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
Every where we look we are being given clear signs of the blatant stupidity and arguably outright criminality of a toxic system of decision making. The Menindee Lakes and Darling River disaster is one example A couple of years ago I was invited to speak at a Private Equity conference at a lovely resort…
Read More >Every year I aim to identify what I think a major focus of the upcoming year will be and in that light I’m declaring 2019 the International Year of the Cooperative. I’m prompted by a multitude of signals that my daily research has uncovered, many of which will be familiar to you – Cost of…
Read More >Here we are with the last posting of the year looking at the potential for wide ranging strategy for a country like the United States. Arguably the United States is undergoing its own version of #Brexit though without the vote of the people. Instead the dictatorial nature of what I see as an incompetent strategic…
Read More >I’m reluctant to make predictions but am getting a few calls so: My tip is on a March 2019 election – the 9th or 16th But that will be an attempt to protect the existing NSW Government hoping that voters will have sufficiently vented. That said though, it also required a Federal Minoroty Government to…
Read More >The Asian Productivity Organisation has shifted gears from being a centre for member countries to talk about productivity, to one that now wants to upskills its member countries. We’ve just completed the first chunk of helping National Productivity secretariats to ready their staff for a more proactive, future facing approach to their Country’s development …
Read More >The question is, ‘how does the thinking inside this document stack up?’ Turns out, pretty good. What we spotted and what problems we said we’d have to watch out for, are just about spot on When it was discovered that the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was going to hold the Australia 2020 Summit,…
Read More >it’s OK not to know your career path when you leave university – sometimes that won’t emerge until much later down the track,” Barber says. “We should remind kids that the pathway they select to start off with is unlikely to be their final pathway, Was interviewed by #TheodoraSutcliffe who wrote this article for…
Read More >At a recent session with the Gen Y group working on the ‘Future Melbourne’ project for the City of Melbourne I suggested that the group consider what the result might be if they could ‘invert’ the way the State of Victoria operates. What would you be likely to see if more of the functions of…
Read More >McKinsey’s interview with Richard Thaler on ‘debiasing the corporation’ is a really good one. I’ve spent the best part of two decades trying to help organisations unpack their biases through the use of foresight. I recommend this article to you Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler offers some great insights as to how to make more…
Read More >As the Ipswich Council has determined that recycling schemes are too expensive and indicates it will end collections, the question is ‘what happens next’? If result of the explosion in Tip fees by Councils around Australia is anything to go by, what happens next will not be good China recently decided to end acting…
Read More >