Prepping for the Alien invasion.
i hope no one bought a ticket
or clicked on a youtube link thinking i
would be talking literally
about hostile extraterrestrials
the idea of prepping for the alien
invasion
is a fun way into thinking about all
those challenges that we see on the
horizon
challenges that are complex challenges
that present us with a great deal of
uncertainty
even though we know that they’re coming
challenges like climate change rapid
technological change
food security public health
and i’ll be speaking even more
specifically about the importance of
education in the humanities
arts and social sciences in preparing
for these kinds of challenges
now some of you are probably thinking
this doesn’t sound very ted
this doesn’t sound like an innovative
new idea
this sounds more like an angry old
professor of sociology
howling into the wind about changes that
he just
doesn’t want to accept
some of you are probably sympathetic to
the idea of education in the humanities
arts and social sciences and you might
be wondering well
where is this going what’s new
there’s a constant drip feed of debate
well is it debate
discussion that passes for debate in the
media about the ongoing
value or otherwise of the humanities
and arts well
there certainly is a discourse out there
a narrative out there
about the way in which rapid
technological change
ought to be reflected in our educational
priorities
technological disruption artificial
intelligence
big data data fusion
synthetic biology all of these new
technologies
will develop a digital economy in which
safe
secure reliable work depends on skills
in the so-called stem disciplines
science technology engineering maths and
medicine
i was going to make a joke about the two
m’s kind of making it more
stem but i thought that’s probably going
to be a bit lame
no one will laugh see
now i have an uncle don maybe you have
an uncle don or if you don’t have an
uncle don you probably have an uncle
dave or someone who’s a bit like my
uncle donal
when i was a teenager and bear in mind
for young people i was a teenager back
in the olden days the 1980s
and uncle don was a bit of a regular at
our place
and usually after dinner almost always
after dinner
uncle don would fix me in his gaze he’d
lean forward
he’d pause he liked the dramatic pause
uncle don
and he’d say computers
there was always another dramatic pause
say computers
computers are going to be everywhere
you should do something with computers
and he was right computers are
everywhere
not that i ever became a computer
scientist but
we all work with computers he was right
on both counts computers everywhere
and i do something with computers and
people who say the same thing today
about artificial intelligence they’re
right too
people who say the same thing about big
data they’re already right
we already live in the age of big data
we just haven’t always figured out how
best to manage that
now the way in which this sort of
narrative about technological change is
reflected in education systems
varies from one educational jurisdiction
to another but there’s a very consistent
message that goes out to young people
you ought to be a part of this
and that sends a message to young people
that if they want to be part of the
future not just
secure themselves a reliable and
satisfactory career but if they want to
be part of the future if they want to
play a role in shaping
the kind of society they live in they
need to take the stem path
so there’s a counter narrative that
comes from people generally people like
me
people who’ve made careers in the
humanities arts and social sciences and
our counter narrative says well yes
the digital economy is here but even in
the digital economy we need the sorts of
skills
that you might learn if you’re studying
whether it’s high school
or primary school high school university
vocational training
lifelong learning you need the sorts of
skills that you’ll develop
through humanities arts and social
sciences you need to learn
effective communication you need to
unleash your creativity
you need to develop your critical
thinking skills
and there’s a grain of truth in this too
if you talk to employers some of the
things they they value most
in employees are exactly those
attributes
business surveys routinely identify
people who can
work in teams solve problems in
interesting new ways and string more
than one sentence together coherently
as being exactly the sort of people they
want to hire
thinking beyond the labor market i think
it’s fair to say
that those sorts of skills are critical
too to a functioning democracy
in the age of fake news and the
hyperpolarization
of absolutely everything i’m not sure if
nevermore
we’ve needed our critical thinking
skills but we certainly need them
certainly need them critically today
there’s a few too many critically there
but it’s
it’s critical now
critical thinking is not skepticism
critical thinking is not
cynicism critical thinking is
the opposite of cynicism critical
thinking is knowing how to weigh
evidence consider alternatives
examine your own assumptions test your
assumptions
maintain an open mind
accept that you could be wrong be very
clear about where you’re uncertain and
how you manage that uncertainty
critical thinking is the exact opposite
of cynicism
it’s the exact opposite of conspiracy
thinking
critical thinking is the exact opposite
of disagreeing with people because you
think they might vote differently to you
they might have won the wrong color
t-shirt or they might have the wrong
slogan critical thinking is about
maintaining that openness
creative expression is just as important
to a functioning democracy
where do we get our sense of community
if we don’t want to generate sense of
community through us and them through
polarizing through
through through black and white
