How a Future Digital Workforce is Revolutionising University Learning and Work
It’s 2030, a new educational revolution is upon us. Its shadow formed in a not so distant past, half crystallised by something called “Lockdown” in 2020.
An increasing number of institutions run knowledge through super apps in real and virtual and VP worlds. The Mandalorian triggered something. In part too it’s a sign of its times, the fusion of technology and agile learning cultures brought on by the labour market.
Problem solvers, collaborators, creative; that’s what everyone wants a new generation of technology — artists. In 2010, I glimpsed it when one of the UK’s leading artistic directors Jude Kelly OBE of the Southbank Centre — a leading artists centre in London — pulled me into the centre as one of her artists-in-residence. Her message back then was to collaborate, find new talent and infect those around us. Jude went on to found WOW. Women of the World.
The quest too for the new technology-artist was also a response to boost international students across innovatory programmes — an untapped revenue stream. Air travel had attracted a surcharge from climate change and some students opted to become more strategic at when and where to travel. Virtual travel and meetings had become normalised.
The Apps attracted labels like Sophroniscus, Socrates’ father — revisiting a time when knowledge was inter-disciplinary, personalised and resembling psycho-geography. Knowledge too was accrued directly to solve an apparent problem.
Think of Wechat, the Chinese 2011 super app known as the ‘Remote Control for Life” as the precursor. Now, super apps are the norm. Yet, instead of an App within an App, you could go four, five levels down , Inception style— an App within an App within an App, another App and then base App.
It’s the equivalent to what we refer to as the Paranet. In 2006/7 we unveiled a world of the Outernet — tells that were specifically targeted as illustrated in this profile of this author by Apple (see article here).
Sophroniscus tapped into the Story Hub. Inside the Hub practitioners demonstrate varying qualities with the motto “Time Entrepreneurs, Finders and The Movement” which led to them becoming Applied Storytellers or otherwise Super Applied Storyteller (SAS).
Both forms fused inter-disciplinary thinking, merged science, business and a humanities approach specifically to solve real life problem. Quite the opposite of the modular deliverables that increased from the 1960s onwards.
SAS’s were story-engineers, building physical solutions from ground up prototypes whilst accomplished at situating their products into immersive contextualised stories.
Take Ayushi. Her story stemmed from the increasing number of adults with ADHD. Her build was to create a smart lens that could prompt wearers of the task ahead. She was one of several practitioners emerging from a SAS programme from the StoryHub, wayback in 2022 at the University of Cardiff. It’s the ‘tell’ that’s the kicker.
Len’s Smart was a byproduct of glass, google technology, which this author was part of their test programme. But think of this another way, that hotel I’m in in New York could easily be my avatar, as I’m in London within Sophroniscus.
In 2030 AI had invaded everything we do, but it did not drive out human intervention as some feared. Gary Kasparov, the grandmaster Chess Player was one of the first to identify a new working relationship from Moravec’s Paradox which led to a hybridised model.
The paradox said logic and maths are things AI can do well. Sensorimotor skills like perception, love, instinct, not so much. In 1997 having been beaten by IBM’s Deep Blue, Kasparov would a year later engineer tournaments between human-AI teams. Humans did the strategy, AI did the tactics.
Hence television news had radically changed, bolstered by AI to determine amongst many things biases in the content.
The concepts behind SAS were bolstered from a programme called Stacked whose framework enveloped the 2011 Lean Start-up model, itself derived from Japanese form Kiazen.
Lean by itself was capitalism writ large, urged on by a need for unicorns — billion dollar cap companies. Stacked looked at the human consequences. Politics required diverse cultural participation, Economics absorbed developing world sovereignty. Storytelling embraced AI.
By the time a practitioner went through Stacked, they would begin to see the world with a new perspective. Back in 2019 this is what some cohorts on the programme would write.
Why did it work? The story might seem as science fiction driven as this author’s prediction in 2005 about the future of platforms displayed prominently on Apple’s website. Back in 2005 there was no YouTube, but this author had found a way to build a video platform, whose style and outlay would influence networks like Al Jazeera.
I’m David. I’d love to start a conversation with you. You can reach me at david@viewmagazine.tv or Gyimahd@cardiff.ac.uk or on Linkedin or Twitter.
Officially one of the top writers in journalism on @Medium which attracts 30k writers covering 67k stories and with traffic of up to 100m active readers. In 2023 he launches a new project bridging science, art, tech and storytelling
