Fred Truman

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Future of the Infrastructure: The FlashJob Economy

January 2, 2012

This video was supplemental to a group presentation/skit performed as part of a final project for Art Kliener‘s “Future of the Infrastructure” course taught at ITP during the Fall 2011 semester. It was performed by myself, Suvarchala Narayanan, Fernanda Bak and Sajan Ravindran on Friday, December 9th, 2011.

Course Description:

Can the future be foretold?  No, but the long-term outcomes of present-day actions can be foreseen — and, as the 2008 economic crisis showed us, lack of foresight can have grave implications. Using a technique called scenario planning, students consider the present and future ramifications of knotty, large-scale problems related to the evolution of the internet and other aspects of the telecommunications infrastructure. In exploring this, we touch upon the global economy, demographics, international politics, environmental concerns, and other large-scale issues.  Scenario planning is a rigorous but highly engaging technique, in which people share information and judgment to create a picture of the future larger than any individual could produce alone.  The technique has been used since the mid-1950s decades to distinguish certainties from uncertainties, and to learn to be prepared for multiple eventualities. Students will conduct original research on significant trends, use those trends to develop compelling, plausible stories about possible futures, and present the futures – and the strategies they suggest – to a public audience. As part of the process that we co-develop, the class explores theories about system dynamics, organizational and societal change, the causes of economic failure and success, and the nature of technology.

The focus of the class is scenario planning. Individually, we researched diverse critical areas of technological, social, and political “driving forces” that we believed (at that time) would be critical in the development of our future. Coupled with intense and satisfying class discussions (lead fearlessly by Art, of course) were able to distill our collective beliefs in four areas for further sculpting. The goal of planning these scenarios was not to predict the future, but to generate valuable and educated insights into plausible futures which allow us (as individuals, students, citizens, humans) to prepare as best as we can. I conducted my research into the open standardization of synthetic biology, others chose topics like the future of recommendation systems, autonomous weaponry, and peak oil. In the end of this process we whittled it down it to four topics with groups and began crafting a presentation to communicate the idea behind our future.

To help communicate the core idea behind our future, we coined the term “FlashJob” as a gesture towards the dynamic and ever-changing ways that we will work in this future. Rather than being employed by a single behemoth corporation for the duration of our lives, in the FlashJob Economy individuals will learn faster, converge on problems with immediacy and disband when the task is complete. The way in which we believed (as a group) travel and communication will change will allow for and promote working relationships such that this future becomes more and more plausible. Worked centered on hackerspaces, living to work, and on the idea that there is nothing worse than successfully and efficiently completing something that didn’t need doing. In the FlashJob Economy we ask “why” before “how”, and net value and satisfaction increases.

The lines and edges of our future were not crisp, however the audience response and discussion that took place post-presentations clearly indicated that the future of how we work continues to be at the forefront of most people’s minds regardless of age, gender or industry. Which is not surprising considering that how we work dominates our waking hours and is the primary way in which we define ourselves. Although I am doing no justice to the quality of intrigue we all felt that night, this is an incredible class – one that has expanded my perceptions and gave me great hope and power over my (perceived) future. I would recommend it. A million thanks to Art Kleiner, who is a master at facilitating group thought.

This is the invitation that was sent out:

Future of the Infrastructure Final Presentations
Friday, Dec 9
7pm- 10pm
at ITP – room 50

Eleven years ago — Apple was a struggling company about to launch iTunes; China was known for Mao, not for manufacturing; the biggest environmental disaster of the year was a steam leak at Indian Point power plant; and an obscure act of terrorism on the U.S.S. Cole seemed like a remote, inconsequential event.
What will the world be like 11 years from now?

Each year, a group of graduate-level students at New York University’s famous Interactive Telecommunications Program presents scenarios on the future of media. These are fascinating glimpses of the interrelated future of new media and the global economy; of the evolution of society and our own ambitions and aspirations; and then a thought-provoking, freeform discussion follows.
We’ll be talking about these four ways that the world might evolve by 2022:

HOMO EVOLUTIS – a future in which biotech research, enabled by information technology, leapfrogs as far as plausibly possible.

FLASH JOBS – a future shaped by a more fully decentralized, web-enabled and cloud-enabled way of life.

SHAREFLATION – a future in which the economic crisis turns into a painful period of deflation — and then into a world with less waste and less consumption of resources.

FREEMIUM (STAGNATION) – a future in which large institutions persist the only way they can — by establishing a stable but stagnant economy.

The presenters include: Alex Dodge, Lia Martinez, Dave Boyhan, Doug Thistlethwaite, Fernanda Bak, Ginny Hung, Hernan Carranza, Johnny Lu, Kevin Bleich, Fred Truman, Matt Rader, Ramsey Stevens, Sajan Ravindran, Ali Sajjadi, Survarchala Narayanan, and Will Jennings. Taught by Art Kleiner.

all contents ©2009-2010 Fred Truman