australian unaustralian
cyclists non-cyclists where do we get
our
our sense of collective identity we get
it through those shared expressions of
who we are
and when we experience those we start to
see things from other people’s
perspectives we start to experience
something of another way of life another
culture
we start to develop that connection that
emotional as well as that cognitive
connection that says you know
we are a community not only despite our
differences but in many ways because of
our differences
now the problem with this argument
as a as a basis for maintaining our
educational investment in the humanities
arts and social sciences
is that you don’t actually need to study
the humanities arts and social sciences
in order to develop
your communication creativity or
critical thinking
any well-designed curricula in any
discipline
will help students develop these kinds
of attributes
my first degree was in agricultural
science
not in not in a social science
and i’ve worked with with with with
agricultural and environmental and other
kinds of sciences
my whole career i can’t imagine science
without creativity and critical thinking
in my mind
those two things are exactly what
science is
any kind of science social natural or
otherwise
new ideas robust testing
always looking for alternative
explanations better ways of seeing the
world
always going to the data trying to find
ways to prove yourself
wrong and how counter is that
to the hyperpolarization of social life
a whole enterprise that’s based on
people
checking and rechecking that they could
be wrong
that someone else might actually be
right
i’ve never studied medicine or
engineering but i can’t imagine
people engaging in large engineering
projects or running complex medical
practices without teamwork
and problem solving
so if it’s important for people like me
to maintain
our educational and for that matter our
research presence
in the humanities arts and social
sciences we need a better argument
than generic skills
everything we teach young people should
be developing those generic skills
we need to address the more substantive
issues
now i began by speaking about amongst
other challenges rapid technological
change
if you look through any technological
revolution in history
you’ll see that it was a social
revolution a political revolution
an institutional revolution an economic
revolution
and a cultural revolution every period
of profound change
requires the insight and the skills
of people with backgrounds in humanities
arts and social sciences
let me talk briefly about one example
that’s dear to me
what does rapid technological change
mean for australian agriculture
international agriculture what does it
mean for issues like food security
in light of a changing climate
technological options that are now with
us today
give us all sorts of opportunities to
address those challenges in
interesting new ways synthetic biology
promises
us far more productive plants and
animals advanced sensing the internet of
things big data data analytics
these promise much more efficient
processes of land and natural resource
management
telecommunications and distributed
ledger technology promises access to new
markets creating new relationships
between
producers and buyers we’ve got
opportunities
for new products for new production
systems for new
marketing and business systems we can
come at this in all sorts of interesting
new ways
but none of this is inevitable and
positive social and economic outcomes
are far from inevitable
so how do we generate those well i’d
argue we need to develop three kinds of
infrastructure
and every one of those infrastructures
requires the expertise of people
in the social sciences we need physical
infrastructure now that’s going to
surprise you what’s the role of the
social sciences
in putting together networks of
satellites
and sensors and wires and optical cable
and all sorts of other things that
create
the connection that we need to use most
of this technology well putting those
things together into viable systems
requires
planning and business analysis and
economics
the second kind of infrastructure we
need is regulatory infrastructure
now obviously there’s a role there for
law there’s also a role there for
regulatory theorists and public
administrators
without the right regulatory apparatus
we don’t provide
innovators large or small with the
certainty they have to invest their time
and money
and we don’t provide technology users
with the certainty
that their interests will be protected
when they purchase and use this
technology
the third kind of infrastructure we need
is institutional infrastructure
not one big institution i’m not talking
about
the department for the digital economy
i’m talking about all the connections we
have between
innovators researchers educators
investors students
and so on that together start to pull
together
really interesting and exciting regional
innovation ecosystems every
technological revolution has been a
social
an economic a cultural and institutional
revolution
if we want to get the benefits of
technical
rapid technology technological change
whether it’s in agriculture or any other
domain
of human inquiry of human effort it has
to be about the people
it has to be about the community because
when we pull these things together
when we utilize the full range of skills
that we have at our disposal and i think
i think you would have picked up that
i’m very positively exposed towards
disciplines like science
this is not a zero-sum argument we have
enough polarization
we don’t need polarization between
between the disciplines
we need education and we need innovation
systems that pull these things together
every revolution is a social revolution
the future
is not about disruption the future is
about community
the future is about us
you