human works design - building meaningful futures - Issue #15
The good life gaps in-between the future.
Working as a futurist can be very joyful and at times very frustrating, especially when thinking about the gaps in user experience as a business traveller moving around continents.
I really enjoy my work a lot. I am grateful I have the opportunity to be able to travel around the world and take the stage - usually for an hour or longer - to share my knowledge, experiences and my ideas with smart and very diverse audiences around the world. It’s the exchanges with the people I appreciate the most, that’s where we learn from each other.
In the last two weeks, I travelled from Istanbul, Turkey to Lima, Peru (via Barcelona, Spain and Bogota, Colombia), to Moscow, Russia and to Minneapolis, USA (via Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Next week, I’m travelling to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (via London, UK and Bridgetown, Barbados) before I go and visit my family in Belgium for Christmas. Eleven countries in a few weeks time, eleven different cultures, all with very different views on the world and how to live a good life.
Every visit is a different experience, depending on the mind-set of the people you’re interacting with and their past cultural exchanges and history. Feelings and observations can vary from interacting with the not very human-centric and chaotic structures in Colombia to the loving, caring and joyful rituals of Peruvians, from the proud and determined Russians to the fast-food induced and media overloaded Americans.
Whatever the mood, every one of them is fascinated by the future and how to best prepare for it. The future used to be something we read about or see in science-fiction stories or movies, something to happen in 20 or 50 years, now the future comes closer every day as we are witnessing all the marvels we can create with technology.
The future doesn’t always have to be about big concepts and ideas, much of the areas to improve in creating better lives and experiences are in the small details. Just look at my user-experience as a business class traveller in the last couple of weeks, it’s not always smooth and perfect as it may seem or promised.
I listed below a couple of areas where improvement and better coordination between the partner airlines is very much needed.
• constantly having to input personal data during checkin at airlines and their partner web sites (Turkish Airlines, KLM, Delta Airlines, Atlas Global, Avianca)
• cancelling connecting flights while not being informed in time to make changes (Avianca)
• different checkin platforms/interfaces for different partners (all of the above mentioned)
• no API integration on mobile for partner connecting flights (all of the above mentioned)
• different lounges to go to then the one you did the booking with due to partner agreements (KLM, Delta Airlines, Atlas Global)
• different languages without language options (Atlas Global in Turkish only!)
• no vegan meal options (Delta Airlines, Atlas Global, Avianca)
• bad hotel choices when missing a connection (Avianca)
• average food in airport lounges (KLM, Delta Airlines, Atlas Global, Avianca)
• no updated or personalised entertainment selection on board (my personal wish list for all of the above)
Most of these things can be easily avoided with a bit of coordination between the companies proposing themselves all as partners while serving ‘at their best’ for business class travellers.
I want my clients, airlines, hotels, companies and people in my business travellers ecosystem journey to know my personal preferences (my favourite airlines and hotels, my vegan choice, the recipes I like the most, the music and movies I like, the kind of design I appreciate, unique experiences to live in places and cities, …) to propose me a supreme customised experience while travelling as I’m used to with my other favourite online services.
Where are the co-creation, co-design and co-innovation with customers from these brands?
When talking about the future, those are the things I’d like to focus on, they are not complicated and with a bit of vision and determination, these are the real ‘humanised’ services of the future, a future I’m looking forward to and rather not too far off.
I’m reflecting a lot on how to reduce my carbon footprint, how to move towards applying this better in my personal life, and how to create a more sustainable business model for what we do with human works design. What about you?
In this week’s newsletter, you can read about humanist futures of learning, children first world design, social science, purpose beyond profit, decentralised autonomous organisations, sustainability, future of work and a lot of interesting links on artificial intelligence.
Enjoy the reading!
Rudy
human works design contributions
If you’d like to contribute to this newsletter with an article on one of the topics at heart: conscious business, building meaningful futures, human innovation, children first world design, sustainability and conscious leadership, please get in touch.
9 Principles to Design the Future of Learning
Must read piece by human works design co-founder Canay Atalay’s on creating humanist futures for learning. “With the unlimited richness of children’s dreams, we can use learning as a powerful tool to create sustainable human development and flourishing. As conscious leaders, in companies, schools, communities, governments, families, it’s our responsibility to design meaningful futures, for and together with children, the game changers of tomorrow.”
S - U - S - T - A - I - N - A - B - I - L - I - T – Y
In her series on sustainability, human works design contributor Seyda Dağdevi̇ren Hill continues her quest to create more awareness and responsibility on how to implement better sustainability issues into our lives. Because taking action is a part of the process of exploring, learning and experimenting.
human works design @ Mobile World Congress 2018
Tech.eu and human works design are teaming up again for Mobile Sunday and IoT Stars at Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona. This time, we are offering 3 unique sponsorship opportunities: Mobile Sunday 2018, Mobile Sunday VIP, a brand new opportunity for 2018 (host your own VIP event during Mobile Sunday!) and IoT Stars, a unique IoT startup pitching event. If you’re interested in sponsorship, please contact us.
Children first world design
Forget coding, we need to teach our kids how to dream
A 5-year-old today will enter a working world in 2030 that is so incomprehensible that we need an existential re-imagination of the very foundation of education. It’s the cliched hope of the paranoid parent that teaching Chinese will best prepare kids for a future of different power structures in geopolitics, but is that essential in a world of Google translate? Many thinking teaching kids to code is the solution, but won’t soon software be written by software? Our vision for the future needs to include more imagination. It’s staggering to me as to how much the world has changed, and how little education has. The digital age means a different world.
