Human Resource Management in the Post-Human World

Being a business major, I got to thinking the other day about what possible role the "Human Resources" department could play in the future of the corporate world, especially in light of the Transhumanist movement. Obviously, the first order of business would be to rename the discipline of "Human Resources" to "Personnel" (or "Personnel Management") this would be the most Politically Correct term in a time when not all people (therefor, not all employees) are human.

But the really interesting part begins to emerge as you explore the role that a Human Resource Manager plays in the healthcare of employees. In the beginning, people couldn't expect any sort of healthcare from their employers, mostly because they couldn't expect decent healthcare anywhere to begin with. People used to become sick much more often and stay sick much longer than now.

Luckily, all that has changed, and as people gained exposure to the healthcare industry, businesses began to see that it would be in their interest to help improve their employees' health (by helping financially with their healthcare) At that point, Human Resources was largely concerned with curing or treating existing illnesses, this is how medicine functioned at the time.

The Medical Industry has since discovered various ways in which to prevent illness, which has caught the attention of business owners and Human Resource Managers, because preventing illness in employees means less sick days, higher morale and productivity, and generally improved public image. So now many businesses offer programs such as incentives to promote physical activity, some even furnish on-site gyms or office jogging-groups or sports teams.

As you can see, Human Resources went from being unconcerned with the health of their employees, to becoming concerned with Treatment of illness (or repair) of their employees, to now becoming concerned with prevention (or maintenance). My point may, at this point, be rather obvious. If you trend this out, you'll likely come to the conclusion that I have: The "Personnel Manager" will, doubtless, be concerned with not only the repair and maintenance of their employees, but the improvement as well. Just look:



Repair (Notable decline in performance surrounding "event")
|
Maintenance (Prevention of "events" which may effect performance)
|
Improvement (Improving performance beyond that of "average" healthy employees)



Obviously, Human Resource Management is presently concerned with "improving" their employees, through training and performance review and such, but that's not exactly what I'm referring to. What I mean is: One day, your employer will pay to augment your body with technologies that might improve the way in which you perform your essential job tasks. Imagine, for instance, that your job involves exposure to hazardous materials (let's say, for example, CO gas) You can't smell CO, so there's no way to tell if you're being poisoned until you're in moderate trouble. Your employer can't help you be "so healthy you're immune to CO gas" however, he may be able to invest in an enhancement to your body that will alert you to high levels of CO in the air, or let you detect it by sense of smell, or even actively remove CO from the air in your lungs. This is a somewhat weak example (CO meters and gas-masks are obviously cheaper than implants) but it's a good picture of what I'm getting at.

Anyway, just some food for thought.

Be Well,
Nick

My Wearable, an update.

So, for several years now I've been lugging around the same, tired cell phone. Well, that's not completely accurate, I bought the first Model MotoQ the year it came out. That phone lasted a good while, but when I had finally dropped it one too many times (I had thought) I bought a Samsung i760, wonderful unit, broke two of them, but I love them. After the second one stopped working I was stuck with a dilemma, because I was out of warranty and in between contracts... so I had to step back down to my already half-dead Motorola Q... which I've been "using" since then. All of this has something to do with my wearable computer, promise.

Anyway, It's time to buy a new cell phone, which got me thinking about portability and about the real reason why the wearable computer is even a remotely convenient idea. It's because of wireless networking and data transfer, the ability to be constantly linked in to the network. Most people now do not use their laptops to stay connected but their smartphones, so perhaps I could adapt my wearable computing system to be more cell-compatible. My solution? The HTC Droid Incredible. It has the ability to output video via the mini-usb port on the side of the unit, it's WiFi capable (up to the "n" standard) and touch-sensitive. It has good battery life and it very compact and lightweight. This will be my computer.

So what does the new set-up look like?

I/O
_______________
Cellular (CDMA)
WiFi b/g/n
Mini-USB
Bluetooth

Interface
_______________
Wireless keyboard (Wrist mounted)
Headset display
Phone's integrated 8mp camera

Wearability
_______________
Unit is strapped to upper-arm
Keyboard on wrist
Headset display

The best part, really, is that the Incredible packs a 1GHz Snapdragon which is pushing the new Google Android OS, which is (rumor has it) a cinch to develop for, which will help when I start to develop bluetooth (possibly sub-dermal) peripherals to the system.

More updates later, until then be well,
-NP

Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling science | Video on TED.com

Sorry for the delay, I'm having a Microsoft-Related Laptop problem right now, but not to worry it is on the mend. At any rate, while borrowing a friend's laptop I found the time to cruise TED for some provocative talks on Trans-human themes and I stumbled across this tidy little wrap-up of converging technologies. For those of you who aren't familiar with TED, it is a non-profit conference on "Ideas worth spreading" (T.E.D. stands for Technology Entertainment Design) And it brings together everybody from musicians to the dry and analytical science-types. Every TED Conference is an incredible snapshot of the intellectual landscape at the time and it really does sem to propagate great ideas and themes. The best part is that, for free, you can go to their website and watch any of over 700 talks (TEDTalks) that were recorded at various conferences in very clear definition. Each talk is around 18 minutes long and I've never been disappointed by a speaker, I always learn something new.

At any rate, here's the link to the TEDTalks video:
Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling science Video on TED.com

UPDATE:
The headset display is fantastic considering the money that I spent. My explorations of augmented reality have been interesting and informative but I haven't developed a really usable application yet. More work is yet to be done. Also, the system will be fully-wearable soon so I'll start generating a lot more content at that point. In the mean time, keep thinking forward.

Be Well,
-Nick