The Future of Education

It is the year 2218. We have built a thriving society, not only resolving the crises that threatened our species’ wellbeing, but actually using them to our advantage to open new opportunities for our interconnected global population. Our core values are made manifest in this future society’s form and structure. Human civilization is flourishing. From this place we ask ourselves: What system of education got us from here to there? Confronting the most complex global challenges — from climate-based disease, to gridlocked government — will require fundamentally restructuring global systems of education to adapt to the realities of a fast-changing world. This paper examines the central questions: What is the role of education in global development over the next 100 years, particularly in light of automation and emerging technologies? In a world where most cognitively intense jobs (white collar and eventually blue) are disappearing, does education even make sense in the way it has been conceived of over the past 100 years? This paper examines these questions through the Longpath philosophical lens — imagining many alternative possibilities for the futures; investigating the futures in light of evolutions in human consciousness and empathic development; and defining a vision for the future that can be manifested through a more effective education system.

Keywords: Automation; Futures; Technology; Consciousness;