you’ve abruptly awakened from a
troublesome dream in you in which you
were shipwrecked and floundering in the
waves somehow you managed to climb onto
the cliffs of a rocky shore but we’re
not completely safe because at any
second
a succession of waves could sweep you
off your perch how you managed to hold
on to the edges of a large rock and kept
yourself from being washed away you
cannot see the storm finally passed and
the initial effort to save yourself gave
way to a different gradation of fear and
doubt as to whether saving yourself only
prolong the inevitability of perishing
at the paws of menacing animals and
snakes heaven forbid that you knew were
there but could not see you unplanned
your hands as you realize you’re not
lost at sea nor has a hot morning sun
which awakened you and those rocks aged
you beyond recognition but you’re still
a radiant looking college sophomore
sitting in a comfortable armchair in
your mother’s study reading Brynjolfsson
and McAfee’s the second Machine Age
their 2014 book the second Machine Age
why are you reading instead of whiling
away time on social media because you’ve
learned over the course of your short
life that your parents have an uncanny
ability to be right at the most
inopportune time and moreover they
expect a discussion of what you’ve read
sooner rather than later so you silence
your phone your phone turn it face down
for good measure and continue reading
you learn that the Industrial Revolution
which included the invention of the
steam engine in the 1700 comprised the
first machine age this age championed
machines or power systems that amplify
the physical strengths of the labor
force and required them to exercise
control and discretion over increasingly
complex inventions at that time labor
and machine
complemented each other Brynjolfsson and
McAfee contend that we’re at an
inflection point today at the cusp of
what they’re calling the second Machine
Age which is distinctly different from
the first in that we’re not only
automating a larger number of cognitive
tasks but also automating the
decision-making processes in highly
sophisticated control systems
consequently we now have intelligent
technologies that can interpret medical
images advise oncologists conduct legal
research evaluate vast amounts of data
and analyze stocks some intelligent
machines now appear to reduce human
error self-driving cars for instance and
newer cars with automatic emergency
braking systems while others cannot with
someone in chess jeopardy and even go a
2500 year old board game considered far
more challenging than chess the
exponential growth in computing power is
attributed to Moore’s law as one of the
forces making the technological
innovations in the second Machine Age
possible Moore’s law advanced by Intel
co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965
estimated that the computational
processing power derived from the speed
and power of microchips would double
roughly every year more later updated
this projection to every 2 years and his
estimates which have held up for the
past five decades has contributed to a
simultaneous increase in the rate of
technological change and the
acceleration of the rate of change so
you take a deep breath because as a
young person who has recently plowed
through a 2017 McKinsey report you
realize that technological change is
only one of several forces acting on
your world
the others are globalization climate
change biodiversity loss and population
growth Wow
this is heady stuff so you decide to
take a walk because this warrants some
sorting through after all your parents
are sure to ask what you think this
might mean for your generation
as you walk you recall reading create
Monday’s thoughts in an interview Tom
Friedman recounts in his 2016 book thank
you for being late mr. Monday a former
chief of research and strategy at
Microsoft suggests that the accelerated
rate of change in play exceeds our
individual and institutional ability to
adapt
so this founds a sense of dislocation or
the feeling that we cannot keep up so
this phenomena is different from
disruption which happens when a new and
innovation renders something antiquated
or a skill obsolete
Friedman also noted an interview with
Erik Astro teller CEO of Google X
research and developmental lab who add
that while technological innovations can
now happen in five to seven years maybe
less
it actually takes us 10 to 15 years to
adapt to them labor markets however are
not the only areas transformed by
digital technology our governing
regulatory educational and social
systems will also be affected if they’re
not already so you suddenly stop in the
middle of the street
intrigued with the thought that if it is
the case that our learning and training
systems are behind the curve given the
rate and acceleration of change and even
if the teaching of basic skills are a
challenge how then do we address these
dynamics in ways that propel as many of
us forward so do we start with the
question what are schools for Seth Godin
suggests that schools are still products
of the Industrial Age which emphasize
indoctrinating students into obedience
and compliance while this strategy has
worked well in the past
the radiating effect of dislocation and
disruption together with the challenges
of adapting to accelerations that really
amplify the magnitude and scope of
chronic social issues such as global
poverty health epidemics gender
inequality income polarization and human
mobility both voluntary and involuntary
so it suggests that it no longer makes
