of all you lovely young people green
eyed totally envious and no no no it’s
not because you’re all young and I’ve
kind of left the first flush of youth
it’s because you are at the portals at
the beginnings of one of the most
exciting times V potentially the most
exciting period in time that this planet
has ever experienced
times are so exciting you can’t believe
that’s why I want to be young again
but everybody they can find a way of
extending me out of it the fourth
Industrial Revolution so much is
happening so much change so quickly and
I suppose for you guys because the
majority of them that of you now
probably a year 11 12
yeah looking at what you’re going to be
doing in the future where you’re going
to go to university what are you going
to master in what are you going to
actually do for a job really it’s an
uncertain time in some ways not a
negative uncertain time but an uncertain
time about just exactly what you’ll be
doing because things are moving so
quickly and so rapidly that I cannot
tell you what the face of industry will
be like in the next 5-10 years I cannot
tell you what jobs will be around and
what jobs will be popu your teachers
cannot tell you your your parents cannot
tell you your politicians cannot tell
you because change is massive 34
Industrial Revolution robots we’ll get
there soon but so that you can actually
benchmark a different bit to know where
you should be going in your careers
where you’re going what’s happening then
there are two major things that we know
that’s going to happen in your time or
that’s happening now that you need to
slot into you need to dove into dovetail
into to know where you’re going to be so
where is the world heading industry wise
and otherwise there’s an exciting one
smart cities have you heard of smart
cities no you’ve not heard as masks
seriously have you discussed smart
cities are you looking forward to living
in smart cities are you really looking
forward to be being smart citizens in
smart cities designed by smart people
because that’s where you’re going to be
as sure as eggs is eggs mr. Mohn has
already said is as soon as we can
possibly get them and they will come and
they will be a blessing to you they
really will be but you talk to friends
if I talk to friends in architecture or
design or whatever about the face of a
smart city it’s amazing how many I mean
it many people say well we know about
them but we’re not quite sure what
they’re going to be when I was your age
in the 50s and 60s when we looked at the
21st century as their space age how
wonderful
or maybe not yeah and that’s what we
kind of thought was going to happen in
the 21st century we’re already twenty
years into the into the 21st century and
this is from a lovely cartoon thing
called the Jetsons and everybody was
living up there in the sky in these
bubbles floating around doing all sorts
of strange and wonderful things
interesting with the bubbles that were
up there they’ve always had a pipe that
sort of came down to the earth I was
used to wonder what that was fitful but
we won’t go there but you know we’ve
gone behind beyond that now only because
actually that the dog is driving the
vehicle we don’t need anybody to drive
vehicles nowadays things have gone in
that direction
but more likely perhaps the idea of
technology and technology of cities
maybe that’s something you’re a little
bit more used to spray Oh Star Wars yeah
Mos Eisley that doing oh I love I love
Star Wars I remember when I saw the
first film Dolby sound unbelievable what
a wonderful experience but what I
sincerely hope is that the smart cities
of the future will not reflect what’s
going on there that’s not what we want
that’s what we want isn’t it
irrespective of all your dreams and
fantasies were human we want to be on
this planet we like trees we like
waterways we like the green area we love
it it’s important to us blue skies but
it’s going to be very helpful with all
that if those are the smart cities to
have other things like poignant Lee for
us in the NCR clean air we ain’t got
much of that at the moment or clean
water or book communication systems and
good transport and great places to learn
great schools sustainable industries etc
etc technology’s going to do a lot of
that stuff for us we ain’t gonna do it
technology’s going to do it so one thing
you can be sure of is that you will be
living I hope in smart cities for the
next big one is this isn’t it artificial
intelligence I hate the expression
artificial intelligence I love the
concept of artificial intelligence and
part of my job today is to make sure
that you look forward to it you don’t
fear it but artificial never thought
plastic I don’t like plastic anyway
artificial intelligence and guys you
live with it and you’re going to live
with it more and more and more and more
this is an image from an article about a
guy called Jeremy Rifkin and his
thoughts and ideas on the third
Industrial Revolution and great
wonderful Stafford
– by many Europeans the country’s etc –
the three-dimensional printing excellent
wonderful Rifkin so Rifkin talked about
the third Industrial Revolution in the
1850s was our first Industrial
Revolution so 170 years ago in the
