Alex McManus's Blog

I have argued often over the past 20 years that the central question of the 21st century is, What does it mean to be human? This question is pressed from three sides: The emerging world of AI Our growing understanding of other animals Our emerging capacity to clone humans and bring them to life without…Read more Are Apes Smarter than Humans?

  The Virtual Reality Experience Economy In my sessions on Human Capacity Optimization, I explore the progression from the Service Economy to-and-through >> the Experience Economy towards >> the Life Transformation Economy. As we continue this progression, we are seeing an interesting iteration of the Experience Economy, the Virtual Reality Experience Economy (VREE). The VREE…Read more Emerging Realities: The VREE Economy

The Red Dragon missions are a collaboration between NASA and SpaceX. They are aimed at figuring out what’s needed “to land large payloads propulsively on Mars.” For now, the plan doesn’t include sending astronauts to the red planet. For now. Our species may be the only intelligent life in the universe. If so, perhaps we…Read more The Red Dragon__Mars By 2018? 

Do we as humans have a limit on our life spans? The scriptures tell us: “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10) I’ve written several…Read more What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says – NYTimes.com

Just yesterday I went with my fam to watch The Martian. Loved it. I’ve loved this kind of science fiction from a very young age. I suspect that the future of our species is to be multi-planetary and enjoy reflecting on this. In this interactive interview, author Andy Weir talked to IEEE Spectrum Senior Editor…Read more The Martian

To reach Millennials, do we need a politically-active, “progressive” Christianity? That’s the advice given in two articles about reaching millennials written by a Millennial. Sure, being a millennial does NOT make someone an expert in reaching millennials. And yes, the titles of the articles Churches Could Fill Their Pews With Millennials If They Did Just…Read more Do we need a politically active Progressive Christianity?

Imagine demographic studies of urban areas in the future. Might they one day include robot populations in their data? Tokyo’s Robot Restaurant is a novelty eatery populated by robots. And, Henn-na Hotel, the world’s first hotel staffed by robots is open for business. And now, with the introduction of RoboCab, Japan is leading the world…Read more Building a Society with a Robot demographic

We’ve recently discovered a planet that is very similar to Earth in orbit around a star very similar to our Sun. It’s truly exciting to imagine the possibility that somewhere in the universe there may be others who are both like and unlike us. A recent Huffington Post piece titled, Earth 2.0: Bad News for God,…Read more Scientist Declares the Discovery of Earth 2.0 is Bad News for God

Recently, Listerine commissioned the creation of an app that allows the blind to "see" a smile. This is an example of how technology amplifies our humanity. And this is just the beginning. What might a future in which technology makes us more human look like?

What if, rather than a dark and dystopian Bladerunner style urban future, the future were greener, healthier, brighter?