Techno-Biotic Podcast

Our guest this week is Brian Solis - http://www.briansolis.com

We discuss various aspects of how experience and good design are key differentiators for successful brands. We dive into various aspects of experience and design and why the concept of experience architecture is a key element in the practical application of designing for experiences that consumers love and want to share with others.

Check out Brian’s books on this subject, specifically X and What The Future.

https://www.briansolis.com/books/

Brian shares his journey about how fake news, dark patterns in programming and our own brains lead him to write his most recent book, Lifescale. In Lifescale he offers guidance on how to refocus your life and make the best usage of technology to enhance, rather than control your life.

Take a look at these SXSW keynotes for more on that journey.

https://youtu.be/aB2WUYNqFHQ

https://youtu.be/jz9RpPn7jHI

In this episode, Laura and Shane talk with Dan Turchin, the founder and CEO of Astound.AI - https://astound.ai/

We touch on a variety of areas in this discussion including:

• Which jobs are best suited for AI and what jobs will continue to require humans to perform them?
  
• Why AI is fundamentally about making the lives of humans better?
  
• What is coming in the next 2 years related to how we use and interact with AI?
  
• How AI is currently impacting how people work today?
  
• How do we redefine human value beyond our ability to trade our time for a wage.
  
• The difference between Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Narrow Artificial Intelligence and why the current usages we see today is more focused on Narrow AI? - https://medium.com/@tjajal/distinguishing-between-narrow-ai-general-ai-and-super-ai-a4bc44172e22
  
• Where does empathy and curiosity come into play between humans and AI?
  
• Is it too late to re-skill the workforce to support the future? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2019/05/04/how-to-reskill-your-workforce-for-ai-artificial-intelligence/#78531eae3eb9
  
• Dan introduces us to the concept of “Dull, Dirty, or Dangerous” as the litmus test for where there is an opportunity for machines to do a job that a human is currently performing. - https://www.robotics.org/blog-article.cfm/How-Robots-Are-Taking-on-the-Dirty-Dangerous-and-Dull-Jobs/209
  
• Whether we should fear that AI will take jobs away from people.
  
• Whether AI will eventually decide that humans are imperfect and shouldn’t exist and why some technologists fear this outcome. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra3fv8gl6NE
  
• How low cost compute power has democratized access to AI and Machine Learning.
  
• Topics coming out of the recent British Standards Institute conference on AI. - https://shop.bsigroup.com/Navigate-by/Conferences/Conferences/Now-Booking/The_Digital_World_Artificial_Intelligence/BSI_Event_TheDigital_WorldArtificialIntelligence/
  

Laura brings up the collaboration between Barbie and Headspace for a Mindful Barbie meant to introduce younger folks to the concept and benefits of mindfulness. https://www.thetoyinsider.com/barbie-wellness/

Shane talks about how his daughter’s elementary school introduced the students to Calm.com and trained them to recognized their own anxiety triggers around schoolwork and social situations.

Shane calls out a tweet by Jabe Bloom that asked “Which notifications bring you joy?” And discusses how notifications can drive joy or anxiety depending on the context. https://twitter.com/cyetain/status/1222893652617388032

Matt talks about his fears as a father that technology has the potential to negatively impact younger folks at an early age, especially cyber bullying. What role should parents play in understanding and managing the technology your children are exposed to?

We talk about the role technology plays in the erosion of work life balance and the impact that has on personal relationships. We also discuss how some countries have legislated the use of work technology after the work day ends.

We talk about how some companies are dealing with rising anxiety and mental health in the workplace.

We talk about our relationships with technology and how we see it as an escape or way of relaxing or unwinding. Matt touches on the blue light and it’s impact on our brains and sleep patterns. Shane brings up the trend of societies sleep patterns and the potential to use technology as a way to enhance human performance as we learn more and collect more data through wearables.

Blue Light Impacts: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side

Sleep trends: https://www.sleepadvisor.org/sleep-statistics/

We discuss bullying and the dynamics of human interaction online versus face to face. This morphs into a conversation about listening more and talking less and active listening skills as a method of mindfulness and the importance of making space for others as well as yourself. Headspace gets it’s 4th (unsponsored) mention. https://www.headspace.com/

A discussion on the stigma of admitting mental health issues for boys and young men and for girls with Hungarian mothers. We talk about the power of sharing and being transparent about our own mental health struggles and working on increasing empathy in our interactions.

We talk about what it takes to get humans to change and reference the work of John Kotter. https://www.kotterinc.com/

Laura shares with us her brilliant lock screen that reminds her that other things in that moment may be more important than her phone.

https://www.techno-biotic.com/maps-the-journey-and-technobiotic-lock-screens