Thinker
Tom Friedman

January 4, 2017 ... Thomas L. Friedman ... From Hands to Heads to Hearts

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

The Opinion Pages | OP-ED COLUMNIST From Hands to Heads to Hearts

A room set up to experience the IBM Watson computer. Credit Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Software has started writing poetry, sports stories and business news. IBM’s Watson is co-writing pop hits. Uber has begun deploying self-driving taxis on real city streets and, last month, Amazon delivered its first package by drone to a customer in rural England.

Add it all up and you quickly realize that Donald Trump’s election isn’t the only thing disrupting society today. The far more profound disruption is happening in the workplace and in the economy at large, as the relentless march of technology has brought us to a point where machines and software are not just outworking us but starting to outthink us in more and more realms.

To reflect on this rapid change, I sat down with my teacher and friend Dov Seidman, C.E.O. of LRN, which advises companies on leadership and how to build ethical cultures, for his take. “What we are experiencing today bears striking similarities in size and implications to the scientific revolution that began in the 16th century,” said Seidman. “The discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo, which spurred that scientific revolution, challenged our whole understanding of the world around and beyond us — and forced us as humans to rethink our place within it.”

Once scientific methods became enshrined, we used science and reason to navigate our way forward, he added, so much so that “the French philosopher René Descartes crystallized this age of reason in one phrase: ‘I think, therefore I am.’” Descartes’s point, said Seidman, “was that it was our ability to ‘think’ that most distinguished humans from all other animals on earth.”

The technological revolution of the 21st century is as consequential as the scientific revolution, argued Seidman, and it is “forcing us to answer a most profound question — one we’ve never had to ask before: ‘What does it mean to be human in the age of intelligent machines?’”

In short: If machines can compete with people in thinking, what makes us humans unique? And what will enable us to continue to create social and economic value? The answer, said Seidman, is the one thing machines will never have: “a heart.”

“It will be all the things that the heart can do,” he explained. “Humans can love, they can have compassion, they can dream. While humans can act from fear and anger, and be harmful, at their most elevated, they can inspire and be virtuous. And while machines can reliably interoperate, humans, uniquely, can build deep relationships of trust.”

Therefore, Seidman added, our highest self-conception needs to be redefined from “I think, therefore I am” to “I care, therefore I am; I hope, therefore I am; I imagine, therefore I am. I am ethical, therefore I am. I have a purpose, therefore I am. I pause and reflect, therefore I am.”

We will still need manual labor, and people will continue working with machines to do extraordinary things. Seidman is simply arguing that the tech revolution will force humans to create more value with hearts and between hearts. I agree. When machines and software control more and more of our lives, people will seek out more human-to-human connections — all the things you can’t download but have to upload the old-fashioned way, one human to another.

Seidman reminded me of a Talmudic adage: “What comes from the heart, enters the heart.” Which is why even jobs that still have a large technical component will benefit from more heart. I call these STEMpathy jobs — jobs that combine STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) skills with human empathy, like the doctor who can extract the best diagnosis from IBM’s Watson on cancer and then best relate it to a patient.

No wonder one of the fastest-growing U.S. franchises today is Paint Nite, which runs paint-while-drinking classes for adults. Bloomberg Businessweek explained in a 2015 story that Paint Nite “throws after-work parties for patrons who are largely lawyers, teachers and tech workers eager for a creative hobby.” The artist-teachers who work five nights a week can make $50,000 a year connecting people to their hearts.

Economies get labeled according to the predominant way people create value, pointed out Seidman, also author of the book “How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything.” So, the industrial economy, he noted, “was about hired hands. The knowledge economy was about hired heads. The technology revolution is thrusting us into ‘the human economy,’ which will be more about creating value with hired hearts — all the attributes that can’t be programmed into software, like passion, character and collaborative spirit.”

It’s no surprise that the French government began requiring French companies on Jan. 1 to guarantee their employees a “right to disconnect” from technology — when they are not at work — trying to combat the “always on” work culture.

Leaders, businesses and communities will still leverage technology to gain advantage, but those that put human connection at the center of everything they do — and how they do it — will be the enduring winners, insisted Seidman: “Machines can be programmed to do the next thing right. But only humans can do the next right thing.”

COMMENT

matt polsky white township, nj 1 day ago

Interesting to see the resistance, but Friedman and Seidman are largely right, although they miss a few things.

It's a good start, if not the total solution. But rarely is there ever a stand-alone home run to huge societal challenges.

To get there, I don't know. But we're going to have to figure out the many obstacles, including to our thinking.

There never was thinking without emotions. That's increasingly being challenged, and that old false duality isn't going to help us.

It's better known the human attention span is a poor match for the compulsions of technology. Short of some compensatory techno shut-off switches, we're going to have to find our internal super willpower.

We have to stop mouthing 'community' and actually define and live up to it. Within my sustainability worlds, we're very good at espousing what should be one of our chief value-adds, 'community,' and not much better than anyone else at responding to emails, getting back to each other when promised, covering each others' backs, or seeing how we can be helpful.

Academics have to stop complaining about institutional barriers to interdisciplinary thinking, and start overcoming them and practicing it.

And, Tom, don't forget the critters and ecosystem part of the equation. I know you know, but we're nothing without them. Many don't know that, and rather than just as an occasional standalone, it should be integrated into the big-picture thinking you often do. Your columns would be a good place to remind us.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. Continue reading the main story Thomas L. Friedman Foreign affairs, globalization and technology. Bibi Netanyahu Makes Trump His Chump DEC 28 Trump’s Approach: A Fresh Start or Crazy Reckless? DEC 14 Say What, Al Gore, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump? DEC 7 At Lunch, Donald Trump Gives Critics Hope NOV 22 Dancing in a Hurricane NOV 19 See More » RECENT COMMENTS Joe M. 22 hours ago '...machines will NEVER have: 'a heart.''Really - someone can say that with absolute certainty? Man will NEVER fly. Never reach the moon. ... GS 22 hours ago There is no reason to believe that the things described here as uniquely human will not also be done by machines very soon. Or 'faked' in... Mary 1 day ago What I fear is that when machines think, humans don't believe (or just don't) think anymore. I see kids that have no ability to deduce from... SEE ALL COMMENTS ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story Sign Up for the Opinion Today Newsletter Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, the Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world. Enter your email address Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. SEE SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY