In picture above: featuring Astroscale, a global private space debris removal company, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
Pivotal issues have been brought up and extensively discussed by scientists, creators, entrepreneurs, politicians, activists and attendees through live questioning and intervention through the Web Summit app in real time this year, via Slido. Here we go with the highlights but also the important sidekicks of this year’s most fascinating digital-and-beyond-that conference on the planet.
Privacy and Security
Eric Snowden made his first public intervention after a longtime and with the opportunity of his freshly published memoir “Permanent record”, he explained in a truly cracking video the politics of corporate digital systems and their obligations regarding the privacy of the users, (extract in video bellow). His last quote on the matter coincided the closing of the conference 3 days after, with a promise by Margrethe Vestager throughout a brilliant conversation with Laurie Seagall.
…“ The next generation of services and products that are about to outcompete everyone else are the ones that are designed in such a way that you don’t have to trust the services they intermediating your communications, you will only trust the people who are the ends of those communications: your friends, your community, the people you are actually about to connect with. That is the future of communication and that is the future of privacy”.
As it was prominently affirmed in the new and rising star conference Collision running already in Toronto, Canada this year, “Silicon Valley brought to the scene a business model introduced by certain companies there and proved to be utterly destructive. We all ended sleepwalking into a world of technology authoritarianism where uncontrolled giants do what they want”…
Commissioner Executive Vice President-Designate of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the Digital Age from 2019, Mrs Vestager accented in her full-on positive energy and constructive optimism statements, closing the event, “We have new technologies but not new values, to make them both serve us the best way possible. In the real world we decide what to accept and what not to accept. Why we cannot do that in the digital world?... Privatized de-facto manipulation is not democracy. …How much data can be collected about us in the era of AI? …We have digital rights but we are in great difficulty to enforce them, in real life….We need to create something to control the dark side”.
Lots of food for thought there, should the old system is broken, it cannot be fixed anymore. In that case demolition is a one-way solution and not restoration or refurbishment.
AI and Robots
“I feel if we make machines only look as objects, things- then we are alienating them: we alienate ourselves. There is a clear market demand for more generally intelligent machines. Emphasis on AI research is addressing these questions. One of the most common responses is we should not make them human-like. That is very common plus we should always make them under control, chained or in chains if you will.”
David Hanson of Hanson Robotics on Robot design in during his Web Summit 2019 Press conference alongside Sophia the Robot.
AI and Robots are about to take (almost) every major industry by storm: From creativity and animation, to pharmaceutical industry and drug research (: where AI strives for non-animal testing and cruelty-free concoctions whereas countries regulations will allow it so) to climate change fight, public health-insurance and diagnostics especially in large markets like China and the U.S.A- generative AI especially will transform media, society but also HR, services, education and recreation. Can and should machines have rights since they do not have a conscience though? Is this a philosophical or a logical issue? We talk abut moral rights or civil rights? It seems that autonomy will bring up the rights issue plus the whole jurisdictional framework for robots in the future, since autonomous decisions can also conclude to mistakes. Intelligence and consciousness are two different things and they do not both exist in robots, nevertheless that is another topic to consider and its repercussions (also on the subject of merging AI and human intelligence: cyborgism).
In photo bellow roboticist Fouzia Adjailia discusses with her co-speakers if Robots do have, should have and will have rights (?)
Enjoy an in-depth analysis by recreational robot P.K.Dick inspired by the author’s Exegesis of P.K Dick essays, in a delightful conversation with Ben Goertzel, altogether a truly wonderful experience inside WS19 Press conference room- this is the level incredible scientists like B.Goertzel and David Hanson have reached right now, provided that Phil is connected to Cloud, and not carrying his system individually like Sophia, giving out a unique shared experience of his performance:
Education and Work
“The biggest competence is to know how to learn and not what to learn, cos this way you become adoptive and resilient, an extremely important aspect in our times- you need to decipher credible knowledge from nonsense …Therefore children should learn to monitor their own learning and become engaged learners.”
