With every century, our definitions of work have changed - from the first industrial revolution with the use of water and steam power to mechanize industrial processes to the present/ongoing fourth industrial revolution, with AI and robotics becoming more integrated into work processes. These (current) changes are making our societies and economics shift to highly specialised knowledge-based ones where people are expected to have highly specific knowledge and more educational qualifications than before.
All this occurs with the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic where we saw major changes around and about the way we work- from mass unemployment at the start of the pandemic and the shifting of work to online spaces to a class awakening occurring in countries like the United States with the Great Resignation.
Which begs the question- how will our perception of work evolve in the future? What changes do we expect to see in the work we do? Will technology make most jobs redundant?
LightBulb Chats
DesignLab’s LightBulb Chats are enlightening conversation starters: open invitations to publicly debate controversial elements shaping our future today. They focus on intriguing topics that play a significant role in our everyday lives, and are likely to influence the world of tomorrow. Think: will artificial intelligence put humans in the backseat? Do you need a degree to be successful? And now we can ‘design’ babies, does that mean we should play God?
The Lightbulb Chats aim to build bridges between students, academia, civil servants, business(wo)men, artists, and other curious civilians. Join the discussion and our mission to engineer the future together!
