The Innovation Show: How the Digital Age is Changing our Minds

Edited and prepared by Oscar Michel, Masters in Journalism, DCU

In episode 49 of the Innovation show we talk to Author, lecturer and Futurist in Residence at the Tech Foresight Practice at Imperial College, Richard Watson. We talk about the threat to deep thinking in this digital age, even though that’s the last bastion for human jobs. We talk about the sex life of ideas and how ideas are formed.

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled” – Plutarch 46-120AD.

We talk about the benefits of free play and how children can escape flippant thinking and a reliance on screens.

We talk about screenagers as multi-taskers and how that means less “deep” in their work and how they are constantly connected causing unnecessary mental stress. Despite an increase in IQ, basic reading and writing skills have deteriorated hugely. How they are mentally agile but culturally ignorant.

In the workplace we talk about “Busyness” and indeed the lack of “tune-out” and sleep due to distractions and overwork.? We also touch on corporate resistance to change and how it may be possible to plant new ideas in old companies and how corporations can attract new thinkers. Finally, we look at solutions for the future.

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