Artificial intelligence has reached a buzzword utopia as it seems everyone is talking about self-driving cars, delivery drones and virtual assistants with human-like "intelligence." Some believe this new era of AI will make the American Dream universally accessible, enabling early retirement in bucolic settings. Others are concerned about a greater inequality created by a jobless future.  ​

Technological advancements have connected billions of people (and digitally divided the rest), merged real and virtual worlds and enabled our collaboration with robots - at least in the form of software that streamlines everyday tasks. 

Yet, since the beginning of the third industrial revolution about 40 years ago, job insecurity has steadily increased as the life cycle of relevant skills has decreased (Blanchflower and Oswald, 2011). 

This trend could continue with the AI-enabled fourth industrial revolution. While having the potential to significantly improve productivity, AI could dramatically reduce the need for workers and present serious challenges for healthcare industries, governments and individuals (Schwab, 2015). ​

One option for reducing financial anxiety related to the decreased demand for human labor is to provide subsidies to every adult. A recent US survey found that 46% of people support the idea of a universal basic income, formulated as a "negative income tax" (Milton Friedman), guaranteed income (Martin Luther King Jr.) or annual cash grant (Charles Murray). The idea did not pass the vote in Switzerland, but is under consideration in India, Finland and Oakland, California. Earlier case studies - such as the Alaska Permanent Fund, established 40 years ago, has revealed unintended consequences: the program encouraged retirees to move to Alaska, squeezed wages, fostered addiction to "free money", and created a “consumption-frenzy” at local shops when the checks were distributed. Last month Alaska House voted to lower the dividend, and this could hit middle-income residents relying on it. ​

​But even if the government provided a stable money supply, would it be easy to find a purpose in the jobless future?

Gig economy, volunteerism and citizen science could potentially provide such a purpose. But Uber-like platforms are built for "lone wolf" and low skilled kind of jobs, while collaborative research, in its current form, works best for environmental sciences. Besides, it increases expectations that research for the public good should be done by volunteers rather than paid professionals.
​
To prepare for the new automated future, we need completely new collaboration platforms that help master and utilize high level skills. We'll share our thoughts about it next time.

REFERENCES

David G. Blanchflower, & Andrew J. Oswald (2011).
International Happiness: A New View on the Measure of Performance Academy of Management Perspectives, 25 (1), 6-22

Klaus Schwab. The Fourth Industrial Revolution. World Economic Forum; 2015

​Goldsmith, Oliver Scott. "The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend: A Case Study in Implementation of a Basic Income Guarantee." (2010).

Forget EL. The town with no poverty: using health administration data to revisit outcomes of a Canadian guaranteed annual income field experiment. 2011. 

Elections are bad for your health.

More than half of Americans, independently of their party preference, are stressed about upcoming elections (see this August 2016 survey of over 3.5 thousand adults conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of American Psychological Association). Especially the oldest and the youngest voters (Traditionalists and Millennials). Social media is one of the major factors making this stress even worse. 
​
Election stress is higher than we think - judging by cortisol levels in saliva versus self-reported emotional distress. Stress is high at the ballot box - higher than when voting at home by mail-in ballot and significantly higher than on an average day and a few days after the election - unless we strongly dislike post-election media coverage. 

Elections may cause anxiety, obsessive compulsive behavior and even depression. And then there are post-election blues. Stock market always performs weaker. Supporters of the winning candidate go through withdrawal pains, although, research shows, they might get more interested in the Internet porn. Supporters of a losing candidate move through sadness and decreased levels of testosterone. 

Yet, anxiety can sharpen our eyes and help us learn. 

To vote is like the payment of a debt (R.B. Hayes, 19th US president). One who does not vote has no right to complain (novelist Louis L'Amour). Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost (John Quincy Adams, 6th US president)

And no matter what happens, we should not feel powerless for we actually possess more power than ever before to control our own lives and make them what we want to be. 
​

REFERENCES

In the future all humans will be tall and beautiful look-alikes, as in GATTACA. Or they will split into frail beauties and sturdy beasts, as described in H. G. Wells' The Time Machine. British evolutionary psychologist Oliver Curry and paleoanthropologist Matthew Skinner believe in the possibility of similar scenarios, based on either the rich and poor divide ("gracile" vs "robust" species) or climate change-related evolution (pale hairy giants vs aquatic and space humans). 

The change may be already happening, as humans continue to evolve. What traits - end products of our individual developmental histories - are most important to succeed in the modern age? ​

Human history tells that individuals whose brains were better at manipulating others were more likely to survive. Additional abilities of the brain such as processing complex visual, auditory and olfactory clues have been also proven helpful and compensated for diminishing physical and sensory abilities. Invention of more sophisticated weapons, computers and sensors and the increased specialization of jobs may have slowed down the progress in some of the brain areas. Hyperspecialization would offer significant advantages for companies and society, but could it reduce humans into masters of a few simple operations? Stanford geneticist Gerald Crabtree even argues that our brains reached a peak several thousand years and have declined ever since. Not everyone agrees with this conclusion, so the jury is still out on the direction of brain evolution and the future of the intellectual elite.

​The evolutionary "beauty race" is also still on. According to scientific research, humans are becoming more attractive, or at least gaining more traits preferred by other humans. It is especially pronounced in those more successful than average. American presidents, for example, are taller and healthier than other American men. French executives are 2.6 cm (1.02 inches) taller than the national average. Unattractive men in England earn 15% less than those deemed attractive, while plain women earn 11% less than pretty ones. Yet most of these traits are not exclusively determined by genes but by the access to resources and knowledge, the abilities to make the most of what you have and the confidence to carry yourself in the best way. Scientists found that height and looks during the most difficult pubescent years, influencing the development of self-confidence,  are important in determining future success. ​

100 years ago, Olympic athletes looked pretty much like each other. Modern Olympians present vastly different versions of an athletic body, illustrating that human evolution could go many different ways. 6'5'' Usain Bolt is less aerodynamic and has far more "fast-twitch" muscle fibers than previous runners and most modern day humans. 5'3'' Kohei Uchimura has BMI of 21 and lower body fat percentage than most Olympic gymnasts of the past.  

Commercially available genetic tests related to exercise and sport are widely criticized for ethical and scientific reasons, but height and the length of limbs are already used for pre-screening of children to determine which sport they might excel in. More genetic and physiological measurements will be utilized in the future. One recent discovery is the asymmetrical egg shape of the right hip joints for golfers, although it remains to be established whether professional golfers have this trait because of extensive training or whether players with such hip shapes are more likely to become professional. 

Like beauty and brains, bodies are shaped by both nature and nurture and might require early training and specialization. Will the future society be divided into factions with pre-determined fates? In an ever more competitive world starting to resemble Olympic games, will our genes and childhood bodies decide  - once and for all - what we do for the rest of our lives?

REFERENCES

Millions of years ago our ancestors straightened up and started carrying tools around, instead of dropping them after use. And so technology became a part of daily routine.  ​

2015 was predicted to be the breakthrough year for wearable technology. Wearables were the most common talk topic of technology-, advertising- and fashion-focused conferences. The market for wearable tech, especially that which is focused on fitness, is indeed exploding. But while cute and increasingly ubiquitous -- on the wrists, necks, or clipped to the body of all your friends -- many wearables are still single-purpose, redundant, or just plain useless, raising concerns about privacy and even etiquette. No wonder, there is a high return and product abandonment rate. Yet, the wearable future is coming faster than most futurologists thought  ...