Heartificial Intelligence ─ Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines

In his first book, Hacking H(app)iness, John C. Havens—TEDx speaker, contributingMashable and Huffington Post writer, and founder of the H(app)athon Project—addressed the problems inherent in measuring “success” with a scale as flawed and profit-driven as the GDP. Many countries are beginning to adopt a Gross National Happiness index instead. But when this happiness scale is applied to America, we rank as a Third World country.

In H(app)inomics, Havens takes his hypothesis a step further, arguing that the Gross National Happiness of Americans will suffer further if our jobs are automated and outsourced to artificial intelligence in a future that is much closer than we think. When our personal economics (i.e., our jobs and net worth) are tied so closely to our happiness, as they currently are, what will happen when we can no longer do what we love for a living? Furthermore, what sort of future do we face when mega-corporations such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon have total control over our personal data—data that can be mined to reveal not just our buying habits and patterns, but how these patterns are impacted by our mood, the time of year, our location, and our interests?

As Havens points out in H(app)inomics, the future needn’t look so grim. Indeed, if we can wrest control of our personal data from corporations and use it to better understand ourselves, Havens argues, then we can combat this looming future and make love of life our most important personal economy.

JOHN C. HAVENS is a TEDx speaker and a contributing writer for Mashable, The Guardian, and The Huffington Post. He is the founder of the H(app)athon Project, a nonprofit organization "connecting happiness to action one phone, one heart, and one city at a time" through the use of interactive, sensor-based smartphone surveys. A former EVP for a top-ten global PR firm, he has counseled clients including Gillette, HP, and Merck on technology and social-media, and has been quoted on issues relating to tech, business, and well-being by USA Today, Fast Company, BBC News, Forbes, INC, PR Week, and Advertising Age. Havens was a professional actor in New York City for more than fifteen years, appearing in principal roles on Broadway, on television, and in film.