Technology & the Future
What Makes Human Intelligence Different From AI?
AI can ace some expert tests yet struggle with household tasks. What that jagged picture, and an old philosophy puzzle, tell us about minds.
Topic
Technology & the Future
Tools, attention, AI, and what remains distinctly ours.
Every tool changes what its users practice, and some are built to hold on to us. This hub follows that thread, from the phone on the table to systems that write fluent text, asking what each change asks of human attention and judgment.
Predictions about technology tend to age badly, so these pieces lean on what is documented now and flag speculation. They do not assume machines and people compete in a single contest. The better question is usually which tasks fit which kind of intelligence.
Start here
Featured article
In Technology & the Future
Articles
Technology & the Future
Why Humans Want to Explore Space
Curiosity, safety, cooperation, prestige and awe: the overlapping reasons for leaving Earth, the objections, and where the Artemis program stands in October 2026.
Technology & the Future
Which Human Skills Matter in an Automated World?
What WEF, ILO, Stanford and MIT studies from 2025 and 2026 say about AI and work, how to read them, and which skills the evidence points…
Technology & the Future
What Makes Human Intelligence Different From AI?
AI can ace some expert tests yet struggle with household tasks. What that jagged picture, and an old philosophy puzzle, tell us about minds.
Technology & the Future
How Technology Competes for Human Attention
From Herbert Simon's 1971 idea to today's screens: what research shows about attention, what is only correlation, and where scientists disagree.
Mind & Behavior
Why We Get Distracted
Distraction is less a character flaw than a mismatch between a flexible attention system and an environment full of interruptions. Here is what research shows.
Mind & Behavior
Is Human Attention Really Shrinking?
The claim that people now have shorter attention spans than goldfish is unsupported. Here is what research does show about distraction and ADHD.
Technology & the Future
The Evolution of Human Behavior in a Technological Era
Technology changes what we do each day, but 'evolution' is the wrong word. What studies on screens, interruptions and well-being actually show.
Watch
Related videos
Length 7:02 Technology & the Future
Why Humans Fear Artificial Intelligence
An episode about the emotions around AI: worry about losing control, job disruption and shifting identity, and the fear of an unknown future, framed as…
Length 2:54 Technology & the Future
Why We Scroll Endlessly
A film about endless feeds: how they hold attention with small rewards, and how boredom, stress and the wish for connection can drive automatic scrolling.
Length 1:32 Technology & the Future
Why Attention Is Shrinking
A short micro-documentary on how notifications and fast content may fragment focus, with suggestions to set device boundaries and protect quiet time.
Try it
Random Question Generator
Vocabulary
Words for this topic
- Algorithm
- A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or making a decision. In everyday use it often means the ranking or recommendation rules that sort what we see online.
- Artificial intelligence
- A field of computer science building systems that perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as recognizing images or language. Today's systems are narrow and excel at specific tasks.
- Attention economy
- An economic framing in which human attention is a scarce resource that products and platforms compete to capture, often to sell advertising.
- Automation
- Using machines or software to carry out tasks with limited human involvement. It tends to change which tasks within jobs people do, in addition to replacing some work.
- Digital literacy
- The skills needed to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information with digital tools, including judging whether a source is reliable.
- Human-in-the-loop
- A design in which a person reviews, corrects, or approves what an automated system does, keeping human judgment in the process.
- Large language model
- A machine learning system trained on large amounts of text to predict and generate language. It can produce fluent answers, but fluency is not a guarantee of accuracy.
- Machine learning
- A method in which software improves at a task by finding patterns in data rather than following only hand-written rules.
Go deeper
Recommended resources
-
Coursera (opens an external site)
A platform for university and industry courses. Some courses and course previews are free, but full access to many courses and certificates requires payment or financial aid.
Link checked October 21, 2026
-
Digital Inquiry Group (formerly Stanford History Education Group) (opens an external site)
A nonprofit offering evidence-based history lessons and digital-literacy materials. Downloads require creating an account or signing in with an existing SHEG account.
Link checked October 21, 2026
-
edX (opens an external site)
A catalogue of university courses and programmes. Free and paid options vary by course, with certificates and degrees costing money, so check each course page for current terms.
Link checked October 21, 2026
-
ESA Education (opens an external site)
The European Space Agency's education site, with classroom resources, a kids' section and opportunities for students and early-career professionals. Some programmes have separate application steps.
Link checked October 21, 2026
-
Harvard Professional and Lifelong Learning: Free Courses (opens an external site)
A catalogue of free Harvard-affiliated online courses. Listings carry an asterisk, so read each course page to see what is free and what costs extra, such as certificates.
Link checked October 21, 2026
-
Internet Archive (opens an external site)
A nonprofit digital library of books, recordings, films, software and the Wayback Machine's archived web pages. Much can be read without an account, while borrowing lent books requires a free account.
Link checked October 21, 2026
Learn in order
Learning paths
5 lessons About 4 hours
Living With Technology
Attention, distraction, artificial intelligence, work and exploration, examined with evidence.
5 lessons About 4 hours
How Humans Create
Art, teamwork, learning, failure and music as ways people make something new.