The paradox of an exponential tech world ...

Wrapped Reichstag, 1985. Christo and Jeanne-Claude

A thread from Twitter:

The paradox of an exponential tech world: It’s human skills, and needs, that will really matter.

The ‘machines’ will be doing every task that is ‘structured, repeatable, predictable’. So what will us humans do? Some (but small numbers) will be writing code. But the 90% not doing that? Human work….

Having great human skills will be the essential capability of most successful humans. Design, Imagination, Inspiration, Creation, Empathy, Intuition, Innovation, Abstract & Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Social intelligence, Judgement.

These will be leveraged to machine skills, but mostly WE won’t be doing ‘tech’ work. We’ll be doing human work. Because the machines, largely, don’t need our tech skills.

So where will we be doing this human work? In the Metaverse? Via avatars? Or with other real life, corporeal humans? Our AI assistants might play in the Metaverse on our behalf but will we? I suspect we are making a mistake…

We’re assuming our lives will become ever more tech enabled, because the tech is available to make it so. But we add little value in anything other than where we can use our human skills. To create the value to play it’s these skills that will fill our days.

The irony of hyper tech is that it commoditises us humans. Some (a v small %) will amass fortunes. But ordinary levels of wealth will accrue to the most human amongst us. Purpose is our Achilles heal. We humans need it. And mostly, purpose comes from humanity.

So, giving humans what the machines cannot, will be the killer skill in a hyper technical world. We’ll all have great tech; what else we have will be what matters.

Just look at the mess that so many super rich people are. They have everything, but find it means little. They lose what it means to be a human. And that ends badly. We’ll all be like that one-day. Our tech will be wondrous, but it won’t be enough.

So my guess is that using tech to enable people to live richer human lives will reap great rewards. They isn’t a richer life to be had in the Metaverse. Fun, entertaining, addictive yes. But richer? No.

And TBC, this is a profoundly pro tech thread. Tech must be embraced, the future must be grasped. But that is table stakes. How one builds the human layer on top of the tech will be the superpower. Human on tech, not tech on human. The two are very different.

PS. All of which means quite a lot for real estate….