Decoding Tomorrow:
Futurism and Foresights Today

Foresights and ideas that expand minds and inspire a change of heart.

Your 2020 Vision is Turning You Into a Cyborg

19 Feb 2020

20/20 vision is a term normally used to explain the clarity or sharpness of your vision. If you have 20/20 vision, you are said to have a perfect and high-definition vision. As someone who has astigmatism and has been wearing specs since age 9, I am not in this category, unfortunately. 20/20 Vision has been held up as the golden standard. But as we move into the future, this standard will be upgraded. With the help of technological progress, your vision will go beyond 20/20 Vision—if you manage to keep up with the biotech trends.

"Smart glasses are augmenting our abilities and vision, as well as helping us improve human imperfections and go beyond them. It is making us all into cyborgs."

As we are getting settled into the year 2020, we are starting to witness the convergence of old technologies and the eruption of new ones. This year symbolically marks the coming together of the future and the present. At a time when change has never been this fast and will never be this slow again, the dawn of a new (trans)humanity shows great promise. 

With the help of technology, we are able to enhance and improve our vision beyond 20/20 vision. This new technology has turned eyewear (the original wearable technology!) into extremely sophisticated intelligent aids. Smart glasses have made it possible for us to not only use glasses to see better, but to actually receive information right in front of our eyes, and amplify our physical realities. Smart glasses (and lenses) are augmenting our abilities, as well as helping us improve human imperfections and go beyond them. Could it be that these wearable/implantable technologies are making us all into Cyborgs?

Or, are you and me already cyborgs?

Vision and its technology is not the only way to enhance our mental and physical selves. There are already several technology devices out there that are already doing this for you. You might even be holding one 'cyborg converter' in your hand right now reading this blog article. That is rightone of them is your phone. 

Does being a cyborg might sound far-fetched? Because you might think that cyborgs are a combination of human and superhuman features in a more synthetic, robotic fashion? This is not the case. Cyborgs emerge where people's mental and physical abilities are extended with the courtesy of technology (either medical or electrical devices for example).


The big question is: How much smarter are you with your phone than without? 

Just think about it: How many times has your phone helped you find the answer to an important query? Or helped you find the way to the nearest (and best reviewed) coffee shop? You always have the answers within reach and the smart phone is helping you amplify and augment your intelligence, making it an extension of your physical self and your mental abilities.

Though these technologies embed the wisdom of the Internet in us, they have also been blamed for taking away the face-to-face interaction and culture within business. I disagree; I do not think we are losing our human connection. Yes, digital might affect our productivity, but it greatly augments our human problem-solving abilities. 

Amber Case, who studies the interaction between humans and technology, believes that we connect easier and faster today than ever before. Social networks, online gaming and virtual interface are just a few examples of tools that help extend the mental self. Case believes these human-technology interactions amplify human-ness because they allow people to overcome the geographic and social barriers that would otherwise prevent them from connecting with one another. It is still a human connection, just done in a different way. 

Elon Musk says that you can answer any question with your phone. If you’re connected to the Internet you can answer any question pretty much instantly. Any calculation. Your phone’s memory is essentially perfect. You can reminisce without hindrances because your phone can remember videos and pictures perfectly. Your phone is already an extension of you.

singularity timeline

On the far horizon, this technology is set to have evolved so much that it becomes more intelligent than us humans. Ray Kurzweil has prognosticated that by 2029 artificial intelligence will pass a valid Turing test and reach levels of human intelligence, and by 2045 "The Singularity" will occur. This is where we will augment our effective intelligence and unite with the intellect we have managed to create.

 

So how can this technology benefit your business?


If your business incorporates new technology, you enable your workers to be more in control and in charge. You can train them via e-learning, allowing your employees learn at their own pace. You also have a chance of enhancing your business culture for the better. By including apps and online platforms you can create more meaningful and a deeper level of communication with your employees. Shaun Green, author of Culture Hacker and a consultant, said this when doing an interview for Inc.com: This enhanced technology is allowing more people to be involved in performance conversations by making it easy to contribute thoughts or deliver peer-to-peer recognition.

This mobile technology is already helping over 80% of business owners today creating everything from appointment scheduling, to-do lists, notes and much more way more effectively. Integrating this new technology is highly beneficial, and it is way past due to do so. 

Rather than only getting feedback from your employees once a year about their needs, wants or thoughts, you can get it from them regularly and keep improving your business throughout the months of the year. Your phone can do work for you 24/7, making your day-to-day life easier and more efficient. 

I had the pleasure on being Facebook's Futurist-in-Residence during their Zero Friction Future project and got to sit down with Mark Fitzgibbon, CEO of nib, where he gave some further tips on how Facebook's augmenting technology can foster better employee experience and eventually initiate new innovations for business. 

Do you want to taking advantage of this technology and set sail into the future? Want to stay up to date on the future trends, augment yourself like a cyborg and make sure your business will be around in the next years to come? Take part in our Scenario Planning Webinar. A webinar where you have the chance to amplify yourself to cope with the exponential changes happening now and in the foreseeable future. 


Scenario Planning Webinar with Futurist Anders Sörman-Nilsson

0 Comment