Remarkable Reading #17: Richard Watsons DIGITAL VS HUMAN and Catherine S.Adair and Teresa Barker's THE BIG DISCONNECT

The aim of this section Remarkable Reading is pay a tribute to the books that taught, share trends & insights into where our world in the 21st century is heading in a technology enabled world, and ask the right questions.

Bolded and italics quotes and references do not belong to myself  and belong directly to the author.  The focus is to share valuable insights and teachings from the book to win business for the authors.

Robots and Artificial Intelligence, as well as The Internet of Things is having a profound and astute collision on our existence.

Robots and Artificial Intelligence, as well as The Internet of Things is having a profound and astute collision with our existence. It is high-priority that we persist in comprehending this advancement.

I recently read THE BIG DISCONNECT: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in a Digital Age by Catherine-Steiner Adair and Teresa Barker  and Richard Watson’s DIGITAL VS HUMANS: How We’ll Live Love, and Think in the Future

THE BIG DISCONNECT: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in a Digital Age by Catherine-Steiner Adair and Teresa Barker is a challenging book harbouring discontent at facets of where we are currently heading in a technological age.

Intricate and particular, THE BIG DISCONNECT is one of the more important books on technology in recent times because it holds reservation on where we are currently at.  The authors have a genuine concern on the impact that technology is having on our future generations, and makes us self-aware of our responsibilities within progress and parenting.

The Two Trends I’ll be touching on are:

1. Where is the impact of advancement in a AI and Robotics technological age? The interrogation on whether we are on the right path with Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
2. What are the potential conundrums that may impact our future generations  negatively?

We must on one hand embrace the technological revolution, and on the other hand ensure that it doesn't impact us too much negatively.

Here are some of the more interesting take-out’s:

Page 6 - “The tech effect has transformed every facet of our lives - from work to home to vacation time away - emerging, dot-by-dot, to reveal a new unsettling family.  While parents and children are enjoying swift and constant access to everything and everyone on the Internet, they are simultaneously struggling to maintain a meaningful personal connection with each other in their own homes. It is the parental paradox of our time: never before has there been so much opportunity for families to plug in and atthe same time disconnect”

Page 4- “We’ve adapted happily, for the most part, to the convenience and connectivity of the computer age.  Our children, born into the digital culture, are natives; they speak the language, tech is their frame of reference, their mind-set.  Kids between the ages of eight and eighteen, according to a 2010 Kaiser Family report, are spending more time on their electronic devices than any other activity besides (maybe) sleeping - an average of more than seven and a half hours a day, seven days a week (i.e everyday)”

Page 83 - “From the 1960s when TV’s dominated American homes and before computers and cellphones became a commonplace, experts warned about the dangers of too much screen time and how important is was to unplug kids and families.  Even so, parents of that era came to depend on TV as a babysitter for dependable entertainment and the promise of educational benefits.  The cautionary voices were duly noted and largely ignored.  But at least a TV set didn’t follow you out the door. When you went to the grocery store or the park or got stuck in traffic with your baby, you had to wing it”

Page 139 - “Studies already suggest that media and social networking plays a role in loneliness, depression, attention problems and tech addiction among adolescents. Other findings also show media exposure contributing to impulsivity and aggression among younger children.  With nature pressing for human interaction and a child’s world of possibility expanding in the new school environment, to trade it all for screen time is a terrible waste of a child's early years”

Page 250 - “It is becoming increasingly clear that schools and parents not only need to help children of all ages resist antisocial cultural norms but to develop the character and humanity to change these norms for the better”

Page 204 - “The worst thing about teen texting culture is that it is unacceptable to call and ask a direct question.  Psychologically, the ability to talk, liste, empathize and ask questions is the touchstone in anyone aspiring to have a mature, loving, sensitive relationship.  Developing the ability requires learning how to assert yourself and be vulnerable , to say what you feel and think, to be curious about the other person's experience, to deepen connection, through understanding without being so afraid of what the response will be”

Richard Watson’s DIGITAL VS HUMANS: How We’ll Live Love, and Think in the Future  is a rigorous and all-embracing book realized through a new-fashioned lens.  Watson’s writing style is worldly-wise, elegant and smooth.  His capacity to comprehend the current wider technological snapshot and present it with absolute clarity makes DIGITAL VS HUMANS: How We’ll Live Love, and Think in the Future a exceptional read.

