Category Archives: Transhuman News

In 'Back To The Future', Marty and Doc travel in time from 1985 to 2015. In the fictional version of 2015 there's hoverboards and self-lacing shoes. While the latter happened IRL in late 2016, a lot of the film's other future predictions were a little off.

Though what's not too far fetched is the idea of robots, or artificial intelligence, working its way into our very real and ordinary lives in the not too distant future. Self-driving cars are already a thing, and that's only the beginning.

"Artificial Intelligence (or AI) is likely to do to white collar jobs like how machines have been doing blue collar work. In other words, just like our brawns have been digitised, so will our brains be," Anders Sorman-Nilsson, global futurist and TEDx speaker told The Huffington Post Australia.

Sorman-Nilsson is the author of Seamless: The Futurephile's Guide To Leading Digital Adaptation And Human Transformation. His book explores how life and business will change in the future and what can be done now to best adapt to that. A futurephile refers to someone who is open and excited about technology in the future, while a futurephobe is someone who is frightened of it.

"What we should more concerned about is not necessarily the exponential change in artificial intelligence or robotics, but about the stagnant response in human intelligence. For example, schools and universities are now preparing students for jobs that will no longer be in existence 10 years from now.

"On the flip side, adaptive, agile and creative humans will figure out how to partner with the machines and new forms of intelligence. For example, we can imagine a near future where Siri stops behaving emotionally unintelligently and instead fully replaces your executive assistant, marketing manager, and sales support," Sorman-Nilsson said.

Sorman-Nilsson says that while artificial intelligence will run the back office of your business, it is unlikely to be the front of your brand.

"Neo-luddites [those who are considered to be anti-technology] who prefer apathy, complacency or nostalgia will try to fight this next evolution of digital disruption, and will likely be left behind. Anything that can be digitised will eventually be digitised, so a key question for anyone seeking to scenario plan their future career to ensure their thinking remains attractive in 2027 is: what thinking skills can never be digitised?"

"Fundamentally human skills like entrepreneurship, strategic thinking, philosophy, team-building, creativity, empathy, emotionally intelligent leadership, counter-intuitive insights, and connected sales(wo)manship will have a premium placed upon them. In other words, less time pushing paper and doing menial stuff, and more time doing meaningful stuff," Sorman-Nilsson said.

"We do a lot of scenario planning with banks, which in many ways are really just technology companies with banking licenses. So, yes, in a cashless, paperless and seamless banking future, a lot of banking jobs will be lost to automation and artificial intelligence," Sorman-Nilsson said.

"What our simulations show is that one aspect to the debate around artificial intelligence that is frequently lost is the fact that AI and digitisation will impact certain activities in our everyday lives, such as marketing automation or robotic advice, but it may not fully remove the 50 percent of jobs that some pundits talk about. In the face of this, as humans we need to be a little paranoid about the exponential changes ahead -- enough so to move us into upgrading our thinking -- but not so much as to be paralysed."

Probing Sorman-Nilsson on if us laypeople should be afraid of this future, he says it all comes down to how we think.

"I see a correlation between what I term 'futurephobes' in my most recent book, who tend to posses a general technophobia which includes deep suspicion of artificial intelligence, and dystopic views of that same future. Disruption is a signal from the future that it is high time to adapt, and that smart investments in the right hardware and software, which includes your own thinking software, have to be made."

"To me it is astounding that in Australia we are so obsessed with bricks and mortar property, but we are less concerned with investments in our own intellectual property, and AI certainly raises the stakes to ensure our thinking remains future-compatible. If you think like a 'futurephile' you will see that AI will free up our time to do meaningful work -- a sales professional, rather than spending 30 to 40 percent of their day doing data-entry, can fit in more meaningful meetings with humans, and a financial adviser can focus on more actively helping their clients' fulfil their financial dreams by outsourcing some regulatory work to RegTech instead," Sorman-Nilsson said.

"While my mum, who is my toughest pro-bono client, tends to think of the future as digitally dehumanised, for a futurephile like myself, the future holds the promise of an even more human era," Sorman-Nilsson said.

"A future where we can connect more deeply with our loved ones because we are no longer punching spreadsheets. One where our artificially intelligent assistant locks in the most optimal price and payment terms for our family holidays based on our unique psychographics, budgets and interests while we sleep, and where we are freed up to meditate or rejoin the local football club because we are delivered from the stress of pointless paperwork and meaningless visits to the post office to prove our identities."

Sorman-Nilsson says that artificial intelligence will excel in the fields of big data -- like diagnosis, investment advice, personalised medicine, smart buildings, energy management, transport, logistics, engineering and accounting.

