We accomplish our greatest achievements through cooperation.
In the First Machine Age largely determined by the steam engine technology, human beings and even animals were freed from the drudgery of routine and physical labor. Yet there was resistance to this social upheaval and economic change. In Britain the Robin Hood-like Ned Ludd gangs destroyed automated factory looms in the early 19th century which they viewed as threats to their lifestyle and skilled jobs.
Weaving and textiles were the high technology wealth producing industries of their time. Before Luddite protests, mechanical clocks throughout Europe caused protests by weavers in the Early Modern Era. Weavers working from home as part of the “put out” system felt threatened by towering mechanical overseers The automated clocks regulated workflow with denaturalized precision, unlike the undulating and comforting rhythms of nature.
Today’s Second Machine Age largely centered on the computer is the result of the conflicts of World War II and the Cold War. The first programmable electronic digital computer, the Colossus, was developed in 1943 by Britain as a code breaker for the Lorenz cipher used by the German High Command. The first general-purpose electronic digital computer, the ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was funded by the United States Army at the University of Pennsylvania during the war expressly for ballistic firing tables and completed in 1945. These wartime advances in computer and electronic technologies in part led to the transistor, integrated circuit, microprocessor and today’s advanced semiconductor chips.
The Internet is a technology born of the Cold War conflict. When the Soviet Union launched the “Sputnik” satellite in 1957 this prompted the United States to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in 1958, later named Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972. ARPA in conjunction with the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California at Santa Barbara the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Utah in a consortium created ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. The fear of communications networks being disrupted in the event of nuclear war led directly to the creation of a distributed communication network now known as the internet.
While Artificial Intelligence is the newest technology to disrupt change, interestingly its history was not born from conflict and lies at the heart of the modern computer. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), the German polymath of the late 17th and early 18th century, who invented the binary number system of bits with every meaning reduced to two symbols, dreamed of creating a thinking machine or “Characteristica Universalis” or “Universal Characteristic.” Leibniz did create the first calculator for the four basic math skills and co-invented calculus but did not have the precise tools and technology to realize his dream of building an Artificial Intelligence machine nearly 300 years ago.
Interestingly, Benjamin Franklin operated at the forefront of technology of his age, printing, and was one of the wealthiest people in 18th century colonial America. The Gutenberg printing press of the 15 century democratized knowledge by providing information rapidly and inexpensively. Franklin as an Enlightenment thinker and New World entrepreneur benefited from this technology as a writer, editor, printer, publisher and newspaper owner, as well as postmaster and diplomat.
Being at the intersection of this powerful communication technology as a talented organizer and visionary, Franklin founded the first circulating library -arguably a type of Wikipedia for Philadelphians-the nation’s first volunteer fire department, America’s first mutual insurance company and the University of Pennsylvania. His pioneering discoveries in electricity ultimately contributed the scientific understanding of what would ultimately power our computer age and the internet. The university Franklin established, remarkably is were ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, was created.
Franklin, as a pioneer in the information business, understood knowledge to be the most valuable asset class. As a politician and diplomat, Franklin understood relationships, mediated negotiation, alliance and coalition building to be the keys unlocking human understanding and cooperation. This in turn leads to prosperity, freedom and democracy.
We now stand at a crossroads where Artificial Intelligence is increasingly assuming cognitive powers once thought exclusively human with the ability to learn from data and its algorithms. Our cognitive powers for computation, communication and problem solving are now increasingly expressed with digital versus atomic mediums. Artificial Intelligence can not only replicate cognitive powers but in certain applications many magnitudes faster and more accurately. Artificial Intelligence as a general-purpose technology is driving innovative breakthroughs in biotechnology and genetics, agentic robotics, and quantum computing.
Yet humans, uniquely to the living world, have created inert and inorganic computer technologies that are morally neutral, void of emotion, and absent of judgment. Ironically, Artificial Intelligence’s core is driven by a decision making matrix, which reflects programmed algorithms or data it absorbs and statistically and probabilistically uses to render decisions.
Many of the gains in the Modern era and the past five centuries relate to efficiencies. This concept has accelerated since the Industrial Revolution where mass production, material abundance and surplus wealth are the consequences of efficiency gains. Now cognitive efficiency gains are being realized with Artificial Intelligence in an order of magnitude predicted to soon operate beyond human capabilities in select applications.
Ironically and paradoxically there are areas of humanity where efficiencies are not possible or desirable or the best solutions. These areas include empathy, trust, understanding, teamwork, and social engagement. But this also includes counterintuitive thinking, ideation, strategy formulation and even making unpopular decisions that may not be more efficient but prove more ethical or beneficial for populations and the environment.
Artificial Intelligence is now assisting us in rational cognitive thinking skills, and ironically highlighting the importance of non-quantifiable heuristic and emotional intelligence talents as human beings. Crafting elegant computer codes, writing brilliant legal arguments, and prescribing expert medical advice, will always benefit from human judgment, lifetime experience and hands-on education, and most importantly contextualization.
People say and do things that are not always predictable or probabilistic. Our powers of observation, intuition, trial-and-error of hypotheses and deductive reasoning, provide a holistic perspective on problem solving. We need to not only determine if prescribed answers are the best contextual fit, but whether the questions being asked make the most contextual sense. Information with context is knowledge.
Amazingly, the history of the word context ties into our conversation on several levels. Context derives from the Latin word “contextus” which means “to weave,” which we have observed was an analogue high technology business of its time. This is also the root where we derive the word “text” as in writing, one of humanity’s earliest technologies providing coding for the preservation and transmittal of human collective knowledge.
Humans are social animals who benefit most from collaboration. We are spurred by teamwork, collective identity, and group motivation. The greatest accomplishments are group undertakings. These include our academic affiliations which remain social institutions from childhood to adulthood; businesses with their networks of suppliers, customers and employees; political organizations which are negotiated bargaining institutions representing power constituencies; and even sports teams which occupy our leisure hours.
Many more social institutions will remain steadfast as atomic foundations in the digital age. Even our basic social fabric of families is inherently institutional in nature and the basis of emotional intelligence. Revealingly, the internet itself was founded by social institutions: the government working in conjunction with a consortium of four universities. Artificial Intelligence is itself the result of centuries of scientific inquiry, and since World War II, accelerated collaboration among universities, research laboratories, government and private companies.
While efficiency drives technology, it does not rule leadership and the need to be human. Friendship, love, devotion, loyalty, nationalism, religion, morality, art, are only some of the intellectual and emotional pursuits of humanity that are social and collaborative in nature. These distinguishingly unique qualities inspire progress and the reflect the indelible footprint of human nature.
We are only now realizing that our relentless press for progress and efficiency has costs. These externality costs include the environment, cybersecurity even unemployment and underemployment. The power of select actors in technology has created a concentration of wealth and may lead to disenfranchisement threatening the social order. Only through cooperation, mutual understanding and equanimity can progress be realized for all global citizens.
Benjamin Franklin would recognize both the opportunity for progress and the threat to liberty with today’s fast changing technology. Franklin worked with technology for the better of society, to spread knowledge, increase prosperity, and enjoin liberty. As a Founding Father, he understood all power needs certain restraints and checks and balances. In his work, Franklin always placed humanity and human nature at the center of his business and political affairs. He understood the importance of kindness, empathy, trust, humor, reciprocity, and generousness. As a leader, diplomatic and great communicator Franklin would prescribe more than ever this basis of human nature:
“Tart words make no Friends: a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a Gallon of Vinegar.”
Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved. Thomas S. Shure, Shure & Company.