The Future Human

How Might We Live, Think, Work and Evolve in the Future?

Initially, we wanted to link this to A.I and the changing face of work, but it goes much deeper than this. The crux of the matter is that we are humans and how will future humans become? The Future Human is not simply about how we cope with A.I., technology or changing work. It is about how we continue to evolve as human beings. We are living longer, learning differently and gaining access to tools that can extend our knowledge, health and capabilities. Yet we remain (we must) human, with our own strengths, judgement, emotions and fragilities. The real question is therefore not only what the future will do to us, but what we can become as we learn, adapt and make use of the possibilities around us.

Human beings have always adapted to the world around us. Always. That's why it is called evolution.

We have learnt to live longer, communicate across distances, build increasingly complex societies, develop new forms of medicine and education, and create technologies that extend what our bodies and minds can do. Every generation inherits capabilities that previous generations did not have, and then has to decide how to use them.

The Future Human explores where that continuing evolution might take us. Artificial intelligence is certainly part of this story, but it is not the whole story. Longer lifespans, advances in healthcare, neuroscience, biotechnology, human enhancement, changing ways of working and our growing understanding of physical and cognitive performance could all influence how we live in the decades ahead.

The interesting question is therefore not simply whether machines will become more intelligent. Could humans become more capable too? Could we learn more effectively, remain productive and healthy for longer, use technology to extend our abilities, make better decisions and continue developing new skills throughout a much longer life?

At the same time, increasing capability does not remove human fragility. We still become tired. Our attention is limited. We can become overloaded by information, experience burnout, make mistakes and misjudge situations. Our bodies change as we age and our performance is affected by our physical and mental condition. Understanding the Future Human therefore means exploring both sides of human development: what may increase our capabilities and what we need to understand about our limitations.

Where Does The Future Human Fit Into Risk Management?

The connection between The Future Human and the traditional Pillars of Risk Management is less direct than areas such as Cyber Risk, Enterprise Risk Management or Business Continuity, and it would be artificial to suggest that every question about human development belongs inside Traditional Risk Management.

However, there is an important connection.

Risk Management ultimately exists because people and organisations have objectives that they want to achieve in an uncertain world. Humans decide what matters, what they want to achieve, what information they trust, which opportunities they pursue and what level of risk they are prepared to accept. Humans also design the controls, operate the systems and make the decisions that sit behind the Pillars of Risk Management.

As humans and our capabilities change, some of our risks and dependencies will change with us. Greater reliance on technology may affect Technology Risk and Cyber Risk. Changes in human expertise and knowledge may affect Operational Resilience and Business Continuity. New forms of human enhancement could create questions involving privacy, governance, technology and third parties. Human judgement continues to influence Risk Assessment and Enterprise Risk Management.

The connection, therefore, is not that The Future Human is another Traditional Pillar of Risk Management. Rather, risk thinking gives us a useful way to explore the opportunities, uncertainties and trade-offs that may accompany human development.

Human Evolution in an Age of Extraordinary Tools

Humans have always used tools to extend our natural abilities. Writing allowed knowledge to survive beyond one person's memory. Machines extended physical strength. Vehicles extended mobility. Computers extended our ability to calculate and process information. The internet gave billions of people access to knowledge that previous generations could scarcely have imagined.

A.I. may become another important step in that progression. Instead of viewing the relationship only as humans versus machines, we can also explore what becomes possible when people have increasingly capable tools working alongside them. A.I. may help people learn, analyse information, communicate, create and solve problems in new ways. The more interesting question for The Future Human is therefore not only “What will A.I. be able to do?” but also “What might humans be able to do because A.I. exists?”

This is where questions about human intelligence, creativity, curiosity, judgement and critical thinking become important. Having instant access to an answer does not necessarily mean that we understand it. Equally, having access to a powerful tool does not necessarily weaken our own capability. Much depends upon how we use it. The opportunity may be to use technology not simply to do our thinking for us, but to help us learn, question, explore and think better.

The converse is also true, it may be that we are totally reliant on A.I. that thinking and doing becomes unnecessary. Food for thought.

Living Longer May Change How We Think About Life and Work

Longevity is another important part of the Future Human. Improvements in healthcare, living conditions and technology have already changed how long many people can expect to live. Future advances may continue changing not only lifespan but the number of years in which people can remain healthy, active and productive.

Longer lives could change the way we think about education, careers, retirement and personal development. The traditional idea of learning when we are young, working for several decades and then retiring may continue to evolve. A longer life could contain several careers, repeated periods of learning and entirely new stages of contribution.

