Mark Scheipner identified a brand new trend, a refocus on us humans. As a global society we have become addicted to the ongoing product launches of the Bay area, more pixels, more AI, less cables, larger screens…. In 2018 the OUTNR.org movement members expect a resurrection of us humans. Let’s celebrate the creative capacity of our artists, writers, colleagues, children,… Not everything gets better through data domination, versus the scale race of Amazon, Alibaba and Walmart there is an increasing nr of small shops opening up where owners create unique and personal experiences.
David Byrne, former Talking Heads frontman says consumer tech is working against what it means to be human.
“We’re a social species—we benefit from passing discoveries on, and we benefit from our tendency to cooperate to achieve what we cannot alone. In his book Sapiens, Yuval Harari claims this is what allowed us to be so successful. He also claims that this cooperation was often facilitated by an ability to believe in “fictions” such as nations, money, religions, and legal institutions. Machines don’t believe in fictions—or not yet, anyway. That’s not to say they won’t surpass us, but if machines are designed to be mainly self-interested, they may hit a roadblock. And in the meantime, if less human interaction enables us to forget how to cooperate, then we lose our advantage.
Our random accidents and odd behaviors are fun—they make life enjoyable. I’m wondering what we’re left with when there are fewer and fewer human interactions. Remove humans from the equation, and we are less complete as people and as a society.
“We” do not exist as isolated individuals. We, as individuals, are inhabitants of networks; we are relationships. That is how we prosper and thrive.”
David Byrne is a musician and artist who lives in New York City. His most recent book is called How Music Works. A version of this piece originally appeared on his website, davidbyrne.com.
Joost d’Hooghe – In his book “ZERO TO ONE” startup master Peter Thiel writes; “Properly understood, technology is the one way for us to escape competition in a globalizing world. As computers become more and more powerful, they won’t be substitutes for humans; they’ll be complements.” UBER is following this trend of bringing Humanity back into scope;
Uber’s Bozoma Saint John Is Bringing A Touch Of Humanity To Silicon Valley
Forbes Staff Alexandra Wilson:
“This is key to her approach to changing the culture problem at Uber and across Silicon Valley. In addition to professing her undying belief that humans are innately good, she emphasized that it is the natural inclination of humans to find commonality with one another. According to her, embracing humanity will save Silicon Valley from itself.
“The last [advice] that I’ll leave you with is about humanity… in my job now, that is what I’m trying to bring: Some humanity to tech,” she shared. “If you are in a hiring position, hire someone that is nothing like you. We keep looking for the commonalities, but find someone with commonalities that are nothing like you.”
In his Inc. article Chris Matyszczyk shares how he sees the ongoing strive for efficiency is even becoming a threat to the success of Starbucks.
How 5 Minutes at Starbucks Showed Me Where It’s All Gone Wrong
A most admired employer that grew exponentially because of its initial eye for human interaction, creating “places to meet”. In this article Chris makes a powerful observation that the latest “drive in” Starbucks locations might be a threat to the brand itself.
Roland Wijnen shared this all-saying cartoon:
“Everybody is so busy fussing over the latest shiny object, they forget that it isn’t the shiny object that is paying their rent.
And in the age of the Internet, when everything that matters seems to be coming from Silicon Valley and nowhere else, it’s even easier to forget this.
There will always be opportunities for new business, because people will always be having new problems that need solving. That is the world we live in. Amen.”
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