Human Prowess

On the question of
human prowess…

In every era, the definition of human value has been contested. What machines cannot do becomes, suddenly, what humans must do extraordinarily well.

We are in such a moment now. Artificial intelligence can write, calculate, summarize, optimize, and predict. What it cannot do is be present in a room and read it accurately. What it cannot do is earn trust through the accumulation of character. What it cannot do is display judgment refined by genuine experience, genuine failure, and genuine understanding of other people.

Human Prowess is an attempt to study that territory honestly. We draw on behavioral research, applied socioeconomics, psychology, and sociology to ask a question that is simple to state and yet seemingly difficult to answer: what does it actually look like to be excellent at being human? We do not claim to have finished that inquiry. We are simply committed to pursuing it with care.