Our humanity is the one crucial skill. Rather than being seen as a weakness, this is actually our strongest suit. It’s one we need to empower, because studies show that as the world becomes increasingly automated, computerised and digitalised, we are losing the very skills that define us as human. “In a world with a surfeit of AI and machine learning, human values such as common sense and empathy will be scarce.”
43% of 18-24 year-olds say that texting is just as meaningful as an actual conversation with someone over the phone. Do you agree with this growing sentiment? What might be the downside of this trending upwards?
MIT undergraduates – soon to be the world’s elite technologists – attend a “Charm School”, a long-running, tongue-in-cheek programme which includes advice on everything from when to make eye contact and how to kindly break bad news. Is this the future for our kids, where most of what was once common sense is not common anymore? Empathy lost?
Education systems have long attempted to foster empathy through subjects like foreign languages, literature and the arts. With the decreasing emphasis on this subjects in Singapore, are we heading down a slippery slope?