As we enter a new era of humanity, hardware and biological augmentation in several ways will enhance our ability to think, sense, feel, perceive, and function. The mind, body, and behavior will be heavily influenced and shaped by technologies that trigger the next evolution in humankind, making us transhuman. Transhumanism focuses on convergent forces of the future which will shape the human experience and refine humanity. Disparate advancements in technological, social, medical, and behavioral aspects will result in a revolutionary convergence, blurring our existing identities into “transhumanism.”

Evolution in the human body and thought is expected to trigger an evolution in human behavior and experience. Among these, human behavior is intriguing because evolution in the way that we behave largely shapes us as individuals, our society, businesses, and public policy. Human actions can be stimulated using behavior as the primary focus. The focus of this white paper will revolve around behavioral analytics, which delves deeper into the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ of human behavior and yield meaningful understanding and implications of decisions taken over time as we move towards this new era of transhumanism.

As we move forward, transhumanism will transform how companies can communicate with customers. While technology will certainly play a major role in the way we assess and predict behavioral outcomes, it will remain more of a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. In a transhuman era, future growth areas for behavior tracking will include a combination of wearable devices and body implants in constant communication with the human body. With the evolution in human behavior, disciplines such as gamification and behavioral analytics, supported by technological leaps in AI and sensorization, will propel the use of common ‘nudge’ tactics toward desired outcomes across all aspects of life. By 2030, behavioral analytics will evolve to a point where ‘information actively seeks its consumers’, rather than the other way round, thereby driving predictive decision-making ability.

There is no doubt that governments and corporates will increasingly capitalize on human behavior and its predictability to achieve desired outcomes over the next decade. The effects of behavioral analytics in a transhuman era will have far-reaching implications across a multitude of industries, including gaming, eCommerce and retail, entertainment and media, financial services, healthcare, and cybersecurity, to name a few. The transition of humankind and behavioral analytics will not just shape our economies but our human character and society in its entirety. As humanity enters the rise of technology-driven evolution, propelling deeper questions at the heart of what it is to be human, it is imperative to set a framework for behavioral interventions that can shape better and fairer environments.

Author: Vinay Venkatesan