Mind the Gap!—Speed Matters in Education: Relating Technology to Human Capacities

Abstract

It is key for policymakers to focus on speed for economic or geopolitical reasons. But it will be just as important for the future of human beings in a hybrid age to recognize the various human capabilities by which people can naturally handle and apply the speed of technologies. Even in the early days of the first—mechanized—industrial production, maximizing the speed and efficiency of value-added chains was seen to be the only logical decision from an economic perspective. Workers were assumed to be extensions of the machines, merely adapting and hanging on. This attitude toward the relationship between technologies and human workers disrupted profitable production, causing many mistakes in production circles, as well as unhealthy conditions for workers. Digitalization has the potential to improve business efficiencies, e-governmental services, and education to foster advancements in society. This can be successful when policymakers learn to understand the functioning of the human being and the natural behavioral constraints as set by biology. One has to search for a useful synthesis of human demands and human abilities with technological progress.