Today, cutting edge collaboration in the enterprise is all about enabling the employee through the use of Web 2.0 tools and technologies. In the ‘wiki workplace’ the goal is to change the culture of the firm. Create an open and transparent environment where employees, partners and customers can to share information and collaborate on a global scale. Today, the wiki workplace is a scary depiction of the future for most organizations.

So I would expect most CEOs to have a heart attack at the latest predictions from Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil predicts that by 2029 “hardware and software will achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence”. He goes on to state that we will have “intelligent nanobots go into our brains through the capillaries and interact directly with our biological neurons”.

He makes the point that “We’re already a human machine civilization, we use our technology to expand our physical and mental horizons and this will be a further extension of that”. Fair enough, ABS brakes and traction control can enhance driving ability and prevent you from crashing your car. (granted this is still a ways off from a nanobot in your brain)

If Kurzweil is right this means in 20 years voluntary human to human collaboration could be a thing of the past. Rather than relying on employees to adopt new tools and ways of working after a merger you will simply insert an ‘upgraded nanobot’ and move on. If you want to get the latest customer feedback why not have the nanobot in your product solicit the consumers opinion from his hybrid brain. In this future workplace the focus would no longer be on collaboration among employees, but rather compatibility between nanobots.

While all of this sounds intriguing, for the time being I think I will stick with Web 2.0