Brainthrough Lazy Sunday #30

Despite Northern Hemisphere summer and the Olympic Games, the last couple of weeks were really busy with announcements in the fields of BCI, robots and AI models. The level of integration between technology and humans we have seen over the last months even, is evolving surprisingly fast.

It is not surprising, to read more and more commentaries on the risks of AI, robots, and BCI on the human nature.

The depth of technological developments triggers questions about humanity, it is relevant to manage major risks and discuss how to handle these.

The way we handle risks is also dependent on our cultural environment. And hence keeping with the theme of the last weeks, we will spend some time on the cultural dimension of “uncertainty avoidance”.

As “Uncertainty Avoidance” is an extensive topic, I decided to break it into two parts.

Today, we will go through the definition of risks, risky behaviour, and some fundamental assumptions about human attitude towards risk.

We also look into the cultural dimension and compare some countries.

Next week, we will go into the effect of “uncertainty avoidance” on social interactions, communication, and innovation. We will end with some learnings from neuroscience research and a set of tools to manage risks and enhance collaboration.

Topic of the week: risk (part I)

Research could have just named “uncertainty avoidance” “risk tolerance”. But, make no mistake, research argues that uncertainty avoidance can not be confused with risk avoidance.

Risk avoidance is specific to a case. Uncertainty has no object it relates to.

In every-day conversations, we substitute “uncertainty” with “risk” and “uncertainty avoidance” with “risk mitigation”.

Uncertainty tolerance is omnipresent: founders, investors and employees, all the way down to the question my grandfather asked me many years ago: “Son, why do you want to join a computer company in, when you can work in a stable job for Deutsche Bahn?”. He was a long term “Deutsche Bahn” employee post World War II.

Almost daily do I come across “risk” in the conversations I have.

Some ask: “Are Australian investors too risk-averse?”.

Others ask: “How can we take on more risk and move faster to develop our product?”

To quote Hofstede:

The “Uncertainty Avoidance” or UA dimension reflects the extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with risk by minimizing uncertainty.

It dictates the way individuals, social groups and organizations prepare to make decisions.

Before we go into comparing nations and look at both sides of the spectrum, I want to quickly go into “risk” and factors influencing risk profiles.

Risk hierarchy

The extreme side of risky behaviour for humans - death. Biologically, we are driven to avoid any risks that could harm us.

Over centuries, humanity was able to reduce the risk of death in the wild nature. Our risk profile moved to other areas in the Maslow pyramid.

It does not mean we ponder risk with less enthusiasm. Instead of survival, we are debating the risks of further self-reflection. Should I study that? Should I move abroad? Should I become an accountant or a founder? Do I buy or rent?

Risk tolerance is subjective

But it is a learned behaviour.

Baby steps into the unknown

Understanding threats has been essential for humanity to survive. Babies and toddlers see reactions of immediate family members and will mirror them. Learning what creates ambiguity and should rather be avoided, are engrained in us and hence impacting culture of social groups significantly.

They become set standards, impacting whom we are friends with, where we live and where we work.

Over time, we grow out of our circles and the other groups start to shape and reshape our reactions to the unknown.

Risk is only risky when we know it is risky

Another fascinating aspect: a risk not known is a risk not perceived.

Think about this: for a long time, the health risks of smoking or pesticides weren’t known.

People smoked as they derived pleasure, and continued to use pesticides as it kept bugs away. With more data confirming the risks, fewer people smoke and fewer pesticides are being used.

When toddlers don’t know they can fall off a tree and hurt themselves, they will continue to climb.

The risk profile of societies is also shaped by history.

Research has shown that children, who were exposed to war in early childhood, became more risk-averse.

Individuals who experienced the great depression of the 1930s, were less likely to hold big positions in the stock market later in life.

Studies go as far, as to suggest that “risk profiles” can be biologically transmitted across generations.

Reflection of “Uncertainty Avoidance” in cultural traits

Social groups falling on the upper scale of UA, tend

• to have more written rules and clear regulations

• to have more official language (German “Sie” and “du”, or its equivalent in Frensh are just one example)

• to have a lower happiness score for the overall population

• require and thrive on structure and process e.g. in organization

• to correlate with countries of “high-power distance” (e.g. Russia; but there are outliers, e.g. India)

• to promote doctors, lawyers and other “trustworthy” roles in ads

• to regulate new technologies rather than adopt quickly

• to cope badly with stress and change at work and long-term employment is favoured

These social groups follow the credo “what is different is dangerous” and “matters that can be structured should not be left to chance”. That does not mean they run the best processes - it just means processes are followed.

