Episode 43: Digital Wellbeing: A New Definition

Scott Klososky launches a new Digital Optimist series on robots and robotics by arguing for a broader definition of “robots” as purpose-built intelligent devices with physical bodies, distinguishing synthetic intelligence (AI models in software without a body) from machine intelligence (intelligence embedded in equipment with sensors and physical capabilities). Using examples like Roomba, robot lawnmowers, drones, factory arms, firefighters’ equipment, campus security, and medical robotics (da Vinci and future autonomous or even internal nanobots), he explains why embodied intelligence will be as impactful as the AI wave, enabling automation of physical work, improved safety, new data collection, precision, repeatability, and 24/7 operation at lower cost. He notes a concern about reduced human physical activity, but remains optimistic, emphasizing helper robots, owner-controlled off buttons, and a future more like The Jetsons/Star Trek than Terminator, previewing upcoming episodes on robots at work, at home, and in unexpected places.

This episode carries on the thinking for what the endgame might look like for technology and organizations. There are seeds already planted that will certainly grow over the next 100 years and may look familiar but blossom in was we never expected. For example, what really will the impacts of AI be on organizations over the long run. Many of the ideas Scott delivers in this pod will be hotly debated for a while. In the long run, we will get to see how prescient he really is!

This podcast kicks off the next series about the Endgame of Digital Transformation. The next four podcasts will postulate what the future may look like when technology is “done” transforming four areas of our world. This podcast kicks off the predications with the impacts of technology on society in general. While no one, not even Scott, can predict the future with 100% accuracy, even being able to imagine the future with some degree of clarity is helpful for knowledge and decisions today. Listen in and see if you agree with the picture Scott paints about what society might look like when our grandkids are old!

There are many CEO’s and CIO’s who cringe the moment someone says the phrase “digital transformation.” Unfortunately, the concept was hijacked by consultants and advisors for a decade and became way overused before an appropriate definition could really get into the dictionary. It became a term synonymous with digitizing business processes. It is a perfect time to redo the common definition and broaden it to look at a fifty-year time in history that is transforming humanity. This podcast also sets up the next series so be sure to listen so you have background needed to understand future episodes.

Maybe one of the more important podcasts in this series, the topic of Digital Wellbeing. A growing problem in the world is our many hours spent interfacing with digital tools, whether at work, or in our personal lives, and many time both. Scott provides an analogy between healthy eating and healthy digital being that you might find interesting!

This is one of Scott’s favorite topics! He has been studying and talking about transhumanism for over a decade and it is time to take this concept more mainstream so we can prepare for the outcome. Our technology tools are becoming more powerful each year and with the advent of powerful robotics and AI, we will soon (historically speaking) have the ability to power our lives and capabilities far past previous generations. At some point, we will no longer be Homo Sapien, we will be a new species that is dimensionally more capable and powerful. We will not be cyborgs, we will humans who are boosted with tools that cause us to be H+. If you have not listened to the previous podast (The Singularity: A Better Definition) please listen to that one first because the Singularity and Transhumanism go together in ways you will learn.

This is one of Scott’s favorite topics! He has been studying and talking about transhumanism for over a decade and it is time to take this concept more mainstream so we can prepare for the outcome. Our technology tools are becoming more powerful each year and with the advent of powerful robotics and AI, we will soon (historically speaking) have the ability to power our lives and capabilities far past previous generations. At some point, we will no longer be Homo Sapien, we will be a new species that is dimensionally more capable and powerful. We will not be cyborgs, we will humans who are boosted with tools that cause us to be H+. If you have not listened to the previous podast (The Singularity: A Better Definition) please listen to that one first because the Singularity and Transhumanism go together in ways you will learn.

Scott starts a new series that is all about finding better definitions for important words we use in the technology field. Too many times words are used that many people really do not understand. In other cases, the words we use are not good at really describing the concepts behind the words. In this first podcast of the series, Scott takes on artificial Intelligence and dramatically expands the words and meanings for different forms of intelligence. By the end, the listener will have a whole new palette of words to choose from when talking about human and synthetic intelligence.

This is an interstitial podcast between two series. There is so much talk about whether AI is good or bad and those words do not do justice to the complexity of that debate. Scott looks at one important aspect by thinking through whether we might become negatively addicted to the use of AI or will AI free us from mundane tasks and free our creative capabilities – or both! The more accurately we can predict the impacts of AI, the better we can adjust how we use it for good. This is the first podcasts that ends in a warning!

Like the story of the fish that do not have a sense that they live in the water because it always all around them, humanity is being impacted by the amplification of technology. For those of us living right in the middle of it, we have a sense that our lives are changing, but we don’t really have the comparative scale to understand how much or how fast. People who have lived for many decades can remember the way it was and compare to the way it is – for better or for worse. Younger people have less perspective to work with. This podcast talks about the dark and the light of digital amplification when looked at through a larger lens. The more precise perspective we can create on what technology can and will do to humanity, the more we can make good decisions on finding the needed balance between humans and machines.