Leah is 9 months old now.
As she’s growing up with three languages, she’s expected to start speaking later than usual. And when I found out that there’s an app that translates baby noises into text, it somehow got me thinking about the kind of skills we aren’t learning anymore, because technology does the job for us.
Of course we’re not quite there yet, but my mind pictured a version of Amazon’s Alexa that registers that the baby is hungry or tired, before Mum does – and for a moment I considered the scenario that over time we as humans might lose skills like that. Much like I no longer drive anywhere without a satnav, simply because I don’t have to – and I’ve noticed how my general sense of orientation has suffered when in the past I’d always find my way back to places I had been to once.
Checking for a fever? – A thing of the past.
Knowing how much salt to add to a dish? – Google will tell you.
Remembering when to order new crucial food or medicine? – Already initiated by your smart fridge/medicine cabinet.
And of course these are merely the beginning…
I’m sure very soon checking your baby for a fever will be a thing of the past, because they’ll be monitored at all times.
But I feel the “your baby wants a cuddle” push notification goes a bit too far… or does it?
Reminds me of an article I wrote a while ago, after reading the Oxford University study that predicted that nearly 50% of jobs are at risk of being replaced by artificial intelligence (with a notable update on the data here). And now, as a dad, I continue ponder:
How will all of this affect parenting?
Nelly often refers to parenting as “the single most important job we can choose to take on in the world”, but my concerns extend far beyond parenting, to any job people do, so let me ask you:
How will technology affect your role in life and/or business?
What skill set(s) might you need to protect (or indeed need to re-learn) in order to future-proof your life, your well-being, your existence?
And how do you think might technology help, or hinder that process?
[y]
New Content
I really like Eve. And boy does she inspire! It was the first time I met her, but obviously I had come across her work a lot in the past.
She’s co-written and/or edited a.o. the books ‘Ecological and Climate-conscious Coaching: A Companion Guide to Evolving Coaching Practice’ (2023), ‘The Ethical Coaches’ Handbook’ (2023), ‘Systemic Coaching’(2020), and ‘The Heart of Coaching Supervision – Working with Reflection and Self-care’ (2019).
So you can imagine how packed with valuable nuggets this conversation is. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did 🙂
