednesday afternoon’s, Vicki and Marcus will discuss the future of something, how we prepare for the future, what the future looks like for some industries and other related futures…
Read More >The panel session at the National Manufacturing Week 2011 went well though with four of us on the panel, time was quite compressed. Some really good thoughts from Phillip Chindamo from AIG, Damon Cantwell from Deloitte and Erol Harvey from Minifab, delightfully chaired by Sandra George from SEBN at the City of Greater Dandenong. Rather…
Read More >On Thursday I’ll be part of the panel that wraps up the National Manufacturing Week 2011 in Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre under the theme of Meeting the challenges of the next generation of manufacturing with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability. It should be an interesting chat as we consider what…
Read More >There’s lots to like about borrowing ideas from other areas especially where those ideas can lead to a significant positive shift. In the link below, Zaid Ali Alsagoff an educational blogging specialist highlights why the Finnish Education system stands as a potential model to embrace. And whilst there are examples of this type of thinking…
Read More >Environmental Scanning (ES) is the process of paying attention to the world in which you operate in order to identify and gain a sense of potential signals of change in how your world is developing. When discussing the idea of ‘change’ we need to be clear – a potential signal of change is likely to…
Read More >When it comes to water management, there’s something of potential value that Victoria could learn from Western Australia’s weather given discussions about new dams If you have almost 60 days straight of above 30 degree days with pretty much no rain, how do you fill the dam? Well you don’t but you’ve put all of…
Read More >The natural disasters we’ve seen recently around the world have shown us much about the communities in which they’ve occurred. The images emerging from Japan, New Zealand and Australia as they’ve faced earthquakes, tsumanis, floods and fires stands on stark contrast to the mainstream media stories that suggests people of the world are not willing…
Read More >Hi everyone – a quick note to let you know that our phones lines have been down for a while now and we are working on getting them fixed. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. In the meantime, try using either our 1800 number where you can leave a message only…
Read More >ABC journalist Adam Stephen interviews Marcus Barber on the subject of GM foods and whether they might be more widely embraced as part of the global food requirements The interview (about 3& 1/2 mins) is available in MP3 format here and a link to the shorter web article is here. Some key points –…
Read More >South East Business Networks, the City of Greater Dandenong’s longest running business development program, is an exceptional avenue for learning about issues to do with Manufacturing. This week they provided one ‘out of the box’ with an excellent presentation by Professor Goran Roos, a worldclass expert on Manufacturing and currently South Australia’s Thinker in Residence.…
Read More >