A failure of imagination and the rise of enhanced cognition as a human right

Mickey McManus In the 1800’s Jacquard introduced the loom and we
think, “well there go all of our jobs making clothing!” We can’t
imagine anyone but the very wealthy can have more than a set or two
of fine clothing. Or even think about the rise of companies like
Levi’s and H&M or entire new industries to organize clothing,
or wash and take care of clothes. Never mind that the Jacquard loom
uses these little cards with punched holes as instructions and may
soon inspire us to create the age of electronic computing. The rise
of automation has always driven new forms of work since the
beginning of humanity. Though each time a new era is born it seems
like the technological shock will end work. We have seen this
before, and we’ve even come up with solutions that helped us dig
out of the “valley of dread” that the new shock has precipitated.
Consider this, each time automation has brought us to a peak of job
growth we’ve responded with an investment in education. When
farmers in the United States began to see that they wouldn’t need
all their kids on the farm, they created a groundswell effort in
Ohio called the high school movement. When the first electronic
computers where invented to break cryptographic code during World
War 2 and we had a large veteran population returning home, the
country invested in the GI bill and paid for every veteran to go to
college, heralding in the computing era. Now we have the rise of
the cognitive age. The anxiety this time is at a fever pitch.
Ultimately we have crumbling infrastructure in the developed world
and non-existent infrastructure in the emerging world. We will need
more things — that fit us better, and waste less — than ever
before. There is plenty of work to do, but our own biases and
methods of learning may be standing in our way. Come
and explore the potential for machine/human learning and play
as a new way - a means of helping individuals and organizations
thrive with enhanced cognition as a new human right.