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Amy Peck, founder and CEO of EndeavorXR, shared her experiences with MetaCenter Global Week attendees in her talk, “Building Better Humans: How Technology Can Elevate Human Performance,” on Oct. 19.
Human performance is a measure of what people can achieve with their bodies, with special emphasis on physical and mental readiness to accomplish certain tasks. The concept involves multiple frameworks that vary depending on the training focus, be it military, sports, corporate or something else. Peck said that when people think of human performance in these terms, the concept can feel elite, or untouchable, like a special operations unit or a professional sports team.
“I want to talk about how we can leverage human performance to elevate everything we’re doing and bring it into our own lives,” Peck said. “[This also extends to] companies and government agencies to consider how everyone needs to do some level of human performance, elevation and training… to make it more accessible.”
Peck outlined a confluence of five technologies she expects to impact human performance over the next decade (some of which, have already done so): haptics, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and brain computer interfaces. Various devices already exist that make use of most of these technologies. For example, the “Teslasuit” provides haptic/biometric feedback, movement capture, and when used in certain types of training, can deliver a mild electric shock to warn a user against performing certain actions in a training scenario. Other, more well-known examples include VR/AR headsets, smart watches and smart shoes.
“We’ll also start seeing a lot of smart fabrics hit the market that will help record your biometric data,” Peck said. “That can be valuable in sports training, but also in facing stressful situations.”
In making human performance more accessible, Peck offered her audience recommendations for human performance improvement, which did not require the use of technology, but a focus on meeting mind/body/spirit needs.
“Human performance enhancement is for everyone,” Peck said. “[There are things] we can do to make incremental change in our day-to-day lives that will have far-reaching benefits, even though we don’t think of our day-to-day lives in terms of human performance.”
Peck’s recommendations work in concert with one another, not individually:
1) Mindset – Practice conscious mindfulness and “being present.”
2) Social connections – Seek to improve relationships with family, friends, community, etc.
3) Movement – Exercise, which can start with something small, like a five-minute walk.
4) Nutrition – Peck’s rule with food is to try to eat food as close to its source as possible.
5) Recovery – Sleep is the most important aspect here, but it also includes meditation and getting in touch with nature.
“There is nothing better for the soul than walking around a lake… and getting back to nature will be the new luxury as technology starts to consume us,” Peck said. “Embrace technology, but put your phones down once in a while. Technology is invasive, but there’s a positive component to it, and the more we understand technology the more we can leverage it to improve our lives.”
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