#THEMES ABOUT CHANGE HOW TO#
For a better future, humans must make responsible decisions about their partnership with technology.īen Shneiderman, distinguished professor and founder of the Human Computer Interaction Lab at University of Maryland, said, “The future will be shaped by those who understand how to support trust, empathy, responsibility and privacy. Digital life will continue to be what people make of it. Creating a fair and equitable digital future Theme 1: Humanity’s responsibility. Some answers have been lightly edited for clarity. After that, several additional chapters cover the broad theses of hundreds of other responses, bunched into broad categories. The next sections of this report briefly describe the most common themes from respondents and include remarks by Internet Hall of Fame members and other internet pioneers. The respondents pushed for an array of reforms in laws, international treaties, technology systems and educational processes to try to lessen the known harms that digital technologies already create. A few predicted space-based interactions. A share of their comments referred to technological advances such as brain-computer interfaces, virtual immersive experiences that will teach and entertain users, pervasive connectivity linked to artificial intelligence (AI) that helps people navigate the world and understand it better and predictive, and personalized applications that make life easier and more enjoyable. When the 530 participants in this study shared wide-ranging insights about the future, most of their responses were tied to hopes and concerns over human evolution in light of technological change.