beginning of last century there was the
Second Industrial Revolution less than
10 years ago Rifkin talked about the
third Industrial Revolution and now we
have the fourth Industrial Revolution
within the span of 10 years what is that
telling you it’s going faster than you
can possibly imagine you’ve got to keep
up with it you’ve got to be ahead of it
you’ve got to know how to manage it and
these guys robots those are the ones
that are driving the whole thing forward
so that’s one thing that we’ve got to
understand you will be living with
robots you will be working with
communicating with robots it’s a
definite it’s a hundred percent nobody’s
gonna stop this now and lots of people
say lots of people fear robots don’t
they I don’t think we’ve done ourselves
a service by the way that we’ve
portrayed robots things like I don’t
watch these kind of films but you know
Robot Wars or all this Robocop all these
things we’re kind of like robots are
there to cook let’s splat everybody kill
them all not a very clever thing to have
actually portrayed whatever this is a
wonderful little two-minute talk on
YouTube I’d like you to turn up at some
stage when you’ve got the time by
Professor Mikhail Kaku great man to
listen to brilliant brilliant man and he
talks about the jobs of the future will
be what robots can’t do you see robots
can’t do everything we’re all thinking
all no Roberts robots are going to take
over they’re going to you know we’ll
work for the robots No
the jobs that robots can’t do and he
goes through a whole gambit of things
but only in two minutes of what they
can’t do them better editor but it comes
down for me and me as I as it as a
professor of design importantly he comes
down from it from my point of view when
he says the one thing that robots cannot
do they are not creative they cannot
create now that for you guys is a
blessing because you’re human creatures
are Ukraine create and you have original
ideas let me give you an idea let me
give you an example my world
architecture design I get it I get if I
got an email this morning which made me
very happy this is genuine haven’t made
it up but I’ve been given a project in
now I forgot where I’m going now but up
in the mountains to actually design a
home up there and whatever and I’m
looking forward to that because the
particular area I’m looking at I’ve
never worked in before I’m looking
forward to that project I’ll meet the
clients next week and I will sit down
with the clients and we will discuss
their dream home Shillong sorry she
loved the music
she long I will sit with a client and
I’ll take the brief their dream home
what’s in their hearts what they want me
to produce for them and we’ll chat we’ll
talk about the size of this the size of
that what the gardens will be like the
special features within the home without
and I’ll take it in and I will use my I
like to say god-given creativity or your
evolved creativity certainly or
developed creativity to actually hear
them and put something down on paper but
what I’m doing more and more now as time
goes on I’m not going to go back to my
drawing board and sit there for three
months I’ll go back and I’ll prepare my
original ideas and then I’ll pass it on
to my robot friend he doesn’t exist at
the moment what
it doesn’t exist at the moment but then
my ideas will go to the robot my robot
assistant and I say fine let’s get
working on this so the robot assistant
looks at all the information they’re
giving us is fine let’s do the floor
plan let’s see what the house is going
to look like say have bedrooms here
bathrooms there this thing there you
know the media sensor I don’t know but
the robot will start doing my drawings
for me much quicker much more accurately
than I will do them and as long as I’ve
given the robot information sufficient
it’ll take the two-dimensional plans and
start putting the walls up make it
three-dimensional okay so I’ve got the
elevations and then the robot will do
the robot will do the cross-sections and
all this kind of bits and pieces while
my robot friend is doing that here’s it
will say to me I don’t want to be gender
centric when it comes to robots I’m
sorry I’m trying to be really it will
say to me might don’t have a cup of
coffee come relax go read a book I know
what the building’s gonna be like I know
what it’s that I know what it’s that now
I know when I do this with it so what
and why I’m doing all this stuff I’ve
got all the information in my data bank
to work out the engineering of the
building so yeah I know you want a
cancer you know you want a cantilever
balcony there and you want a sunken area
there so I just didn’t leave it with me
go and chill out don’t play golf I’ll do
all that stuff for you and you’ve told
me what the materials are you’ve told me
what the floors are and the walls are
and and and how you’re going to light it
you’ve given me that information let me
draw you some very pretty pictures of
what that place is going to be like
wonderful and at the end of it I’ll give
you a walk through a virtual reality and
virtual reality nowadays is almost
becoming reality reality isn’t it hey
great thank you very much indeed robot
friend
