META HUMANS - 5 paths for flourishing

How will we live tomorrow?

Thinkers have always dreamed of foreseeing human life in the decades to come. Comparing the predictions of past futurists to what actually transpired, we must recognize that this is often a perilous exercise...

Our foresight tends to be a simple linear projection of the past. In the 1950s, people dreamed of flying cars, but who foresaw the development of the Internet, the rise of cryptocurrencies, or advances in human genomics?

There is also the trap of wishful thinking, predicting not what is likely but what we wish to happen based on ideological preferences. The different flavors of utopia and totalitarianism have shown how "ideal" theoretical models of society fail if they ignore the reality of human nature.

The final trap is to fall into obscure millennial predictions like those of prophets and fortune tellers. At worst, they will be forgotten after their predictions fail. At best, people will later find some resemblance to actual events among the mass of predictions. This made the fortune of astrologers like Nostradamus...

So, is trying to foresee the future merely a wishful thinking exercise? As uncertain as it may be, there are indeed megatrends that give us valuable clues about the future, provided we avoid the traps mentioned above and consider the psychology of the masses and the basic needs of human nature. For that, what better way to analyze the changes ahead than through the lens of universal human motivations? By looking not only at our world's possible outer transformations but also at the direction in which our most vital inner needs and aspirations lead us.

Most thinkers have considered the future from a political, economic, or ecological perspective. Why not consider it from the perspective of our human struggle for progress, following the hierarchy of human needs modeled by psychologist Abraham Maslow, from the most basic needs to the highest aspirations for personal fulfillment?

If we look at the possible future from this perspective, what might be the foreseeable course of progress?

1 - Meeting physiological needs: from health care to salutogenesis

Our first needs are those of survival: air, food, sleep, and good health. What good is all the wealth in the world if we are not alive to enjoy it? It is no coincidence that dying billionaires would give their entire fortunes to live a few more years. This need reveals a fundamental human desire: to live longer. And the promises of the future are significant in this respect. Are the incredible advances in genomics and biotechnology poised to radically increase human physical, cognitive, and lifespan potential in the coming decades? Could the 80s become the new 40s? With genomics and precision medicine, the old dream of creating treatments tailored to each patient is gaining ground, with potentially incredible impacts on the very concept of health: moving from purely curative medicine to salutogenesis. A revolutionary perspective that may not be as far off as we think. Is the first human who will live for centuries already among us?

2 - Meeting safety needs: from human labor to autonomous business

The second human need is safety. Once an individual’s physiological needs are satisfied, the need for security becomes salient. People want to experience order, predictability, and control in their lives. This includes physical safety. But in our modern world, security has become less about physical protection and more about wealth. So, what could be the future of wealth and, therefore, of business? Mechanics have freed humans from the most tedious physical tasks in the developed world. Could artificial intelligence (AI) unburden us from routine cognitive activities? According to many predictions, more than 70% of jobs could be transformed by AI-based automation in the next decade. It could even revolutionize the concept of work, with the emergence of autonomous businesses—combining, for example, distributed AI agents and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) working on our behalf. As some futurists ironically prophesy, the factory of the future may have only two employees: a guard and a dog, making sure the guard doesn't touch anything... This could open up a huge dilemma in the distribution of wealth and have dramatic social implications, as our article on the “Great Reset” and the 4th Industrial Revolution points out.

3 - Meeting love and belongingness needs: from social groups to collective intelligence

The third level in Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs is love and belongingness. We are social animals. We not only need to be healthy and have resources to thrive, but we also need connections with others. This was dramatically demonstrated by unfortunate experiences in the past that showed that babies properly fed but deprived of all human care and affection tended to wither away. With digital technologies, we can now connect and communicate virtually with nearly anyone in the world, anytime. Augmented and virtual reality, the metaverse, and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) promise to dramatically extend these capabilities with fully immersive virtual interactions. This may not only make Aldous Huxley's old dream of “opening the doors of perception” within digital reach for anyone (and also threaten our sense of reality), but it may also dramatically extend the possibilities of human communication and collaboration. Around us, we are already seeing how smartphones have changed the world in less than two decades. Who knows what will be possible by 2040 with the Metaverse and later with BCIs? May we witness a radical extension of collective intelligence in the future?

