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Use technology to promote ideas: Silva

Sharjah - Silva discussed how linear thinking has been one of the key obstacles that have prevented humanity from embracing the full potential of rapid change and technology.

Technology embodies the human imagination around the world and cognitive mechanisms are talking about technology as an extension of our ideas and imagination, said Jason Silva, public speaker and filmmaker, at the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF) on Thursday.
"If You start thinking exponentially, every solution becomes inevitable. Living in an age of transformation, and in an age of rapid change, humanity is slowly falling into a state of vertigo, overwhelmed with the pace of change and how it is increasingly taking place in real time. I can see great potentials in humanity, and how it can address and overcome misperceptions of technology through exponential change," he added.
"This all starts for me with a passion for human imagination, and with a passion for human creativity. This then has turned into a passion for technology, because I believe that technology is the embodiment of human creativity and liberalisation of human imagination in the world. I also believe that technology has turned the human brain inside out, and that this evolution has allowed us to impregnate the world with our mind."
He said: "If you go back a hundred thousand years to the Savanna of Africa, where early humans picked up a stick from the ground and used it to reach a fruit that was on a really high tree, you'll see that we've been since then using our tools and instruments to transcend our limitations and go beyond our boundaries."
Silva discussed how linear thinking has been one of the key obstacles that have prevented humanity from embracing the full potential of rapid change and technology. He said: "We have to accommodate ourselves to rapid transformation within our life spans, but the question is why? Why don't we see the future coming?
This has to do with the fact that technological change is exponential. The human brain is wired to think linearly about change."
He added: "Linear calculations are in our DNA, and we don't live in a world that is linear anymore, we live in a world that is global and exponential, and so our intuition is future-blind."
Silva presented a scientific example about the key difference between linear change and exponential change, and how individuals can set their mindsets towards exponential change, saying: "If you take 30 linear steps, by step 30 where are you?
You're at 30, because 30 linear gets you to 30. If you take the same amount of steps exponentially, by step 30, you're at one billion."
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com