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Leadership is facing its harshest challenge yet.

One of our sternest ‘tests’ will be how we integrate biological thinking with non-biological intelligence. Could we be the last generation of ‘pure’ humans? How will we adapt?

The challenge what does it mean to be human, who we are, and our relationships to one another, will become increasingly challenged through the acceleration of the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI), cybergenetics, genetic engineering, nanotechnology and other innovations still to come.

In his book The Singularity Is Near, futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil says that we are living in a time of extremes where many of the values we cherish are flawed and the movement is towards replacing our biology with technology. The technological singularity is a hypothetical time in future at which technological growth will transform humanity essentially enabling us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity.

This puts leadership and relationships directly in the spotlight. Imagine a world in which there is no clear distinction between human and machine, between what’s real and what’s virtual. How will this manifest in ‘authentic’ relationships when one can wilfully take on a range of personae?

Furthermore, Kurzweil says that when you talk to a human in 2035, you’ll be talking to someone that’s a combination of biological and non-biological intelligence and that by 2045 it will be the predominant form of life in our civilization.

You think that dating is complicated? Even now transhumanism exists within an extreme gene pool for determining the nature and extent of relationships which people are filtering within their philosophical baskets.

Leadership has become trickier. How will you manage intuitive biological rationality when AI may be advocating something else? I will ask AI for the common-sense approach – what will you do?

I am the author of Leading Self and Others (how to make a difference where you are with what you’ve got) and Teaming with ideas (life lessons in teams- from business, sport and parkrun). You can contact me here.