4 - Meeting self-realization needs: from humans to meta humans

The fourth need in Maslow's hierarchy is self-esteem. One can be healthy, live in a stable and safe world, be prosperous, receive love and respect, and still not feel fulfilled. Here again, progress opens up dizzying perspectives. Massive scientific advances in positive psychology and personal development techniques promise to offer yet unseen mainstream paths to personal flourishing. Never before, with technology, have humans been gifted with so many possibilities to create, build, invent new universes, and explore all possibilities. If we follow the 10,000-year progress curve from hunter-gatherers to today’s megapolis commuters, who knows what we may be capable of? May life accomplishment finally become an achievable goal for the masses?

5 - Meeting self-actualization needs: from creatures to semi-gods

The final level in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is self-actualization—the desire to fully fulfill one’s personal growth and peak experience objectives, to accomplish one’s destiny, and to realize what we believe our coming on earth was destined for. A huge desire indeed, but it expresses the highest goal a man or a woman can dream of. Here also, perspectives are staggering. Are we at an inflection point in human growth that could exceed anything previous generations have even dreamed of? Even if millions of years of evolution cannot be wiped out, humans have never been so close to finding new ways to control themselves, their own evolution, and their destiny, with the ultimate capability to reinvent and transcend themselves. Throughout history, humanity has strived to reach and conquer the next frontiers, looking for meaning, searching for God. Have the times arrived when we will try to become some kind of titans or semi-gods? Manipulating our own DNA with genomics? Creating synthetic life with AI? In an Icarian search for the light that may end up in golems, demons, or angels? 

So, what will be the next stages of progress? With the scarcity of resources and the potential dangers of disruptive innovations, never in history have there been so many perils that could bring us back to the Bronze Age or even wipe us out. Yet, never before has technology offered so many opportunities to help us flourish. Promising to reinvent health, business, and human relations. Offering new paths for self-accomplishment and self-actualization, both at the individual and collective levels.

Will it end in decay or progress? As often in history, both are possible. Simultaneously. We are at a major turning point. One that could lead us back centuries or propel us forward centuries ahead. And perhaps even both, in different places and for different people. As with any major turning point, there will be winners and victims. Creating dramatic individual and collective dilemmas.

Can the human mind, shaped by millions of years of genetic evolution, adapt in a few decades to a completely transformed physical and cultural environment?

Isn’t there a major risk of dissonance and mismatch leading to dramatic societal collapses?

Will we be the heroes or the victims of our own inventions?

Time will tell very soon!

The next post in this initial 'Global Transition Crisis' series will be published in a few weeks. Click here to subscribe >

'Meta Humans' is the ninth post of our 'Global Transition Crisis' series. The previous posts of this series, 'ANTI-PREDICTIONS 202x+", "ESCAPE VELOCITY", "GREAT RESET", "DEJA VU", "HISTORY'S FORMULA", "UNCHARTED TERRITORY", "ESCAPING FROM ZOMBIELAND" and "10x MOONSHOTS" can be found here >   

^{(1) The hierarchy of needs was coined by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation.” It states that five categories of human needs dictate an individual’s behavior: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. According to Maslow, people will be consumed by their basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs. Once the core needs at a given level are satisfied, the next level in the hierarchy will emerge more strongly and become a driver of behaviors and thoughts. According to Maslow, the ultimate human goal is to reach the fifth level of the hierarchy: self-actualization. The theory is often used as a model of human growth and is usually presented in a pyramid shape, with basic needs at the bottom and higher-level, intangible needs at the top. Our take is that Maslow’s model also applies to societies, as we will develop later.}

^{(2) Salutogenesis is the study of the origins of health and focuses on factors that support human health and well-being rather than on factors that cause disease (pathogenesis). The word "salutogenesis" comes from the Latin *salus* (meaning health) and the Greek *genesis* (meaning origin). It was coined by Aaron Antonovsky, a professor of medical sociology. Note that a similar approach is being developed in psychology with positive psychology, a new branch of psychology created in reaction to practices mostly focused on mental illness. Positive psychology focuses on the character strengths and behaviors that allow individuals to build a life of meaning and purpose and to move beyond surviving to flourishing.}

^{(3) Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are a new governance structure popularized by cryptocurrency enthusiasts and blockchain technologies that allow members or entities to work collectively without trusting a leader. With DAOs, blockchain-based rules in the code define how the organization operates and how funds are spent. Decisions are governed by proposals and voting to ensure everyone in the organization has a voice, and everything happens transparently on-chain. The DAO concept is fully incorporated into many projects in decentralized finance (DeFi). DAOs still attract criticism due to legality, security, and efficiency concerns. As internet-native organizations, however, DAOs are considered to have the potential to deeply change the way corporate governance may work in the future.}