The Future of Humanity: Losing and finding ourselves again

We live in some interesting times. Digital technologies effortlessly connect us to strangers and loved ones all over the world. Artificial intelligence and automation is becoming smarter and more capable, reducing the need for human labor or even human-to-human interaction. Planet Earth is teetering on crisis – climate change threatening famine, war, natural disasters and […]

What if people run out of things to do? Automation, Basic Income and the “Purpose” problem

Imagine this. Your basic expenses are covered. You don’t need to work anymore. You have Monday to Friday free. Nowhere you need to be. Nothing you need to do. You can live (reasonably) comfortably. You have all the time in the world. Now what? With the rise of automation and technological advances, some researchers predict […]

Questions for the AI revolution

There sure is a lot of fearmongering in the media these days. Watch any clip of mainstream news and you’ll get scared out of your pants about terrorism, nuclear war, biosecurity, climate change, and machine intelligence taking over the world. Yes – these are real and important global issues ripe for discussion – but jeez, […]

Addictive technologies and the race for our attention

Let me start with a confession. A (not-so) well-kept secret. In the five years since I’ve started this blog, this is the first post I’ve written about technology. The very first. This might make me a terrible computer scientist. Or it might make me a really focused one. Let me explain. Researcher Dr. Eric Baumer […]