Techno Anthropology

These two words may seem very, very opposite, but in fact they are closely related.

Anthropology is the study of humanity, encompassing not only the past but also the present, and exploration of the future. The point is that we cannot understand humanity if we dissociate it from technology, without technology, there would be no humanity as we know it, probably no humanity at all.

In fact, the choice of words is precisely what I explored deeply in my latest book, The End of Knowledge, because I think it is totally necessary to consider the pressing issues arising as technology merges with humanity.

It's not just about AI, though I do talk about AI in this book. Rather, it is more about how humans have used technology since the beginning of time to create and enable our capacity to live and conquer planet Earth, to the point where technology is becoming embedded into ourselves. We are reaching a critical moment where the differentiation between humans and technology will be blurred beyond recognition.

It is all about The End of Knowledge, but the "end" in the sense that we are finishing an era - the era of human knowledge - and starting a new era where we delegate knowledge to machines. To explore this, I raise close to 200 questions about the future and present, about humanity, technology, societies, and how we can build a better world for all.

Questions like: what happens if humanity does nothing about it? If we continue with business as usual, that will be a bad option for humanity. I believe we must start to act. We must all be accountable for our new role in shaping the future for the next generation of humans, whether classic or augmented through technology. If we don’t work together to create this new future, there may be no future at all.

When I talked about automation in my previous book, it was about freeing one of our best human assets, our time. Now, combined with delegating knowledge to machines, a totally new world emerges. That is where we should focus on, doing the right things now to create good models and algorithms, and truly understand all that new knowledge. This raises another question: should we delegate all knowledge to machines or not? Currently we are not doing that, deliberately limiting our possibilities to evolve, a critial mistake by the way, even though with limited knowledge they already surpass humans in several realms.

Another fundamental point is that we are starting to all be teachers of machines, so the need to create the first schools and universities for machines is pressing.

This new way of understanding how humans were, are now, and will evolve with or merged into technology, this techno-anthropology, will be the essence of the future. It will define societies to come and relationships at all levels between humans, machines, and nature. It will not just make life easier today but will outlast us. So, are we ready to study how technology and humanity can thrive together?

With that in mind, the first book presentations in several cities and venues each cover a specific area, so far healthcare, entrepreneurship, education, and "Environment" as in the last one at the Archaeological Museum in Cordoba, the only city with 4 UNESCO sites. It was a dialogue between Alejandro Sacristán , electronic music pioneer and world activist, and myself.

The next events will also be dialogues covering two key topics:

"Humanity", on November 3, 2023 at the Scientific, Literary and Artistic Athenaeum of Madrid. A dialogue about The End of Knowledge with Norberto Jorge, named by critics as "The Einstein of gastronomy" in addition to being an erudite scholar of the human condition and creator of HPS (Human Positional System) or Hominy Map.

And "Art" on December 2, 2023 in the also UNESCO city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, with Jesús Lorenzo Alido, pioneer of Electronic Art, Virtual Reality and the merge of technology, art and spirituality.

Stay tuned for more subjects and cities. If you don’t have a copy already, get one, it is available in English & Spanish.

Human Knowledge may end, but extreme techno-wisdom begins; are you ready?

David Vivancos

San Lorenzo de El Escorial, October 30th 2023

www.vivancos.com