Task 12 | Speculative Futures

Introduction

In this last task, we are asked to dive into speculations of futures and compose two narratives about our potential relationship with media, education, text and technology in the next 30 years. The two pieces that you are about to view might initially seem like a doom fiction of helplessness and hopelessness in the age of unhinged digital despots. However, when you go thoroughly into each, you may sense something more like a Yin and Yang pattern; “within each utopia, a concealed dystopia; within each dystopia, a hidden utopia” (Atwood, 2011, p.85); this how I envision the future.

While composing the future scenarios, I was highly drawn to the nifty framework (i.e., cones) of Dunne and Raby (2013): what is probable to happen; What is possible; what is plausible; what is preferable. The first narrative is built on the viability of Neurolink’s project sponsored by Elon Musk, aiming towards “superhuman cognition” and singularity. The narration perpetuates well the humans and technology clash or the “ethical crash” as foreseen by several higher education scholars (Aoun, 2018; O’Brien, 2020; O’Neil, 2016). The second narrative provides a glimpse into an infinite classroom (i.e., based on VR/AR advancement in the future). Both scenarios encapsulate a futuristic depiction proposed in Asimov’s short story “The Fun They Had. ” Asimov (1950) predicted that by the year 2157, each child would have an individualized mechanic robot that will be engineered to fit his/her learning abilities. We are already headed in the direction of robot teachers/assistants much sooner than Asimov anticipated. At Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor Goel created an AI teaching assistant named Jill Watson (Leopold, 2017) . She was so successful that the students didn’t realize that she was AI; Dr. Adam (the robot teacher in my scenario) is an advanced version of Jill in the near future. Below are my narratives from speculative futures:

[1] My brain chip

[Use the arrows in circles to navigate through pages]

Click here for full view of narrative 

Click here for PDF view

[2] A day in the infinite classroom

The narration was done by my 13-years daughter (Sabine) as I desired a realistic voice. I used Vyond “text to voice” feature to generate Dr. Adam voice. Images were edited using pixlr.com. I want to note that the wearable devices might not be there in the future or look very different. Still, I used them to illustrate how the present technologies may evolve (e.g., encapsulate live interaction, haptics technology, and more) and their potential power as they propagate in teaching and learning.

Reflection and final thoughts

The experience was a good start to to peek outside the present moment and begin thinking about the futures of education in non-classical way and beyond the amorphous and generalized scope of : “Technology will offer huge potential for future teaching and learning”. It opened my eyes that our current views of the future, by contrast to those of the mid-20th Century such as Asimov, are limited (Kupferman, 2020). Besides, I realized the importance of considering alternative and infinite scenarios (that may or may not be realized) while thinking about the future; it will help us to “understand both where we are today and where we could go (not where we will or must go)” (Kupferman, 2020, p. 4).

While writing the pieces I had mixed feelings, a contrasting combination of excitement for things I desired to happen (such as the infinite classroom) and disbelief or disappointment as I imagine singularity is near. Not that long, in previous MET courses, I wrote that it is impossible to have robot teachers and refused to believe that online learning might be the norm any time soon particularly for K-12 education. My justification was that they are cold and impersonal and will take away from the human touch. But what seemed impossible is happening; the pandemic have affected all walks of life and education; it have empowered the dehumanizing structure. This begs us to value the “what if” scenarios and start considering scenarios such as: What if this move paves the way to online schooling? Dr. Shannon Vallor (2018) explained that AI cannot replicate human mind soon, but this doesn’t mean that there is no such threat of robot teachers to human teachers. So, what if there are robot teachers are on the ground? Are we ready for their release?

I believe it’s time to flesh out depictions of what educational futures look like, widen our understanding of what is going on in the technology sectors and be creative and develop infinite future scenarios (Kupferman, 2020). Otherwise, we will be taken by surprise in the same way we are throughout the pandemic time, and the ever-growing and ambitious technology era will catch us all off guard.

References

2 thoughts on “Task 12 | Speculative Futures”

    • Hi Ying, we are indeed bumped up against one of the Big Questions of Philosophy here: Is there such a thing as amoral? Might robots, AI systems have it? It is hard to predict where technology innovations are taking us in the future. Someone might think that all of this is a bit silly or, at least, premature to ask. But it is always better to be prepared: It is better to think about the consequences of our actions while we have the time and leisure to do, so that, if those consequences come to be, then we won’t be taken by surprise. Indeed, several well-known figures from computer science and industry (including Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking) have urged us to do precisely that, because singularity may pose a threat to us.

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