Would you let your boss upgrade your brain?
David Prentice
Which of these three scenarios do you think is most likely to happen in your workplace by 2018:
* Employees will communicate by hologram
* Robots or artificial intelligence programs will make some business decisions
* Businesses will use brain chips to enhance their employees' skills
According to a survey of members of the UK's Chartered Management Institute the first is most likely. Some 31% of more than 1000 senior executives polled thought it would happen. The AI scenario came next with 27% believing it would come to pass, while only 12% could see future managers upgrading workers using brain chips of some kind.
The Institute did the survey as part of a large report considering what the world of work will be like a decade from now. As well as demographic changes, like more people working from home to look after elderly relatives or children, and more women appearing in high-ranking positions, they came up with some technological predictions.
Most eye-catching are the 16 "surprise scenarios" that "organisations will also need to prepare and have contingency plans for". They include the brain chip and AI scenarios mentioned above, as well as cyber attacks that bring down the internet, and the US being taken over by a totalitarian regime.
Like most exercises in futurology, I find the technical predictions disappointing. Given the time horizon was only ten years, I think they should have been a bit more down to earth.
The full report is available here http://www.managers.org.uk/listing_media_1.aspx?id=10:347&id=10:138&id=10:11&doc=10:5141
Tom Simonite, online technology reporter
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/03/would-you-let-your-boss-upgrade-your.html
Friday, March 14, 2008
Matt Browne SFW
business. Brain chips are very likely to develop, but I expect huge
resistance from society. Eventually we'll have robots capable of
passing the Turing test, though not in 2018 yet. Eventually we might
even be able to carry out 'mind uploading', e.g. creating the copy of
a human brain's state inside a computer. The communication in 2018
might be enhanced using head-mounted displays instead of video
conferences. With enough bandwidth this will feel very real...
--
Matt Browne
My webpage is at http://www.meet-matt-browne.com
"As a race, we survive on planet Earth purely by geological consent."
Bill McGuire
On Mar 16, 11:27 am, "David Prentice" <d...@FRC.ORG> wrote:
> Would you let your boss upgrade your brain?
> Which of these three scenarios do you think is most likely to happen in your workplace by 2018:
>
> * Employees will communicate by hologram
> * Robots or artificial intelligence programs will make some business decisions
> * Businesses will use brain chips to enhance their employees' skills
>
> According to a survey of members of the UK's Chartered Management Institute the first is most likely. Some 31% of more than 1000 senior executives polled thought it would happen. The AI scenario came next with 27% believing it would come to pass, while only 12% could see future managers upgrading workers using brain chips of some kind.
>
> The Institute did the survey as part of a large report considering what the world of work will be like a decade from now. As well as demographic changes, like more people working from home to look after elderly relatives or children, and more women appearing in high-ranking positions, they came up with some technological predictions.
>
> Most eye-catching are the 16 "surprise scenarios" that "organisations will also need to prepare and have contingency plans for". They include the brain chip and AI scenarios mentioned above, as well as cyber attacks that bring down the internet, and the US being taken over by a totalitarian regime.
>
> Like most exercises in futurology, I find the technical predictions disappointing. Given the time horizon was only ten years, I think they should have been a bit more down to earth.
>
>
> Tom Simonite, online technology reporterhttp://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/03/would-you-let-you...
> Friday, March 14, 2008