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January 2 - January 9, 2020
The response from participants was surprising. Men in suits who swore they wouldn’t dance became entirely different people in the genderless VR world; a woman with social anxiety who had struggled to enjoy herself at the conference put the headset on and, inhibitions gone, danced and laughed for the first time in days; another person said they felt comfortable being gender-free for the first time in their life in this VR atmosphere.
Some estimates suggest AI (machines imitating human behavior) could take eight hundred million jobs by 2030, but one thing those bots don’t have (at least, not yet) is emotional intelligence.
In describing this phenomenon, Egan evoked what she sees as the three pillars of empathy: self-awareness, peer awareness, and action taking.
“Communication is a lot more than the words you say,” the entrepreneur told me.
“I think we have to remember that technology is amazing, but there are still limitations you’re not going to be able to overcome without human interaction,” she said. “Even in a hospital or a medical-school setting, the best thing you can do is talk to people.”
Across the board, two things are true in her conversations with top brass: people are concerned about the impact of technology on humanity, in terms of both equity and mental health; and people don’t understand exactly what they are—or should be—concerned about.
