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Twenty years back, a Minister of Education in Singapore said: “Just as the Industrial Revolution transformed the world two centuries ago, the Information Revolution will transform our lives in the next millennium. The challenge for us in education is to exploit the exciting possibilities that Information Technology offers to prepare our people for this information revolution. “[1]
In recent years, electronic and virtual environments have become increasingly important in social lives. In the relatively few years since the internet has been mainstream, it has become a major tool of socialization and recreation for both children and grownups. Technologies make it possible to collect and exchange information with peers; interact with others while maintaining anonymity; to experiment with new identities; to develop a sense of community and to explore social acceptance. It is possible to share opinions through blogs, or socialize and network through social networking sites such as Facebook. Electronic devices have become important players in socialization, and communication skill development for young people involves learning how to navigate interpersonal relations online as well as offline, and back again, in an almost seamless transfer.
The success of the rapidly progressing information age is based on data, and data and information are all around us. When we evaluate the information and intelligence evolution in machines, we realize that it has transformed human life in how we generate digital data and information, how we capture and collect the digital data, how we store it, how we retrieve and replicate the information—thereby blurring the boundaries of languages, time zones, politics, ideology, race, religion and culture.[2]
As humanity stands on the brink of a technology triggered information revolution, the scale, scope and complexity of the impact of intelligence evolution in machines is unlike anything humankind has experienced before. As a result, the speed at which the ideas, innovations and inventions are emerging on the back of artificial intelligence has no historical precedent and is fundamentally disrupting everything in the human ecosystem.
In addition, the breadth, depth and impact of this intelligence evolution on furthering of ideas and innovations across cyberspace, geo-space and space herald the fundamental transformation of entire interconnected and interdependent systems of basic and applied science: research and development, concept to commercialization, politics to governance, socialization to capitalism, education to training, production to markets, survival to security and more.[2]
Is our youth prepared to live in such a world? Are we equipping them with the skills and values necessary to be adaptable, innovative, and purpose-driven in such a world?
Our traditional educational models are probably outdated. What is required is probably not an incremental change in education, but rather an entire overhaul of the current system. We may need new models for 21st-century education.
The Singularity
The Singularity is the hypothetical future creation of superintelligent machines. Superintelligence is defined as a technologically-created cognitive capacity far beyond that possible for humans. Should the Singularity occur, technology will advance beyond our ability to foresee or control its outcomes and the world will be transformed beyond recognition by the application of superintelligence to humans and/or human problems, including poverty, disease and mortality. [3]
The technology triggered intelligence evolution in machines and the linkages between ideas, innovations and trends have in fact brought us on the doorsteps of singularity. Irrespective of whether we believe that the singularity will happen or not, the very thought raises many concerns and critical security risk uncertainties for the future of humanity. This forces us to begin a conversation with ourselves and with others (individually and collectively) about what we want as a species. While there is no way to calculate just how and when this intelligence evolution will unfold in machines, one thing is clear: it changes the very fundamentals of security, and the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive. [2]
As seen, the quantity and quality of digital data and information created and stored by humans are multiplying rapidly. And with growing human connectivity, the data and information keep growing as well, feeding machines what they need to allow them to see patterns, learn and make them more and more intelligent. At the same time, the computing power of the rapidly evolving computers will exceed that of even the most intelligent and evolved a human brain, the exponential growth in machine intelligence will continue towards the singularity. Then artificial superintelligence will be just around the corner.[2]
Where is the Human Being?
Where is in all this the human being, or more accurately, what ethical education can offer to the modern educational system for young people? According to our opinion, computer technology still depends on its creator. Although it presents his powerful weapon for carrying a variety of purposes, in that sense and realization of educational goals, however, its impact on creating a new approach to educational values among the young people, provokes serious ethical debates. The teacher’s main professional goal should be caring for the student as whole persons. The higher level of students’ moral development is characterized by an increasing concern for justice and for social transformation. In this way, the modern educational systems should promote a new direction for teaching that cares about student’s identity formation and social relationships built through learning in the infosphere as a new humans’ environment.[4]
References
[1] R Adm (NS) Teo Chee Hean, Minister for Education, Singapore [2] Jayshree Pandya The Troubling Trajectory Of Technological Singularity, Forbes, Feb 10, 2019 [3] techtarget.com [4] Valentina Gulevska, The Effects of “Information Revolution” upon the Critical Thinking and Values in Education, Conference Paper, November 2014, Conference: Education Across Borders: Critical Thinking in EducationThe photo on the top: Pixaby
Categories: Arteficial Inteligence, Education, Technology
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