What Does Being Human with Technology Actually Mean?

In order to answer this, I feel we need to address what ‘Technology’ actually represents.? These days, and in particular in creative industries, our first imagination when we speak about technology is likely to involve computers.? Tech = Computers..Internet..AI...

But the definition of technology according to Britannica is

‘’The application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life’’

This description actually includes human in it.? So there is nothing more 100% linked to humanity, than technology itself.

So why is it, as a species, we are so hardwired to often perceive new technology and its application as a threat?

Well its because we are human. Change is not something we universally embrace with open arms.? But yet through technology, it fundamentally exists to help us achieve the practical aims of our companies, cultures and hopes and dreams. Which should be a good thing, right?

The emphasis on ‘practical’ is very interesting when you move the concept of technology away from pure theory and into actual real society, with real human beings, and real emotions.? Practical means the actual doing or use of something, rather than with theory and ideas.? Practical should be useful. Practical means practice – practice makes perfect, so lets do it a lot and new technologies will help us get to Mars and live on another planet.? So why are we not on Mars yet?

Our society and cultures have formed in such a way that while practical should be the primary approach, in fact its how practical is actually applied in improving human life in some degree which slows the impact of technology.? Humans have, and need, a system to live by which results in outcomes.? A system to successfully and securely house ourselves and our families, feed our children and meet our varied needs for love, life and laughter.

What we have constructed is a world of doing business with each other to achieve this. Much of the world is based around capitalism (however I’d hazard most people don’t really understand and appreciate the simple power of this approach to governance, but perhaps that’s for another article).

The legacy of these structures, is that

1.??????? Investment at scale sets a pattern, an approach. Personal, emotional and financial investment is tied up in our systems.

2.??????? Once set, its unlikely those who have ‘invested’ are going to be very excited about changing it quickly…

So our structures are, on the face of it, not really setup to immediately embrace change.? That is however until you involve the simple nature of capitalism in that change - when technology improves profitability.

Profitability seems like a dirty word these days.? But again its helpful to think of where this word comes from.? Britannica defines profitable as ‘making money’.? Profitability is an equation. ‘Excess revenue over expenses’. Its an intangible thing.

Technology is more tangible. In particular when the practical application of it can either increase revenue, or reduce expenses. So improve profitability - its really that simple.?

·????? Does your new technology increase revenue = eg by helping you sell more of your products or services?

·????? Does your new technology reduce costs = eg allowing you to make more products for the same price, or even making it easier to produce more products or services for lower prices?? The latter being often termed achieving ‘efficiencies’

If the technology does one, or both of these things, chances are it should be adopted into your system of business quickly, because if you don’t introduce it then your competitors will and you will begin to lose competitive advantage. This interrelationship between competition and seeking profitability is typically what moves a technology from being something that has the Potential for improving humanity, to actually improving it.?

Taking this leap is what technology needs to do, simply existing as a new technology is not enough – it has to buy a ticket and get on the train to reach the destination.? Adoption is intertwined with demonstrable profitability.

So why is it then, despite this simplicity of capitalism, there is still an underlying resistance to change?

The key word here is demonstrable. Until the evidence exists, those investments and structures mentioned earlier will have no incentive to change. But until adoption occurs, there will never be evidence... A Catch 22?

Enter the role of risk. Another seemingly frowned upon word these days, yet the cornerstone of the systems we create to operate in. Risk is necessary to move potential technology to profitability. Someone, a human, needs to take the risk.

Yet if you look at our aforementioned structures, these actually set patterns that engender a low appetitie to risk taking in the majority of people. Security and stability do not involve risk taking.? The value of the global insurance industry is an eye opening measure of our attitudes to risk.

Without risk however, there is no reward.

Companies, departments and individuals withing them exist on a scale of risk appetite, which will ebb and flow depending on various factors, principally their management, culture, market environment, business performance and prospects.

Adopting new technology is risky.? In the past couple of hundred years, where we’ve had greater technolological advances than in any other period in human history, the vast majority are happy to sit back and wait for others with more risk appetite to take those risks, and then follow suit once its all proven and theres a workable, proven, application of technology, which improves profitability and so embeds itself in our systems and structures.? This tactic by the majority means there will always be losers.?

The problem with this approach however, is that the faster technology moves, the more losers there become.

And technology advances have just hit a new zenith of speed of development.? It is becoming an understatement to say that how we do business will be completely transformed by the time your preschool children are graduating from college or university.

With pace of change, we need to adopt our business cultures to be more accepting of change and new technologies, and the only way to achieve that is to all move a little further up the scale, and increase our appetite for risk.

Increasing our risk appetite means embedding? a culture that accepts failures.? That rewards those who try. To learn from these failures and improve the next time. To enable innovation.

This is the crux of being human with technology.

The pace of technological change increases the potential out there, the potential for opportunity. The historical evidence is there for all to see.? ‘’Adapt, or die’’ the stark warning goes… This will become the new normal of successful business.? We all need an innovation engine, and if you don’t have one internally already – find one. Fast.

Michael McKenna

CEO & Co-founder

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