Will you adopt new technologies in future? Ask your health

Your health will play a key role in determining whether you would adopt as well as adapt to advanced technologies like Artificial Inteliegence (AI) and gene editing, an expert has emphasised.

"The healthier a person, he or she will be more likely to be open to the new beneficial thing than the less healthy person. And that openness dials up future readiness very severely," said James L. McQuivey, Vice President, Principal Analyst, at global research firm Forrester, in a blog post on Friday.

Openness to risk resides in the body, which then shapes the mind.

"Looking ahead to the innovations coming, this means that healthier people are more likely to benefit from everything coming down the innovation pike than those who are less healthy," McQuivey added.

According to him, physical health may influence emotional health, which would lead to intellectual agility, openness to innovation and finally to technology adoption.

"The product implications of this are huge, but so are the social ones, because many of the innovations about to occur will involve health and wellness.

"This will make health the new digital divide: Those who have it will use technology to have more of it; those who don't won't," the expert said.

However, physical health will not predict whether someone is a fashionista (that's driven by social and personality needs, which are influenced by health but not always in one direction) nor will it predict timing of adoption, because in the end, you have to have money to buy a Tesla.

Health would also not predict wealth as effectively as it does overall adoption and future readiness.

"But the point is the healthier you are, the more likely you are to be ready for the future - from AI to gene editing," McQuivey noted, saying that "the future manager will only want to hire the healthiest people. And the future marketer will want the healthiest customers!"

--IANS

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