"This will mean that your 'left brain' might get some much needed support, while your 'right brain' will be able to flourish. But while the promise of AI is exciting, it will take a really good human sales(wo)man to make us really trust and buy into artificial intelligence."

In his role as a futurist, Sorman-Nilsson is looking forward to what's to come.

"As a global futurist and futurephile, one of the things that excites me about artificial intelligence is the death of procrastination -- anything 'left brained' that we avoided and delayed doing, like taxes, filing, travel expense coding, receipt management, and updating our calendars will be procrastinated on no longer. That in and of itself should sell you on the virtue of AI -- unless you of course derive a lot of pleasure from these activities, in which case I urge you to upgrade and diversify your thinking," Sorman-Nilsson said.

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Will Artificial Intelligence Take Our Jobs? We Asked A Futurist - Huffington Post Australia

Campaigners hoping to save the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough from demolition have vowed to fight a decision that prevents the building being listed.

As reported by The Stage in January, campaigners had hoped that an application from the council to make the building immune from listing would be rejected by the government. A certificate of immunity from listing means the venue could not be statutorily listed for a period of five years and could therefore be demolished.

Scarborough Council approved 4 million of funding to demolish the theatre earlier this year. Although there are no plans for a replacement development, theme park Flamingo Land has previously expressed an interest in the site.

Historic England, which oversees the listing of buildings, confirmed to The Stage the government was minded to approve a certificate of immunity from listing for the Futurist in Scarborough on the advice of Historic England.

Nick Bridgland, listing team leader in the north said: We realise that there is much local interest in and affection for the Futurist. We carefully assessed the Futurist for listing and advised that because the building has been extensively altered over the years, it does not have the special historic or architectural interest to meet the criteria for national listing.

There will now be a statutory period of 28 days to allow for review, after which a final decision will be made by the government.

Responding, the Theatres Trust said it was considering appealing the move.

Local support for the building has grown strong over the last few months and campaigners are continuing to battle to save the Futurist. We support the Save the Futurist campaign group and other stakeholders who would like to see the Futurist Theatre restored for cultural use, it said.

It added: [The Futurist] could provide a large-scale theatre for the presentation of musicals, comedy, music and drama in Yorkshire, thanks to its capacity and flytower, and would be an immense cultural and economic benefit to the people of Scarborough.

Read more from the original source:
Scarborough's Futurist loses battle for listing to prevent demolition - The Stage

10:05 Monday 13 February 2017

Londons futurist duo The Alpines Bob Matthews and Catherine Pockson describe their music as a meeting in the middle between them.

We have been together since 2010, says Catherine as they head out on a tour which takes them to The Prince Albert, Brighton on February 22. We actually met at a wedding of a mutual friend of ours. Bob was playing in the band at the wedding. He was part of an indie band before we became The Alpines. I was doing a lot of my own stuff at the time, solo stuff, and we wrote some stuff together. We got quite a lot of interest after one or two shows in London, and we got signed quite quickly after that. Its funny how it works out.

As for the name: One of the first trips we did was taking a road trip down to the Alps. We made a lot of CDs and mix tapes and put them in the car and discussed a lot of music and influences. It was quite a formative thing for us. And the Alps are just one of the most beautiful places. We wanted a good name, and Alpines are plants that grow on the higher reaches of mountains and are pretty hardy. We thought it would be a good name. We come from very different musical backgrounds. I come from a more soul, jazz, r n b upbringing, and Bob was more indie, electronic and rock. One of his favourite bands is The Beatles, so our music is like a merging of our quite different backgrounds. I would describe it as intimate and quite soulful, but with quite a wide soundscape. There is width to it. We wanted to make music that was emotional and honest.

Bob agrees: But what I think we both have in common is that we both love pop music and classic song-writing. Thats the foundation of everything we do, and the rest of it just comes through our influences. Mine are more ambient and avant-garde. Hers are more soul and the music of the 90s.

Another River, their second album, came out last October: It went well. We have got a few good reviews, and people felt there was a progression from the first album. We wanted to make sure that we kept moving forwards and did something that was different to the first one. Rather than forcing it, I think we just let it happen. It was more like the shackles coming off. This time we wanted to do the music that we wanted to do and not worry about what other people thought. I think that created its own progression, and we were also two to three years older.

Catherine agrees: Partly also it is confidence. And experience. If you let yourself worry too much about the charts and what is popular, you lose sight of what you are trying to do. I think it is important to remember what you are about. You have got to remember your purpose, and you have got create something new, to push the boundaries. We were really, really pleased with it. We wrote nearly a hundred songs for it. It went back and forth. There are ten on the album.

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Brighton date for London's futurist duo The Alpines - Chichester ... - Chichester Observer