A new technology is emerging, but the concerns remain the same. Discussions about artificial intelligence and its potential impact on critical or general thinking continue unabated. And they are mostly negative. AI would take away our ability to think. We … Continue reading Is AI Making Us Stupid?
Last year, I visited Schramberg, an idyllic little town in the Black Forest. I was taken there by my old friend and former colleague from my SAP days, Mark Finnern,, who was born and raised there and had returned after … Continue reading When the Alarm Clock Eliminated Good Jobs
In the middle of the 19th century, sailing ships dominated the seas, used by merchants and the navies. Steamships were already making their presence felt, but they had not yet been granted wider use. Many of the steamships were converted … Continue reading Steamship Skeptics And Sailing Ship Supporters
Did food used to be more natural, and therefore implicitly better, than the food we eat today, which seems to be over-processed and contain lots of additives? In the past, there was no such thing as “organic”, and yet food … Continue reading Today you have to write “organic” on it, and in the past you just had to write “poultry” and “egg”?
A few years ago, I conducted a survey among my newsletter subscribers in which I asked them about their own country’s outstanding technological, economic or scientific successes or failures, or how they viewed the USA and China. The participants had … Continue reading Driving With The Handbrake On
The choice of words is important, it “makes the music”. Unsurprisingly for me, as a book author and wordsmith, I naturally pay a lot of attention to the right words and phrases. Especially because of the way they can change mindsets … Continue reading How We Talk Ourselves Into Decline
Every era has its fears. Attentive readers of the news could easily come to the conclusion that we are living in the worst of times, given all the political and technological developments that cannot help but lead to the collapse … Continue reading News Déjà Vu – The News Twin From The Past
A review of my book on artificial intelligence, When Monkeys Teach Monkeys, indirectly blamed me as naïve. The reviewer said: I’ve found few arguments in favor of AI, but maybe that’s because I don’t want to downplay the dangers. In … Continue reading The Incompetence of Cynics – A Study
It wasn’t so long ago that I still had to explain who Elon Musk was during my presentations in Europe. Not even in the automotive industry, where Tesla had already attracted attention, was the name familiar in 2015. I refer … Continue reading Elon Musk & Twitter: Why is everyone hyperventilating?
That mindset as a predominant psychological personality trait can have an impact on oneself or even an entire nation or culture was already summarized by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: The view … Continue reading “Can we finally talk about the negative impact now?”