Leadership Notes -- Thoughts on Leading People and Making a Difference in Organizations
Word count this issue: 372
Estimated reading time: 2.0 minutes (+ a lifetime’s wondering)
Over the last decades, as technology has became more prevalent we believed that machines will never be able to do the things humans can do. As recently as 10 years ago, driving a car or truck was seen to be something so complex only a human could do it. Driverless trucks are already working in Australian mines and in the Oil Sands in Alberta, and driverless cars are going to be available within the next three years. In more recent years, humans have staked a claim on creativity as how we see ourselves as unique; we humans are creative, computers are not. Well, CBC’s Q had a fascinating interview with an Australian researcher this week, Oscar Shwartz http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-tuesday-july-28-1.3170526/bot-or-not-can-computers-write-convincingly-human-poetry-1.3170540 who has designed a Turing Test asking people to determine if a poem was written by another person or a computer called ‘bot or not.’ Guess what, it is very difficult for most of us to tell. So, if technology can do more of the things we used to believe were uniquely human, how might we uniquely define ourselves now? What does it mean to be a human being, if more of what humans do is more effectively and efficiently done by machines?
Now I appreciate this is a very big subject for a short leadership blog! I’d like to invite you into a continuing conversation. A conversation with each other, with your families and friends, and with people you don’t know yet.
Three questions for the conversation. First, what if who we are as human beings is related to our ability to choose between right and wrong? Are we the ethical creature; homo ethicus? Secondly, if we are the ethical creature, what ethics will we use in what is now, a ‘global village?’ Thirdly, what is the ethical role of leaders in the global village?
Send me a note with your thoughts and feel free to share widely.