Étiquette : school of life

Homo Deus – The data religion

« Dataism » – this religion doesn’t venerates neither gods nor man – it worships data.

Dataism declares that the universe consists of data flows and expects electronic algorithms to eventually decipher and outperform biochemical algorithms.

Dataism is most entrenched in its two mother disciplines: computer science and biology.

If humanism can be considered a single data-processing system, its output will be the creation of a new and even more efficient data-processing system, called the Internet of All Things.

Homo Deus: Techno-humanism

Just as socialism took over the world by promising salvation through steam and electricity so in the coming decades new techno religions may conquer the world by promising salvation through algorithms and genes.

The techno religions are :

  • techno-humanism
  • data religion

Techno-humanism still sees humans as the apex of creating but agrees that Homo sapiens as we know it has run its historical course and will no longer be relevant in the future. Technology should be used to create Homo deus – a much superior human model that will retain some essential human features, but will enjoy upgraded physical and mental abilities that will enable it to hold its own event against the most sophisticated non-conscious algorithms.

As Sapiens organised in larger groups they lost some skills and aptitudes (smell, paying attention – Fear Of Missing Out, ability to dream). For the economical and political system it was worth it.

The attention helmet – the overuse of it my cause us to lose our ability to tolerate confusions, doubts and contradictions. That means, techno-humanism can end up by downgrading humans. They would lack some really disturbing human qualities that hamper the system and slow it down.

Humanism always emphasised that it is not easy to identify our authentic will. It demands us to listen to the inner messages even if they scare us. Technological progress wants to control the inner voices.

The dilemma: how we can live with such technologies as long as we believe that the human and the human experiences are the supreme source of authority and meaning?

 

Homo Sapiens – the useless class

Most important question of the twenty-first-century economics: what to do with the superfluous people after we will have highly intelligent non-conscious algorithms that can do almost everything better?

As long as machines competed humans merely in physical abilities, there were countless cognitive tasks that humans performed better. What will happen once algorithms outperform us in remembering, analysing and recognising patterns?

Over the last few thousands years we humans have been specialising. For AI to squeeze humans out of the job market it needs only to outperform us in the specific abilities a particular profession demands. The crucial problem is not to create new jobs but to create new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms.

Very soon the traditional model where life was divided into two main parts,a period of learning followed by a period of working, could become utterly obsolete and the only way for humans to stay in the game will be to keep learning throughout their lives and to reinvent themselves repeatedly.

 

 

How to raise mentally tough children

  • Don’t condone a victim mentality – it is OK that sometimes bad things happen, that people won’t treat you fairly – he can choose to try again
  • Don’t prevent them to make mistakes – to make mistakes is OK, you have to learn him how to bounce back – How do we deal with that mistake? How can we do better next time? Learn from mistakes
  • Let them assume responsibility –