Social groups falling on the lower end of the scale

• show overall lower stress and anxiety

• have more lenient, more open rules for children to play, what is “dirty” and “taboo”

• show a more relaxed and open family life

• don’t allow emotions and aggressions to show publicly

• expect to be rewarded for originality not “following the protocols”

• consume more ready-made products and accept tap water over bottled water

• value looks over cleanliness

• are more Do-It-Yourself prone

• are often early adopters of new technologies

• shop for convenience over asserted quality

• have higher rates of innovation (as measured by number of patents and trademarks)

This is why startups thrive in the States and in Singapore. Maybe?

Hofstede did not find any differences between genders. But there are studies suggesting men are more risk-on in certain situations, especially male adolescents.

What the study found though: older group shows higher uncertainty avoidance in relation to the nations score.

Uncertainty avoidance - a nation comparison

Disclaimer:

As always, I want to caution that you can not generalize culture to each and every individual of a social group, but “only statistically more often in the same society.”

Disregarding this fact can quickly lead to biased interaction. Nevertheless, I found understanding these cultural values and dimensions to be a very good entry point into national cultures.

Find my research: culture - risk

Uncertainty Avoidance and Language - A police case study

Culture research on uncertainty avoidance goes a long way. Our nervous system directly reacts to “risk” as a threat. If we feel we are at risk, we tighten up, our nervous system, first and foremost the amygdala, triggers initial “fight or flight” reactions.

No surprise, high-risk and high-tension settings are often used to study how action, reaction, and communication impacts human behaviour.

This study is a good example of how cultural backgrounds and similarities impact outcomes.

Remember: Germany scores high on the uncertainty avoidance scale. Risk-averse cultures tend to have strong social rules and regulations, defining how people interact and communicate with each other.

(Palo Alto University)

Cushion Hypothesis

Combining several cultural dimensions, allows us to create theories describing certain cultural behaviours in more detail. One of these theories, that uses multiple dimensions, is the “Cushion Hypotheses”.

Asian cultures tend to be more “collectivistic”, and hence the social support within groups is stronger than in “individualistic” cultures. The result, the theory suggests, is a greater risk-taking behaviour.

In contrast, Western cultures, e.g. US, are more individualistic and therefore the behaviour is more risk or loss-aversion.

This study used brain scans during decision-making games comparing Chinese and Americans.

Interestingly, this study also sums up nicely why it makes sense to look closely into the intersections of neuroscience, culture and management:

(Oxford Academic)

Find my research: neuroscience

Shanghai BCI center opened doors

The Fudan university in Shanghai opened the “Neuromodulation and Brain-Machine Interface” Center, as it aims to foster technological developments in medical and healthcare applications.

It has already opened the “Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence”.

Considering China’s government has chosen brain-computer-interfaces and related technologies as a key focus area in its strategy, investments in universities and other research establishments aren’t surprising.

The center is focused on rehabilitation and neurodegenerative diseases, which are growing in China as well. Check out the Brain Health Atlas report on China.

(China Daily)

CNN discovers BCI

As part of CNN’s “de-coded” Series, with the focus on “tech for good”, BCI interfaces found a spot.

It is a quick 3-minute video, worth watching. It does not only give a brief explainer of the technology, it also raises one serious question: how do we deal with this technology given “the brain is the last frontier of our privacy.”

The Economist went a bit deeper into the topic last year. I shared it in one of the earlier newsletters as well, but it’s worth watching - for all the new subscribers, here is the link. ;-)

(CNN)

Find my research: office

Africa’s largest telco invests in neuroscience

MTN will invest in neuroscience research and neuroscience approach for leadership and management.

To quote Paul Norman, MTN CHR:

and

Interestingly, alongside the theme of the last weeks he also stated

(ITweb)

Neuroscience advice for performance conversations at work

At work, or even at home with kids, we need to share feedback to work and live together. It is paramount to be able to properly provide positive and negative feedback if you want to be able to exist together happily.

Receiving feedback as well as providing feedback is anxiety-enducing.

Mohit, this is for you: only 2% of Fortune 500 CHROs think their performance review process is helpful and inspires their employees. 98% of HR leaders think their performance management is not good enough. This is scary!