Paul Knoepfler: The ethical dilemma of designer babies | TED Talk
Have you ever wished that there were something different about yourself? Maybe you imagined yourself taller, thinner, or stronger? Smarter? More attractive? Healthier? What about your children? In this thought-provoking talk, Knoepfler readies us for the coming designer baby revolution and its very personal, and unforeseeable, consequences for humanity.
With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there's a likely culprit
Since 2012, something started going wrong in the lives of teens. According to this research, teens who spent five or more hours a day online were 71 percent more likely than those who spent less than an hour a day to have at least one suicide risk factor.
Social science
Social Cooling
Is big data making us more well behaved but less human? If you feel you are being watched, you change your behaviour. Big Data is supercharging this effect. This could limit your desire to take risks or exercise free speech. Over the long term these ‘chilling effects’ could 'cool down’ society.
How perception becomes your reality
92% of all you think about is not conscious. The human brain is the world’s most powerful computer and we don’t know what it is processing, we just know the end result, which manifests itself as a conscious instruction. Find out about your bias-based habits and your perception vs reality state. You will pick up the wonderful bonus of understanding why miscommunication occurs so readily between us humans.
Purpose beyond profit
Good Companies Can Change the World. Here’s Proof.
John Battelle on his exchanges with with five leaders of extraordinary NewCos, the kinds of companies that restore your faith in the role business can play in the world: “Each of these companies is venture backed and for profit. But they are also all focused on missions that go beyond mercenary or financial goals. They’re thriving reminders of the good that business can create in the world. And they are proof that the startup world can move past the culture of “bros” to a culture of inclusiveness and true problem solving.”
The business of a better world
Why top corporations are working toward a more sustainable future and how more can be encouraged to follow suit: “If you move the conversation on sustainability away from CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and frame it in the dimensions of costs opportunity, market and revenue opportunity or strategic risk, you can create a compelling argument around these three dimensions and link that to financial bottom line indicators.”
What has sustainable inclusive growth got to do with corporate strategy?
The world has done well by corporate capitalism – a historically unprecedented period of economic growth and human development, with millions lifted out of poverty to name but a few of its achievements. But the sustainable growth which is necessary for economic prosperity and human development alike appears to be faltering. So, how should corporations adapt their strategy agenda to respond to this challenge?
Design Thinking Is Your Secret Weapon for Building a Greater Good
Most problem-solving methodologies are based on predictability. Design thinking is an effective approach for problems in a world of accelerated uncertainty. Why is it such an important process for solving social problems?
Conscious Business Model Design Workshop
With human works design, we offer Conscious Business Model Design workshops to executives and entrepreneurs who want to get to the next level in designing conscious business strategies and conscious business models. Please get in touch if you want to learn and implement ‘Conscious Business Model Design’ workshop for your business, project or learning program.
Decentralised Autonomous Organisations
How to Create the Future of Decentralised Autonomous Organisations
The necessary tools will soon be available to create true DAOs. At its foundation, SingularityNET is a set of smart contract templates which AI Agents can use to request AI work to be done, to exchange data, and to supply the results of AI work.
Future of work
McKinsey Finds Automation Could Eradicate a Third of America's Workforce by 2030
By 2030, a little over ten years from now, as much as 30 percent of work done globally could be automated. This estimation is according to the latest report published by private sector think-tank McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) which assessed the effects of automation in various socioeconomic environments.
The new kernel of on-demand work
“What if the kernel of on-demand work is not short-term associations and spot market exchanges, but in allowing us to create a new understanding of work: contextual interaction based on collaborative creativity and human capital?” By Esko Kilpi
Artificial Intelligence
A.I. Will Transform the Economy. But How Much, and How Soon?
Three new reports suggest that artificial intelligence can probably do less right now than you think. But by one estimation, up to a third of American workers will have to switch jobs by 2030 largely because of it.
How to Build Self-Conscious Artificial Intelligence
To replicate ourselves in artificial intelligence, we first have to embrace human error. Sci-fi writer Hugh Howey says we shouldn’t try it.
The Evolution of AI: Can Morality be Programmed?
Our artificial intelligence systems are advancing at a remarkable rate, and though it will be some time before we have human-like synthetic intelligence, it makes sense to begin working on programming morality now. And researchers at Duke University are already well on their way.
Inside Artificial Intelligence's First Church
No joke, this is real! Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the heart of the Uber/Google lawsuit, is serious about his artificial intelligence religion.
artificial intelligence index
We curate the latest data and trends on artificial intelligence in one place. This report aggregates a diverse set of data, makes that data accessible, and includes discussion about what is provided and what is missing. Most importantly, the AI Index 2017 Report is a starting point for the conversation about rigorously measuring activity and progress in AI in the future.
Instagram Is Using AI-Human Hybrids To Shape What You See Next
The team behind Instagram’s Explore tab reveals how a special sauce of algorithms and human curation keep things hyper-personalised–while reeling us in with weird slime videos we never knew we’d love.
How Reuters’s Revolutionary AI System Gathers Global News
Reuters is scooping its rivals using intelligent machines that mine Twitter for news stories. “The advent of the internet and the subsequent information explosion has made it increasingly challenging for journalists to produce news accurately and swiftly.” For Reuters, the problem has been made more acute by the emergence of fake news as an important factor in distorting the perception of events.