{"id":10,"date":"2014-07-14T20:02:38","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T20:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wellbeingandcontrol.com\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:25:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:25:34","slug":"page-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/?page_id=10","title":{"rendered":"About the book"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Well, I have to admit that the book was never published. Like most of my projects I can just about manage the creation stage but fail dismally at delivery.  But the website, written in 2016, exists and that&#8217;s the main content anyway. My next plan is to create TikTok and Youtube video out of it, and if you have arrived here via that route then it would have succeeded. <\/h4>\n<p><strong>Much has changed since I put this site together.  US politics and AI make some of it look naive.  But human nature is human nature. It changes on evolutionary timescales so writing about it is still relevant. A decade or two is nothing.  So I&#8217;ll drop this commentary now and, if you read on, it will be what I originally wrote &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Our common-sense views of human nature, and many of our institutions, are based on outdated and misguided assumptions about human nature and we are only now beginning to put together a bigger and more accurate picture.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Many authors and commentators have written and talked on this and related themes in the last few years \u2013 questioning conventional views of human motivation and presenting new evidence about how people perceive, interpret, remember and use information to make decisions and choices. <\/strong><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Daniel Khaneman<\/strong> has accumulated much scientific evidence to suggest that traditional economic theory is seriously flawed, <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Pink<\/strong> questions whether financial incentives are effective in the modern workplace and proposes new models of motivation, and <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Goleman<\/strong> has brought to our attention the importance of emotional intelligence in running organisations. <\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s just the Daniels!  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Thomas Piketty<\/strong> highlights disturbing finding about increasing inequality, <\/p>\n<p><strong>David Eagleman<\/strong> has illustrated the connections between our brains and our behaviour, <\/p>\n<p><strong>Steven Pinker<\/strong> has helped clarify how we use the tern &#8216;free-will, and <\/p>\n<p><strong>Ray Kurzweil<\/strong> predicts that by 2029 we will know all we need to know to build machines that are at least as capable as humans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>And so the list goes on. In this book I try to pull together a picture of our contemporary understandings about human nature (in the UK at least) and look at its implications for the way we design our organisations and structures in society.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><HR><br \/>\nThe book will be published in 2020 and will consist of a selection of the best blog posts including any comments and contributions. I will start to give the blog publicity in 2019 once I have a sufficiently coherent body of work.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wellbeingandcontrol.com\/?page_id=951\">More background about the book<\/a> (including our mistaken assumptions)<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png?w=605&#038;ssl=1\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\",\"Email\",\"Print\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"About%20the%20book\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, I have to admit that the book was never published. Like most of my projects I can just about manage the creation stage but fail dismally at delivery. But the website, written in 2016, exists and that&#8217;s the main &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/?page_id=10\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">About the book<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\",\"Email\",\"Print\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"About%20the%20book\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4OZBF-a","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":962,"url":"https:\/\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":0},"title":"Home","author":"Rod Rivers","date":"July 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Main themes Wellbeing and control - What is the nature of wellbeing for the individual and society and how does it relate to the degree of control we have over the various aspects of our lives? This has implications for social policy and how we, as individuals, live our lives.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":485,"url":"https:\/\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/?page_id=485","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":1},"title":"Human Operating System 1 &#8211; The Fragmentation of Experience","author":"Rod Rivers","date":"October 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Fragmentation of Experience I was sitting quietly yesterday, just letting my mind run free as I frequently do, and was distracted by a single unusual dinging sound. I checked my phone, I checked my laptop, I checked my desktop computer and finally came to my iPad to discover that\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/HOS1.jpg?fit=1200%2C671&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/HOS1.jpg?fit=1200%2C671&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/HOS1.jpg?fit=1200%2C671&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/HOS1.jpg?fit=1200%2C671&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/HOS1.jpg?fit=1200%2C671&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1269,"url":"https:\/\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/?page_id=1269","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":2},"title":"Robot Ethics &#8211; Reports, Articles, Blogs and News Links","author":"Rod Rivers","date":"January 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Audio - Video - Written Material - Organisations A collection of reports, blogs, papers and other written material about robot ethics. Reports IEEE Ethically Aligned Design: A Vision For Prioritizing Wellbeing With Artificial Intelligence And Autonomous Systems For Public Discussion - By 18th March 2018 Version 2 of this report\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wellbeingandcontrol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/gold-robot_IMG_3381_caption_503px.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1267,"url":"https:\/\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/?page_id=1267","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":3},"title":"Robot Ethics &#8211; Audio (mainly)","author":"Rod Rivers","date":"January 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Audio - Video - Written Material - Organisations A collection of audio links on robot ethics that you can listen to while on the move. Ethics and technology Moral Maze:The Morality of Artificial Intelligence The Morality of Artificial Intelligence Driverless cars could be on UK roads within four years under\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wellbeingandcontrol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/gold-robot_IMG_3381_caption_503px.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1272,"url":"https:\/\/wellbeingandcontrol.com\/?page_id=1272","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":4},"title":"Robot Ethics &#8211; Organisation Links","author":"Rod Rivers","date":"January 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Audio - Video - Written Material - Organisations Organisations involved in researching or policy making about robot ethics CENTRE FOR DATA ETHICS AND INNOVATION Announced in the Autumn 2017 budget, the UK government will invest \u00a375m into delivering recommendations from an independent review on AI. 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