To lower the stress reactions on both sides, David Rock, a well-known neuroscientist and author, shared some ideas:

1. Ask for the right time to give feedback: many “managers” will turn around now and say “oh, well, I don’t have time to ask for permission all the time, I provide feedback when I provide feedback.” Yes, might just not be that effective.

2. Feedback around outcomes not activities: especially with WFH and hybrid models, activity tracking has become the manager mode No. 1. Implementation of key-stroke technologies is just the top of the iceberg. But it also impacts trust between manager and employee and once trust is broken, it is difficult to perform. Better to implement clear goals (e.g. through well-defined OKR’s) and work jointly reviewing the output.

3. Regularity: once a year reviews are still common, but rubbish. It has never worked, it will never work. Monthly is a minimum to check against overall goals. Feedback can be part of every conversation though. Simple questions like “Where did you struggle most with this task? Would be good to know for us to make our processes better!”. Not only does it provide a method of indirect feedback, it also allows the employee to build ownership.

(FastCompany)

On top of tech

Clare&me receives €3.7m in funding for mental health AI

This is pretty cool to see. Celina, one of the co-founders, is ex-Freshworks, and I like it when my fellow Freshworks colleagues go out and do cool stuff. Antler followed on in this round as well.

Clare&me is one of the few successful mental health companies from Europe, providing a LLM-powered AI to patients with mental health issues.

The funding will be used to accelerate collaboration with clinics.

(Vestbee)

Synchron integrates with Apple Vision Pro

Synchron, the Melbourne-founded, New York-based brain-computer-interface company, is on 🔥right now.

First, they announced a partnership with OpenAI not that long ago.

Then they announce a partnership with Apple for their Vision Pro headset.

The headset is controlled via a Bluetooth adapter, that receives signals from the implant. The Synchron implant measures electric signals in the brain. Through these signals, motor intent (”I want to move my hand.”) is detected, which can then be used to navigate through the Apple Vision Pro interface without the need to use hands and fingers.

(BusinessWire)

Neuralink implanted patient no.2 - 8 more to go in 2024

Elon Musk’s Neuralink implanted another Neuralink BCI in patient No.2. The slightly modified hardware, updated software - over the air, like a iPhone or Tesla update.

Lex Friedman released almost 9h of interviews with Elon and the team behind Neuralink. You can watch it here, or listen to it on Spotify or Apple Podcast.

(Engadget)

Figure 2 - new robot

As you might have heard, Figure released a new robot: Figure 02.

The new model does not only look much better (fewer cables etc.) it comes with enhancements both on the software and hardware side. And obviously, as teased some months ago, Figure 02 is powered by ChatGPT. Like it or not.

One interesting fact:

The software and neural networks got trained through simulations as well as observing human behavior. The video below shows some examples of how this looked like, starting. We talked about simulations and the benefits even for training humans. Training robots on simulations means no hardware is being wasted. Simulations can run indefinitely, day and night. The ultimate speed of training and improvements is only limited by compute power - compared to humans, this is a huge benefit for 🤖.

Arc-teryx’ exoskeleton

Yeah, fun fact, I can not pronounce that headline myself! 🤷

Arc-teryx is an outdoor company, up there with the likes of “The North Face”, “Patagonia” and “Salomon”. If you are outdoors - you know them. If not - well, you should get outdoors 😁 

Arc-teryx produces high-end outdoor clothing. Therefore, they are an ideal partner for outdoor, multi-functional and products like exoskeletons, robotic enhancements to help humans do more physical activities with less strain on the body.

Skip, a Google X spin off, created a walking exoskeleton enabling us to be more active outside for longer. The result: exoskeleton pants.

The only down-side? The price tag of $4,500 for a pair of pants.

But, over time, such tech will become more accessible. While the brand aims at outdoors, there are plenty of market opportunities helping people of any age with even slight moving / walking disabilities.

(Fast Company)

Misc but not least…

Lately, Mark Zuckerberg started to become a different person. He looks like a surfer from Hawaii (sunglass tein), then he wakeboarded in a suit during 4th of July holding up the American flag, now he built a sculpture for his wife.

The reasoning? “Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife”.

I am not sure my wife would appreciate that.

Thank you for reading.

Please share the link on social media or by forwarding this episode of Lazy Sunday to your friends and colleagues.

Maybe they can learn something as well? ;-)

Have a great rest of the weekend.

Alex