sense for
you and your peers to be socialized to
lives of compliance and conformity the
McKinsey report you’ve just read urged
education systems to evolve to meet the
needs of a changed workplace this means
a new emphasis on creativity emotional
intelligence and leading and coaching
others Sir Ken Robinson Deborah Meyer
and the late Ted sizer and Maxine green
and others of their ilk may be onto
something when they urge faculty to
craft course content that encourage
greater independence of mind creativity
and critical thinking but achieving
these outcomes will not be easy
particularly as they warrant
continual reconceptualization of
curriculum to emphasize
interdisciplinary and experiential
projects that develop students Minds
rather than testing them in ways that
provide at best limited information of
what they know understand and can do and
this can lead to deeply misinformed
views of what of students potentials and
their abilities so at a systems level
the cost of evolving of not evolving is
enormous
you remember seeing an hour an older
McKinsey report estimating that the US
gross domestic product could have
increased from 1.3 trillion to 2.3
trillion in 2008 if achievement gaps in
the US and high-achieving countries such
as Finland and South Korea were narrowed
nationally GDP could have increased from
two to four percent or between three
hundred and ten billion to five hundred
and twenty five billion in 2008 if there
were increases in black and Latino
student performance so on an income
level GDP would have increased from
three to five percent
or four hundred billion to six hundred
and seventy billion in 2008 if
achievement gaps between low-income and
more affluent students were smaller and
so the GDP would have increased from
three to five percent our four hundred
and twenty five billion to seven hundred
billion in 2008 if gaps between low and
high achieving states in the United
States were narrowed so in that report
McKinsey asserted that quote the
persistence of these educational
achievement gaps imposes on the United
States the economic equivalent of a
permanent national recession so now with
the sense that someone in your
neighborhood may be puzzled as to why
you’re simply standing in the middle of
the street thinking weighty things and
looking lost you resume your walk
because that someone would surely
understand if you were caught in the
distracted clutch of your phone but may
call the authorities if you’re
exhibiting signs of critically thinking
about issues that will affect not only
your generation but those that follow so
Mackenzie’s estimates are really a call
to action you think as you listen to the
slow crunch of gravel beneath your boots
and despite the tepid pace of change in
the dominant culture there are
educational institutions that recognize
the diverse talents of their students
and encourage their curiosity and
creativity with a curriculum that’s
interdisciplinary diverse and evolving
and focused instructional supports for
teachers who facilitate deep learning
and close collaborations with the
community at large but it’s more than
academic for these institutions because
they recognize that students acquisition
of certain habits of mind such as the
ability to exercise discerning judgment
and to understand phenomena from
different and multiple perspectives
hinge in part on an institution’s
ability to provide access to positive
social networks and learning
environments in which students can
develop an agenda perspective or the
belief that they’re capable of authoring
their own futures you lift your head and
smile you’re glad you’re taking a walk
and thrilled that in this pause to sort
out your thoughts ideas and yes your
feelings which have their own
intelligence you’re realizing how
essential it is that you and your peers
not react in ways that exacerbate the
issues but rather that you take control
of mediating your world by exploring
insights from past and present ideas
including including those that makes
but don’t have currency Jules Poincare a
the French mathematician theoretical
physicist engineer philosopher of
science and Northrop Frye the literary
theorists would applaud this adventure
into deep contemplative reading in
different disciplines including the
sciences and literature you’re beginning
to appreciate that this sort of deep
work is crucial and can counteract the
Internet’s capacity to reduce our
ability to engage long and complex
narratives you find that the Nets focus
on immediacy and efficiency has the
potential to change your neural
circuitry a dynamic you’d like to avoid
because you’d prefer to preserve your
ability to interpret complex ideas and
to focus without distraction on
cognitively demanding tasks such as
making your own connections developing
new ideas and drawing your own
conclusions and no doubt these abilities
over time will it become increasingly
rare and valuable so it’s becoming clear
to you that if you want to change things
about the world around you you need to
use your imagination and the ability to
read deeply and widely can provide the
language you need to gauge the
collective of human experience and to
apply it to your own world with
intention integrity and intelligence
well um use as you decide to extend your
walk you may not have been shipwrecked
like Robinson Crusoe
but like Crusoe you’ve chosen to
exercise your ability to emotionally and
intellectually anchor yourself Aristotle
himself would recognize a power of that
choice and as it unfolds in the present and future you so thank you