I am a technologist who has spent the last 10+ years thinking, researching, writing, and speaking about the intersection of technology and cognition.

I  have 4 books in various stages of the publication process.

 

This website is for people who want to learn more about that work.

What I believe:

Humanity is at an inflection point, of our own creation, due to the effects of constantly accelerating Technology..  If we step back, and see the big picture, we can – as we have in the past – bootstrap ourselves to a better world, or at least adapt and increase the chances we’ll survive and maybe thrive in the faces of future changes that will happen to us. Our species has been here many times, but in the past we had thousands of years to adapt (in some cases millions); now we have at most a few decades. To take advantage of this chance we need to understand this moment for what it is, and not sleepwalk through it, hoping for the best.

What I've discovered:

Let me condense down over a decade’s research, a half million of my words, and over 4,000 citations into the main takeaways I think about these days:

  1. Rapidly accelerating technology is not expanding exponentially, as a function of some singular variable like Moore’s Law. It is expanding MUCH faster – via an algorithm that is a function of many variables, each of itself is expanding exponentially, compounding with bootstrapping loops in between. It is now moving so fast it can no longer be understood by any one individual or entity. Technology is thus expanding algorithmically, not exponentially.
  2. Rapidly accelerating technology is disrupting the very fabric of how we think. Traditional forms of thought break down in the face of accelerating technology; we need new forms of thought to adapt to our modern niche, which changes on a daily basis.
  3. Technology leaves most of us better off, objectively, but feeling worse, subjectively.
  4. We respond to increasingly complex systems with hyper-specialization. Each of us knows more than ever, but what there is to know expands faster. We understand less of the whole, each day.
  5. The result is most of us now see technological growth as ‘magic’. This “return of magic” after 300 years of ‘dis-enchantment’ that the enlightenment, science, and education brought us is a very significant change in human culture.
  6. The natural result of increasing complexity in any system, such as our modern daily civilization and our ability to think our way through technology  is a growing likelihood of catastrophic failure.  As a result of this, and the decreasing ability to comprehend the whole, humanity has a diminished ability to  prepare for and respond to existential threats.
  7. Prime driver for increasing technology is not technology itself, or tech companies & billionaires, but the people who adopt and use the technology. We are the driver.
  8. The confluence of all these factors represents the single biggest national security issue facing countries today; one that is indeed set to undermine civilization itself.
  9. The situation above is not inevitable, or purely negative; if managed it represents an opportunity for an unprecedented human/global uplift.
  10. Few people are aware of or working on root cause of these points, because it takes a willingness to step back, set aside our existing beliefs and understanding, and  look at the broad and deep context we find ourselves in, from a trans-disciplinary  perspective.  And our society doesn’t reward those approaches.

What readers are saying:







The Disruption of Thought



“This book is many things but among the most notable is the deep literature survey undertaken by Pat ... it ironically made me think harder about my own daily use of and reliance on programmable technology. Some of this is so well-rehearsed that I don’t even think about it until I am reminded to do so, as I have been, in reading this book…Scannell helped me see both the upside and downside of trends…
Scannell makes a strong case that this is a sea change, a true “disruption of thought.”… He makes a positive case for harnessing this insight, but I also came away feeling that our ability to cope with so much change might prove challenging both to individuals and societies. The solution to this challenge may lie in the very technology that is causing it…
So, why would I recommend this book to other readers? …It made me think!”
Vint Cerf
(regarded as one of the ‘fathers of the Internet’)
“A fascinating synthesis of theories for how we think, probing their limitations, and arguing for a radically extended version of cognition. Scannell’s thought-provoking analysis makes a compelling case that how we think is changing right now – and we’re not prepared for it.”
Mark Humphries
Chair in Computational Neuroscience, University of Nottingham,

 

 

 

 

 

The Great Irony 

of Technology

 

“Pat offers us a rare gift – one of the most crucial issues that affect our future, but one that is unnoticed today. Einstein warned us that we need a new way of thinking if we want to survive and evolve as a species, while Obama noted that technological advancement without a corresponding advancement in human institutions can endanger us.

Pat is one of the few people who truly comprehends this in-depth, has engaged with other experts from various fields and regions, and is actively working on solutions to the major problems that arise from accelerating technological change, and parsing the inherent complexity of these issues to make them more accessible and actionable to a broader audience.”
Johnny Sawyer
Former Chief of staff, Defense Intelligence Agency
“Pat Scannell shows how technological acceleration and progress provide us with near-miraculous benefits, but also leave us feeling worse.

This irony is not just some simple observation: it has broad consequences, globally, undermining our individual well-being and potential, while simultaneously eroding the civic institutions upon which we build modern society. He doesn’t just write about it, he has assembled a very unique coalition working to better understand and develop solutions.  We have a small window of time in which we can address these issues; Pat and this group serve as a candle of hope in that window.
Tony Aghazarian
Former Head of New Product at Apple, "father" of iPhone (&iPad, iPod, etc)