What happens when the line between human and machine begins to blur? Michael Harvey, author of “The Age of Humachines,” takes us on a fascinating journey through the rapidly transforming technological landscape where machines are increasingly humanized and humans face mechanization.
Harvey introduces us to the five categories of humachines reshaping our world: cognitive systems mimicking human reasoning, emotional technologies reading our feelings, relational machines transforming our communication, robots replacing human functions, and the mechanization of humans themselves through brain-computer interfaces and artificial organs. This isn’t science fiction—it’s happening now, with companies like Neuralink already implanting technology in human brains and predictions of 1.3 billion robots in our supply chains by 2035.
Behind this transformation lies a powerful economic imperative. As traditional growth stagnates, capitalism seeks reinvention through technologies that prioritizes capital while making human labor increasingly obsolete. The result? A steepening social pyramid with a techno-elite at its peak, equipped with life-extending technologies and enhanced capabilities, while the majority face displacement and diminishing prospects. This transition goes largely undebated, presented as inevitable progress rather than a profound choice about our collective future.
Most concerning is the widespread de-skilling of humanity. From wayfinding replaced by GPS to creativity supplanted by generative AI, Harvey argued that we are losing fundamental capabilities that have defined our species for millennia. For therapists and psychologists, this presents both a challenge and opportunity—to articulate and preserve the uniquely human dimensions of connection and relational depth that no algorithm can truly replicate.
So how might we shape a technological future that serves human flourishing rather than replacing it, and what limits, if any, do we need to put on AI? Harvey and Cooper explore the very real strategies and possibilities that can create a humanised, socially just future.
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The Therapy and Social Change (TaSC) Network is a broad affiliation of people interested in exploring the interface between therapeutic ideas and practices and social justice perspectives and actions. We are interested both in the ways that counselling and psychotherapy can be practiced with social justice concerns in mind (for instance, tackling unconscious biases in the consulting room), and also in the ways that therapeutic principles and practices can be extended out to the wider social realm (for instance, developing social and emotional literacy in schools).
