Starting off the week, I spoke to a group of interns at the earliest stages of their careers in journalism. It is tempting on occasions like that to reminisce. After all, when I was their age, reporters smoked in newsrooms, had green lampshades, and composed their stories on old-fashioned manual typewriters.
But if the interns want to know about that distant past stuff, they can read novels or watch old black-and-white movies. My agenda when spending time with them is strictly about the future.
And in that context there are two items in the news I’d recommend to anyone concerned with the future of work, both in the near-term when nobody drives any longer and robots dominate most workforces, and well beyond that.
The first item, courtesy of my old friend Martin Abraham in Malaysia is an article he spotted in Psychology Today titled “Humans Are Fast Evolving Into an Astonishing Lifeform” by Dr. Eric Haseltine.
The article says:
Humans have entered an era of hyper-communication that may be rapidly changing the human species.
Evolutionary biology suggests we may be evolving into super-organisms that limit our individual autonomy.
Loss of autonomy has lead to recent social unrest from aggregations such as globalization and immigration.
Young Americans aged 18-24 get an average of 109.5 texts per day, send 40-50 themselves, check their phones 46-74 times a day, and if they are teens get an average of 240 notifications a day from apps. Adults get an average of 117 professional emails a day.
All the rest of us average a third of the time we’re awake glued to our electronic communications devices.
What this may be doing to us at home and work is the article’s focus.
***
The second recommendation I have about the future of work comes courtesy of my friend and artificial intelligence researcher John Jameson. It is am excellent half-hour interview by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now with journalist Karen Hao, who has written a new book called “Empire of AI.”
Hao finds examples of people around the world using AI in limited, positive ways and casts doubt on whether AGI (artificial general intelligence) is really imminently within our grasp.
She believes, as do other experts I’ve recommended on the topic, that under proper human control, AI tools will perform tasks in ways that will make the future not an apocalypse but a brighter place.
At least as a speaker (I’ve not yet read her book), Hao has an unusual ability to make AI accessible to the lay person. Plus the interview left me feeling much more hopeful about our future with robots.
We all need to know where our society is going, well beyond when we’re part of it. These articles offer some clues.
HEADLINES:
TSA will no longer require all passengers to take shoes off at airport security checkpoints (CNN)
At least 161 people missing in Texas floods as death toll rises to 109 (WP)
Intense downpours like those in Texas are more frequent, but there's no telling where they'll happen (AP)
The Texas Floods and the Lives Lost at Camp Mystic (New Yorker)
At Least 161 Still Missing in a Single Texas County, Governor Says (NYT)
Trump sharply criticizes Putin, announces weapons will go to Ukraine (WP)
McConnell rips Pentagon’s ‘isolationists and restrainers’ after Trump restarts Ukraine aid (Politico)
Gabbard’s team has sought spy agency data to enforce Trump’s agenda (WP)
Ukraine’s political infighting gets nasty (Economist)
The Nuclear Club Might Soon Double (Atlantic)
No, the Government Can’t Just Take Away Your Citizenship (Bloomberg)
Supreme court lifts order blocking Trump’s federal layoffs, paving way for mass job cuts (Guardian)
World’s premier cancer institute faces crippling cuts and chaos (CNN)
Investors snap up growing share of US homes as traditional buyers struggle to afford one (AP)
China's ultimatum to Myanmar rebels threatens the global supply of heavy rare earths. (Reuters)
Musk's America Party has helpers — and challenges (Axios)
How the Binding of Two Brain Molecules Creates Memories That Last a Lifetime (Wired)
What The New Yorker Was Reading in 1925 (New Yorker)
Welcome to Your Job Interview. Your Interviewer Is A.I. (NYT)
Meta reportedly recruits Apple’s head of AI models (TechCrunch)
Marco Rubio impostor uses AI voice to call high-level officials (WP)
Ted Cruz: ‘Vacationing Is How I Grieve’ (The Onion)
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