8: But What Would All of This Look Like?

Throughout this book we have taken you on an exploration which has included universal basic income (UBI), artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, post-truth, Cockaigne and much more. This might have not been the ride you were expecting, but we believe that if we are truly to start with a blank slate, it is important to consider what we, the authors, want from education – you might feel differently and we would love to hear your ideas. And you may further find that this chapter is not going to give practicable advice about how we turn our current system into one which meets our ideas and ideals – we know that this is a ‘wicked problem’ (one which has innumerable and interdependent problems). But as spoken about in the introduction, a time of crisis allows for a time to see things differently. The pandemic has shone a glaring light on a number of inequalities in our society; in fact, these issues have occurred with such regularity that it seems we barely have time to digest and understand one issue before another appears – like a real life Hydra, the multi-headed monster of Greek mythology who for every head you cut off, two more grow back.¹ At times, the seeming insurmountable problems have left us with a sense of fatigue – how can we possibly address issues of equity/equality, deal with a pandemic, reverse climate change and live through another economic crisis? And we all have far too much experience of the wrangling of politicians, the media and the Twitterati to expect that our suggestions will bring a harmonious consensus. However, the following and final chapter asks one more time for you to suspend your disbelief – to think about that blank slate, to pull together the different parts of our journey together so far and to imagine what might be possible for education in the future.