Here are a few take-out’s I found impulsively delightful:

Page 4 - “Looking back at the origins of modern machines, the purpose of technology was either to do something that humans couldn't do or to remove human drudgery.  The word “robot” comes from the Czech word “robota”, meaning ‘forced labour’. Using machines to replicate people in dull or dangerous jobs is entirely reasonable. Using machines to enhance human interactions and relationships is sensible, too”.

Page 22 - “”But back to how we are changing physical reality.  If you’re not familiar with augmented reality, it is, broadly, the overlaying of information or data (sounds, videos, images, or text) over the real world to make daily life more convenient or more interesting”

Page 27 - “To date, the industrial economy has meant that people have developed a materialist mindset whereby income and material well being become synonymous with quality of life.  But in a post-industrial knowledge economy, where the marginal cost of digital products and services is practically zero, people are starting to realise that they can improve their quality of life immeasurably without increasing their income”

Page 129 - “One small story I can’t forget , and that I almost started this book with, concerns a retired 89 year-old art teacher and former Royal Navy engineer called Anne, from Sussex.  A keen environmentalist, Anne decided to end her life in 2014 because she felt computers had taken the humanity out of human interaction”

People, she thought, were becoming ‘robots’ addicted to their gadgets, she couldn’t understand why so many people spent so many hours sitting in front of screens.  As she put it, “they say adapt or die.  At my age I feel I can’t adapt because the new age is not an age I grew up to understand.  I see everything as cutting corners”

Page 188 - “Second, what are humans good at that machines , no matter how smart, are not?  According to Michael Osborne and Carl Frey, the answer is social and creative intelligence.  I’d endorse this, but add empathy, intuition, nuance, and personality. Hopefully, as smart machines become cheaper, this should force us to place more value on human interaction - and one  of the things people like about people is personality.  Also, any job that requires us to understand, inspire, oir connect with other human beings should be safe, so teachers, nurses, doctors, dentists, hair stylists, poets, artists, actors, filmmakers, craftspeople, writers of fiction, psychologists, and motivational managers should be safe.  I’d also like to think that the idea of honour - a favourite in medieval times, could return, and we might see Head of Honour as a job Title”

Page 238 - “The good news is that if you are reading this before the year 2050, it’s unlikely that you’ll have been troubled by a robot uprising”.  For the foreseeable future, it is humans who are in charge, although therein lies a problem. It is humans who are in charge, although therein lies a problem.  It is humans who are causing the problems. It is not technology that we need to concern ourselves with, but ourselves”

Page 243 - “Amending the ‘three laws of robotics’ proposed by Isaac Asimov in 1942 might be a good place to start, much as existential threatt of killer robots”

Page 245- “Peter Thiel says that people no longer believe in the future, but I suspect that this could be because they can no longer see one - especially one with them playing a useful role in it. There’s currently no long-term vision beyond what is given to us by technologists such as Thiel, so we need to create one that has humanity at its core”

As we progress with the technological age and robotics, I think one of the most crucial things we have to ask ourselves, is what is our role?  What do we want to be doing everyday?  In what structure and environment do we want to work?  How will we compensate for any hours replaced by robots in terms of the work force?

You can purchase a copy of  THE BIG DISCONNECT: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in a Digital Age by Catherine-Steiner Adair and Teresa Barker here, follow Catherine-Steiner Adair on Twitter here,  follow Teresa Barker on here,

You can purchase a copy of DIGITAL VS HUMANS: How We’ll Live Love, and Think in the Future here, follow Richard Watson on Twitter here, and connect with him on LinkedIN here.

Thank you,

Praz

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