We live in a world unrecognisable to previous generations. Not even the most visionary figures of the eighteenth century would be able to understand the transformation that our planet and our society have undergone. And this is no coincidence, since we’ve never seen an explosion of new technologies like the one we have today.

The greatest precursor of this transformation is the rise of “knowledge societies”. We find the first mention of these interconnected scientific collectives in 1969, with the term “knowledge workers” (Drucker, 1969), individuals obsessed with generating and sharing their learning and discoveries with the scientific community in order to improve people’s living conditions. Now, let’s imagine that community in a context of hyper-connection, with Google’s machines at full throttle (and the ability to filter out space junk), with the best laboratories equipped with instruments more precise than those of Fernando Alonso’s pit crews, with brilliant minds capable of rocking the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (there have never been as many brainiacs as there are today), with financial aid to achieve the impossible, and endless databases and Artificial Intelligences functioning 24/7.

It’s clear that many people from all over the world are working together to accelerate the speed at which we progress. Never have as many academic essays been published as in the last 10 years. Nobel Prizes are rarely awarded to a single person; the winners are normally teams. It has been this way for a while now, and these teams are increasingly multidisciplinary. Thanks to this shared knowledge, we’ve been able to shorten the vaccine creation process from twenty to just two years (and soon we’ll take even less). Simultaneously, while we were boosting the computational power of quantum computers two-hundred-fold, we were developing reusable rockets and autonomous vehicles. Nothing can stop the army of scientists determined to solve the most complex problems of this century and those to come.

WHAT DO YOUR DIGITAL FINGERPRINT, HIROSHIMA, AND A KNIFE HAVE TO DO WITH IT ALL?

The rise of science, capable of describing the world and the laws that govern it, entails the rise of technology, capable of transforming that world. And technology is, precisely, the engine of change. It’s constantly advancing, and those advances are happening more and more quickly. Science and technological breakthroughs constantly humble us; just when we think we understand how something works, suddenly the next unknown technology appears. Do you think you understand how 5G works? Well, hold on… 6G is already coming around the bend (and then 7G, 8G, 9G, and so on, ad infinitum… it’s dizzying). We’ve often barely imagined a new technological solution and, just like that, it’s already taking shape.

This frenzy doesn’t affect technology producers alone. It also affects the people who consume technology. We’re cornered and forced to use and consume new technologies so as not to feel digitally marginalized (try living without a mobile phone for two weeks and you’ll experience first-hand how dependent we’re on our little black mirrors). We’re getting used to having new technologies all around us. We’re completely wrapped up in them, as they make life a little easier and more convenient, all in exchange for a last-minute deal to go to the Canary Islands, the latest episode of El Conquis, or a little bed for your dog recommended by Amazon.

A knife can be an excellent tool for peeling an apple, or a deadly weapon ruining many lives. All scientific discoveries and their subsequent technological development entail this dilemma. Someone is theorising about how quantum physics works? Well, it won’t be long before someone breaks the atom to generate energy, or cause the loss of millions of present and future lives. The same things happens with the personal data that we give away without batting an eye: what we like, what we buy regularly, what we read, what time we go to bed - and even, sometimes, with whom.

We’re unconsciously contributing to the creation of a second-by-second record of our lives, to generating the most enriched databases, and there’s little we can do because technology is so ingrained in our lives that it creates meaning in terms of how we live and understand the world, as well as what we can and cannot do in it.

All the advances, new products and services, and advantages offered to us by the new technologies produced, created, and designed by the knowledge society bring us closer and closer to the “risk society”. If you don’t believe me, just talk to those from the Manhattan Project. The line that separates the two societies is getting thinner and thinner. As science and technology advance, the world becomes more interconnected, more interdependent, and more uncertain. Although the vast majority of technological/scientific breakthroughs have a positive purpose and aim, not addressing all their possibilities usually (and with increasing frequency) leads to something capable of doing evil rather than good.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

To reduce the risk, we must engage in dialogue. Ideally, this should happen before the design process, to ensure that we take into account all the ethical ramifications, that we design from the point of view of universal accessibility (without leaving anyone out), and that we later deliver what was promised.

However, it’s never too late to do better (especially to fix what’s lacking in some persuasive technologies), like Disney has done with a small but powerful message before films like Dumbo, Peter Pan, and The Jungle Book in which they point out:

“This film includes negative and/or unjust depictions of peoples and cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then, and are wrong now”.

These types of messages help generate conversations that allow us to learn and discuss how to create a more inclusive future for everyone. As philosopher and poet Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana said,

“Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it”.

Another example of backpedalling in time is the General Data Protection Regulation, which is leading to and promoting the cookieless movement, towards a future in which companies cannot analyze our behavior beyond their own websites, and may only do so for purposes related to their sites’ functioning.

As consumers in a digital world, perhaps it’s time to sit down and think about what kind of future we’re building – and if it’s the one we want. The aim is to spur organizations, governments, and other individuals towards reflection, in addition to action, facilitating meetings and the sharing of ideas in order to come up with an ethical position (one that’s both individual and collective) in the face of the challenges posed by a world shaped by technology and design.

We don’t have to eliminate technology from our lives. Nor can we. Whether we like it or not, our social and economic systems (and all the people who are part of them) depend on it. However, we must create forums for discussion, debate, and sharing by the people in charge of producing technology, and those who consume it, addressing ethical questions and not letting the pressures of the bottom line (and the obsession that companies have with growing, endlessly), the attention economy (which shortens our attention spans, today equivalent to that of a Labrador puppy), and the creative culture, interrupt our dialogue (at the very least).

In the year 1929, American sociobiologist Edward Wilson prophesized that we would have Palaeolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technologies. However, this does not free us from responsibility (nor does it give us an excuse) for not thinking a little and taking advantage of our reasoning capacity before acting. Hence, in order for the conversations that we want to foster to have a little substance, in this issue we wanted to start at the beginning: to understand what some of the most controversial emerging technologies (like robotics and Artificial Intelligence) are and how they work. Thanks to this “mini” theoretical class (one that will be very entertaining, of course) we’ll have the necessary foundation to analyze the impact that these technologies are having on people and on our society, from both an occupational and educational perspective.

We’ll be able to judge with great discretion the divides that are cropping up as a result of digitalization, as well as the importance of designing so as not to leave anyone behind. We’ll see how the rules of the game are changing, and how they’ll force us to reconsider unwritten rules, such as the idea that offices have to be staffed 5 days a week. Finally, we’ll see first-hand the process of open technological design, one of continuous experimentation and trial and error until we find solutions that truly help us to prosper and reduce the ever-feared risk society. We will even see real examples of companies that are trying to combat the climate crisis (the greatest threat to the Earth and all the animals that inhabit it – us included) by taking advantage of solutions based on ones and zeros, and our ingenuity.

Do you dare to challenge the future?