ANDRORITHMS

I coined the term "Androrithms" – a blend of "Andro" (human) and "algorithms" – in my 2016 book Technology vs Humanity. It has since become one of the central themes in almost all of my keynotes, and a strong meme online.

Androrithms are the human-only traits that we all have: empathy, compassion, intuition, imagination, and of course agency and consciousness. They also include the increasingly endangered hallmarks of being human: mystery, serendipity, making mistakes, and the right to keep secrets. The androrithmic view rests on the definition of intelligence: humans have at least eight distinct kinds of intelligence (emotional, social, kinesthetic and more), while algorithms have exactly one – logical, binary, fact-based intellectual intelligence.

Androrithms are the messy, organic, conscious essence of being human. While machines and AI are brilliant at answers, humans are the masters of context, common sense, intuition and questions.

My argument for nurturing our Androrithms is simple: for every spectacular algorithmic breakthrough, we must equally strengthen and protect our androrithms. AI is rapidly reshaping how we relate to one another; it is the first technology (and science) that changes WHO WE ARE, and who we might become. This is why we have to nurture and defend our human idiosyncrasies, so they are not flattened or even erased by 'too much technology' as it becomes the permanent middleman for everything we do.

The roots of Androrithms lie in a conviction I hold deeply: the core of our humanity cannot be predicted, copied optimised by any algorithm. Organisms are not algorithms. Yes, we are living through the Intelligence Revolution, and we now inhabit a digital world ruled by automation and data – but the real engines of progress remain stubbornly organic: intuition, imagination, values, ethics, consciousness, spirituality – and the courage to embrace mystery.

Androrithms are the counterweight to machine logic – a defence of the traits only humans can have, the very things that come alive where efficiency and probability runs out.

Visit my new Androrithms.com site.