The question we tried to follow and answer the entire semester sounded something like this:
In light of the ability to track and record human activity, an ability that will be predetermined to be widespread by 2025: What opportunities will we have to 1) have meaningful lives 2) do meaningful work 3) have a reasonable level of autonomy and quality of life 4) do all of this as a conscious creator, curator, reframer, and manager of technology 5) ennoble the state of humanity as a natural part of life.
From all the discussions we had three possible scenarios emerged:
Dr. CyberLove: Tools Gone Wild
What technology can do, technology will do. Technological determinism. Human activity is monitored and there are consequences.
High knowledge, low trust. Starts with the buying and selling of data, Collection of data is malignant. Some countries use it in authoritarian ways. Others simply have companies that track everything and sell it.
Renaissance of the Self
Human activity is monitored, and there are consequences. The pendulum swings back. Enough people with enough power facing serious problems decide to set up technological evolution – to change the world for the better.
Optimistic Indeterminate
“Big Data Doesn’t Matter.” Relatively Powerless Technology. Big data doesn’t work. Human activity is monitored and there are no consequences that affect that human activity.
No surprise I chose to work on the “Renaissance of the Self” one. Being a huge fan of TED Talks, TEDster and TEDx curator for many years instilled in me “Everything is going to be ok” and “Dream big” note and I wanted to give it a try to develop this scenario a bit deeper and further.
I’ve been working together with Skylar Jessen, Francesca Rodriguez Sawaya and Anneka Goss.
We decided to develop four scenario lines: climate change, big data, connection & understanding, and AI.
The following post is the full transcript of our scenario talk. It’s a 8min read. Read it here.