Yesterday I presented at one of my favourite events, the ACS Foundation’s “Big Day In.” This is a roadshow, now in its 5th or 6th year, that connects IT industry speakers with Year 11 and 12 students. The premise is to share information, and dispel myths about a career in IT. To give students a full day of information about the opportunities, and experiential insight, compared to the limited time and information career guidance counselors and many parents have.

This is the most important thing we can do to ensure a successful economy for Australia!

There is an increasing skills gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) skills that are critical for a world that is digitising. If Hewlett Packard Enteprise, my employer, didn’t sponsor my time, I’d take personal leave and do it in my own time. As it is all the preparation is already after hours, often late into the night. There is nothing I can think of for our economy, and progress, that’s more important than turning around the attrition IT schools and colleges are facing. Except perhaps to redress the gender gap. We need more technologists, yes, but we need more diversity too.

In previous years I got to speak at most, if not all of the events. Alas, this year it appears through a change in governance that I no longer have that platform. Now that the event has grown, there are too many sponsors offering real money rather than “passion equity.”

Still, as ever I gave it my all, and student questions reflected the interest this generation has with the impact of disruptive technologies. As before I was astounded by the questions that the students asked.

1. Will Technology Rob Us Of Our Ability To Connect With People?

For a start, the technology I’ve always been interested in is technology that enables people to connect with each other. Email, IM, Video Conferencing, Mobility, Networking. So am I concerned about the picture of the guy in the decrepid room wasting away in his VR goggles?

No.

At most technology provides tools to connect. To overcome space and time. Nothing more. Everything has an “off” button

So yes, there was a language shift in the early 2000’s, when sms texts became the way for people to connect. This may’ve been a barrier to adults, but no more than TV was to our parents, and Rock music to theirs.

Society has already shifted. Now the barriers are Vine and Snapchat. But language, the expression of culture, is dynamic. Just consider what Socrates thought about the advent of writing (that humans would lose their ability to remember), and the clergy about calligraphy for sacred texts with the advent of the printing press, and the telephone, the fax, email, the list goes on…

The truth is society adapts, and will adapt to the new media. Will there be extremes of luddites on the one hand, and addicts on the other? Sure. But in the main, I think humans are pretty smart, disciplined, and have a need to connect. We’ll figure it out.

I am looking forward to connecting immersively via VR with my family when I travel though.

2. Will AI In The Cloud Take Over Like SkyNet?

Um, no.

But that’s a qualified ‘No.’

People far smarter than I, Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil, to name a couple, have signed a letter asking that we don’t develop AI with military objectives in mind. So I infer they know enough to be concerned. But then, they are concerned. And being smarter than I, not to mention more influential, I suspect they’ll do something about it.

We should be concerned. Concerned enough to make sure things don’t get out of hand. If you want to watch a great movie about AI learning about Nuclear Holocaust, check out the pivotal: “Wargames”

My qualification is that smart young people develop the skills, not only to develop this technology, but to secure it too.

So Dystopia (Skynet) or Utopia (Star Trek)?

Neither.

30 years ago I had just finished High School, and was serving in the South African Military. The media was awash with the post-apocalyptic survival tales, and technology was projected to lead us down this dark path. But books and movies are fiction. A warning at best.

Similarly there are plenty of media heralding technology as a saviour from the tedium of work, and the tyranny of politics. These too are fiction. An aspiration at best.

The future will be neither dystopian, nor utopian, just like it is today. Already today the miracle of shooting, producing, and distributing affordable high definition video as a commodity item is mixed with roads full of potholes. The ability to buy, insure, and register a car online is mixed with corrupt politicians.

We do need more young people to consider ethics and systems design. Security for and from governments. Social impact. Environmental considerations.

To make the world a little more utopian, and protect us from the dystopia.

R42

Posted with Blogsy from my iPad Pro

Originally published on Wordpress