This is where longevity, future skills and human adaptability begin to connect. If our lives become longer while technology continues changing quickly, the ability to learn and relearn may become one of the most useful capabilities we possess.

Human Performance, Well-Being and Our Limits

Becoming more capable does not mean becoming limitless. Human performance depends upon our physical and mental condition. Attention, sleep, stress, health, energy and information overload can all influence how well we think and make decisions.

This is why burnout, mental well-being, decision fatigue and cognitive performance belong within The Future Human. They are not here simply because we are worried about people becoming overwhelmed by the future. They are part of a larger question about how human beings function well.

As we learn more about the brain and body, we may become better at understanding the conditions that support concentration, learning, judgement and sustainable performance. The goal is not to turn human beings into machines capable of constant productivity. It is to understand how our capabilities and limitations work together so that we can live and perform well over increasingly long lives.

What Happens When Humans Can Enhance Their Capabilities?

Human enhancement introduces an even wider field of possibilities. In one sense, humans have been enhancing themselves for centuries through education, medicine, glasses, hearing aids, physical training and countless other interventions. Emerging technologies may extend this much further.

Wearable technology already allows people to monitor aspects of their health and performance. Developments in biotechnology, neuroscience and human-computer interaction could create new ways of improving, restoring or extending human capabilities.

These developments bring opportunities as well as questions. Which enhancements genuinely improve our lives? What evidence supports them? What risks accompany them? Who owns the information generated about our bodies and minds? Who has access to these technologies? And how much enhancement are we personally comfortable with?

These are not questions with one universal answer. They are exactly the kind of questions where structured thinking* about opportunity, uncertainty, consequence and acceptable risk becomes useful.

*structured, ahem!

The Future Human and The Future of Work Are Different

There will naturally be some overlap between The Future Human and our separate Future of Work section, but they look at change from different directions.

Future of Work looks primarily at jobs, organisations, workforces, automation and how businesses prepare for changing ways of working. The Future Human looks at the person: how longer lives, technology, knowledge, health, cognitive capability and human enhancement may change what we are able to do and how we experience the future.

For example, an ageing workforce is an organisational question when we consider succession, manpower and business continuity. Longevity becomes a Future Human question when we consider what a 60 year old, 70 year old or 80 year old life of learning, work and contribution might mean for the individual.

Likewise, Future of Work may ask which skills employers will need. The Future Human asks the broader question: what capabilities might help a person continue to learn, adapt and flourish throughout a changing life?

What We Will Explore in The Future Human

This section is divided into Human & A.I., Longevity & Work, Burnout & Well-being, Mental Well-being, Decision Fatigue, Cognitive Performance, Human Enhancement, Future Skills and Human Adaptability.

Together, these subjects allow us to explore the Future Human from a wider perspective. We will look at how technology may extend human capability, what longer lives could mean, how our minds and bodies affect our performance, how people might enhance their capabilities and why adaptability may become increasingly important.

We will also look at human fragility not as a weakness, but as something worth understanding. Knowing our limits can help us design better tools, environments, decisions and ways of living.

Questions We Will Be Exploring

As this section develops, we will explore questions such as:

What Will Humans Be Better at Than A.I.?
What Human Skills Will Matter Most in the A.I. Age?
Will A.I. Make Us Smarter or More Dependent?
Are We Losing Critical-Thinking Skills Because of A.I.?
What Happens If We Stop Thinking for Ourselves?
How Does A.I. Affect Human Judgement?
Will A.I. Change the Way We Think?
What Is Cognitive Offloading?
How Do We Keep Human Judgement in an A.I. World?
What Does It Mean to Be A.I. Literate?
Will Human Creativity Still Matter?
Will Emotional Intelligence Become More Valuable?
Why Will Curiosity Matter in the Future?
How Do We Stay Adaptable?
What Is Decision Fatigue?
How Does Information Overload Affect Us?
How Do Humans Stay Relevant Alongside A.I.?
Will We Become Too Reliant on Technology?
What Does Lifelong Learning Mean in the A.I. Age?
What Should Children Learn for an A.I. Future?
What Makes Human Experience Valuable?
What Should We Never Delegate to A.I.?
Can Humans Become Smarter?
How Will Longer Lives Change Us?
What Is Human Enhancement?
Can We Improve Cognitive Performance?
What Makes Humans Resilient?
What Are the Limits of Human Adaptability?

The Future Human is ultimately about possibility. We cannot know exactly how humans will live, work or develop decades from now. But we can observe what is changing, understand both our capabilities and our fragilities, and make thoughtful choices about how we want to use the extraordinary tools and knowledge becoming available to us.

The future is not only about what our technology becomes. It is also about what we, as humans, can become.