superstar I’ll just go and chill for a
while and then the robot says well okay
look I know this I know that I know it
let me tell you how much it’s gonna cost
to produce this let me tell you how long
it’s going to take
to do it you’re talking up you’re
talking about up there in Shillong it
rains here this does here this does
whatever start it then and I can tell
you you will finish then it’s all there
so it’s all absolutely in place and then
the robot friend will turn around and
say and by the way if you’re building up
there and you want this special feature
fabulous bathrooms fabulous kitchens
this thing there’s a contractor there
that can do this and there’s a
contractor there that can do that and to
be honest I wrote my robot assistant has
done everything I don’t want to do I
want to do the creative stuff my robot
friend will do all the rest of it for me
and in a matter of days probably three
days which would for something that will
take me three months from taking a brief
from a client their dream brief and the
robots done the nuts and bolts for me
the nitty gritty and then I can go and
discuss it but I’m so pleased with my
robot assistant but I’d say I’m going to
say come on you know it’s really lovely
that you’re doing this stuff but come on
let me give you a blank screen let me
give you a stylus now you create for me
an original building and what the robot
do nothing there’s no big database you
don’t really do something original I
can’t find original stuff I’ve got lots
and lots of information but even with
that information I can’t break any rules
I can only work with what I’ve got and
that is the magic that is the magic for
your future you will be robot friends
you will be robot guides yeah you will
control the robots hate that word but
you will control the robots they will
not control you if you do continue to
develop and grow your creativity and for
that reason everywhere in the world at
the moment the creative industries are
flying
thank God they really are flying and in
countries all over creative industries
double
every year were lots of other industries
there’s some notes from Prime Minister
Modi’s first big talk very good talk at
the read fault a few years back on his
bullet points he’s 10 bullet points for
our country and every single thing every
one of those things that Modi said that
he wanted to achieve every single one of
them has a design solution a design lead
solution I mean the most obvious one of
course is making India that’s the big
one that everybody’s talking about you
can make an India bit to make an Indy
you’ve got to have things to make and to
have those things you’ve got to design
them it’s just common sense it’s the
logical guys can we also please remember
we are talking about your future and if
you honestly all think once you’ve
graduated from Universal or when you
leave this school you’re all going to go
all over the world and not come back to
India again please let me tell you
that’s not going to be the case India
has a massive future a massive future
tremendously exciting future if you get
it right so design is massive but
massively important and it will be
massively important to the growth of
this country but I was part of this
document here I was I co-wrote this with
the British Council and National
Institute of Design and the Indian
Institute of Design and we looked for
the first time ever about the state of
design education in India for the first
time ever and just to give you some
shocking or one or two shocking figures
people talk about India and then they
talk and they talk about growth and they
talk about China don’t they because it’s
quite obvious Qaeda same size population
on whatever else but they say all China
technology roadways systems and new
things cars this happening Wow look
where it’s going technology technology
take
and India and that’s the way it’s looked
at China graduates now this figure
changes depends on who you’re talking to
but the last time I was given a figure
by somebody I deeply respect in the
design industry about the number of
graduates with China design graduates a
year that come from China China
graduates 300,000 designers a year 3
lakh designers India any ideas well the
highest figure I’ve been given is 7,000
and my estimate is 3000 so China for
every one design graduate that comes out
of in out of India or comes from India
into industry every year China has a
hundred and that’s why also from this
point of view I want you to think about
your futures and where this country is
going just look at the benchmarks we’ve
just said smart cities are a big part of
your future you don’t want to choke to
death do you you want to leave live with
clean air that’s going to come from
technology technology is going to come
from robots from artificial intelligence
the people that will control the robots
that will manage the robots are people
who have the creativity that robots
don’t have if we don’t up the ante in
India on the amount of designers that we
graduate we ain’t gonna get our smaller
cities so my last and final plea to you
please think about the creative
industries as your future the rest of
the world does India needs to catch up
thank you
[Applause] you