So pleased to hear those positions by the charismatic Dr. Mmantsetsa Marope, director of UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education (IBE ) and her co-speakers again on the Future Societies pitch.
Coding is (like) a new syntax and it should be introduced in pre-primary education, very early that is. The coding is not the “devil” in the classroom at all, how to combine multiple literacies is the biggest challenge towards a sustainable educational model. The
entrepreneurial aspect is also a key factor but not without the talented teacher who will inspire and engage the learners.
Education in design and work in the sector, applies mobility as an important factor nowadays. Global versus local might be a trap notion since a solid value system can have that aspect as a non-influential one and since new visual tools can unite us all and help us work together. People working in more dynamic ways than the 9 to 5 model (note: only 9% of global population identifies to a 9-to-5 scheme) and designers especially, being more and more important and in demand, are in search of global platforms. One of the principles of borderless design is that people actually are the Key and not a border definition- identity borders can be more evident in that case than just strict national borders.
Money and Fintech
What is every bank should have? What is every Currency should have? Is Cash forever Dead?
The essential technologies to design a bank in the future already started (ex. Lloyds): Augmented Reality, VR, open APIs to 3rd parties, will create new ecosystems. Customers expectations are changing because finances are changing, should we say dramatically. The brand experience is today holistic and banks do not compete against other banks anymore but with FCBK, Apple et al. In the West one bank is closing per day says Tim Kobe of Eight Inc. the wise man of design, therefore values should be created and traditional banks should start acting as compelling brands instead of being just till operators and fatally injured finally. It is not about working on the digital or the physical environment, it is all about concentrating on Purpose and Material at the same time, create partnerships and recognize that we serve people predominantly and we need to focus on the human outcome, being a bank or any other fintech.
With China establishing Blockchain in its banks in the near future, not being afraid of any old banking status-quo like it happens in Europe and in the U.S.A and recording artists like Akon establishing Acoin in Africa primarily, one thing is certain: Value nowadays is not only Monetary and currency might not be translated to an arithmetic value a government instruct us. The accessibility to more choices is the step to go for the customer from Blockchain and Fintech merging but moving to an entirely cachless world is a bit further down the road. Printed, physical money is still a reality and a costly yet profitable one for countries like Germany for instance, but mobile transactions/payments are still impossible in many non-digitized parts of the world.
“The future is already here. It is just unevenly distributed”, William Gibson.
Fashion, Branding and Creativity
Two macrochanges seem to happen right now: 1. The Product and its Storytelling are of equal importance. The implication of the audience becomes by its immediate interaction to this storytelling experience. 2. A brand today has to be attributed as a Person and not just as two flat pictures and a logo, hoping to get away with it. To stay relevant a brand in fashion or elsewhere, needs to have three things: a good product, a great storytelling to surround it and core digital technology. Furthermore, purpose and ethics are not to be considered as pure trends but as meaningful guidelines, otherwise people tend to reject even the most attractive product in fashion (Fashion Pact was voted in G7 Summit, in Biarritz this year – Zac Posen ceased activity of his couture house). The future design for a brand has to be inclusive, flexible/adoptive, human and moving. The idea of a hero designer is also an outdated thing , insight into the process is the key to success and amplified research of course, remains on top of the list in order to create an appealing project or product.
Bellow: Legendary Rankin and his comrades in Modum stage in company of Natalie Salmon, expressing his doubts about Instagram, FaceTune and going through his photographic chronicles from the Dazed and Confused times in the late 90’s, until his recent works today.
Exclamation mark + fact: The EU Investment Bank financed through the Horizon 2020 program the continent with 11 billion euro last year, 1.4 of which aimed at building a low-carbon future*- check more in the campaign.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT: Web Summit 2019, the Cartography of a Global Network - Inventory of apps, startups, companies, people + more to Explore and Remember + A4D-D4A Awards!
All the Best 4 Now
A4D-D4A<3
