6.4 Visions of digitality
The future a dystopia? Back to the drawing board!
The aim of the task is for participants to learn about different visions of the future digital society and actively engage with the question of which future prospects are desirable at the level of society as a whole.
Competence Area
6 | Digitality and society
Competence
6.4 Visions of digitality
Level
Advanced
Version
On site | with internet
All participants are in the same location,
a stable internet connection and end devices are available.
Method
Headstand + group work.
Equipment
Educational materials
Training materials
Working materials 1–9.
Duration
90+
Procedure
This task consists of four parts.
In the first part, the moderator gives the participants a brief input (training material 1) to establish the task scenario. They will then receive the work assignment (training material 1).
In the second part, participants form groups of 2–3 people and each select a dystopian vision of the future for a social area from working materials 1–10. The small groups then familiarize themselves with their respective scenarios and consider together what could have led to their respective end results.
In the third part, the groups turn their thoughts on how the dystopia could have happened on their heads. To do this, they should first ask an AI chatbot (e.g., ChatGPT) how this dystopia could have been prevented or what different course of action should have been taken to lead to a better future. They then consider together how the chatbot tool’s statement can be classified and come up with their own ideas. The group is welcome to engage in repeated exchanges with the chatbot and compare how their version differs from the tool’s version. Finally, the participants think about what this better future looks like or could look like.
In the fourth part, the groups present the results of their reflections to the entire group.
Preparation
- The individual dystopias from working materials 1-10 must be printed out and cut out.
Notes on moderation
- Depending on the size of the group or in order to focus on specific topics, individual social areas can be omitted or additional areas can be added.
- The method used by the groups to develop their better futures can be modified, e.g., participants could
- write a newspaper article about their future
- describe a typical day in the life of a selected person
- write a job advertisement for a job that is relevant for the future
- act out a role-play of an everyday situation.
Extension
- As an additional task for the groups, the moderator can hang up 10 AI-generated images created by a text-to-image AI (e.g., Dall-E) that match the corresponding dystopias. The groups must then find out which of the images on display match their dystopia.