“The working worlds of the future” is the topic for the Science Year 2018. Before the session of Ranga Yogeshwar the German minister for education and research will open the topic "We can Work it Out".
​​​​​​​And “We can Work it out”: at rp18, we want to adopt a perspective that is located beyond the job market, pure engineering and business administration, and which approaches this future world of work to penetrate it, both scientifically and philosophically. What challenges will have to be faced in terms of (office) architecture, personal life goals, ethics and law?

How do we want to further educate and work in a digitalised world? Is there a life after the maxim of economic growth? What techno-social questions are raised that can be connected to other re:publica discourses, for example, the topic of privacy? The focus on-stage, in “sweatshops”, artworks and performances should not just be on automation and labour shortage, but also on what role research and science (can) play in the shaping of this shift.

Science Year 2018 – “Working Worlds of the Future”

The Science Year 2018 focuses on the “Working World of the Future”. Digitalization, alternative ways of working, artificial intelligence research and similar fields present new challenges and opportunities to scientific and civil societies. How will people work in future? And how do you prepare for these scenarios? What role can science and research play in designing the terms of labor? The Science Year 2018 highlights the impact technological and social innovations have on the economy of tomorrow, and discusses the new standards of socio-political dialogue and work experience that we face today. “Learn, experience, create” is the motto of the Science Year 2018, and all interested participants are called upon to join in, ask questions and find solutions.

The Science Year is an initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF, organized in collaboration with Wissenschaft im Dialog (WiD). As a central instrument of federal science communication, the Science Year conveys current research to the public and fosters the dialogue between science and society.

 

Wissenschaftsjahr 2018 - BMBF

  • Science & Technology
    We Can Work It Out
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    Wir werden in den nächsten zehn Jahren sehr stark mit dem Aufkommen von künstlicher Intelligenz konfrontiert werden. Sie wird viele Bereiche unseres Lebens fundamental verändern. Von Industrie 4.0 über autonome Maschinen bis hin zu Anwendungen in der Medizin verstärkt sich der Einsatz von Deep Learning – Systemen. Dabei stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit wir diesen neuen intelligenten Systemen vertrauen können. Wieviel Verantwortung geben wir ab?
  • Science & Technology
    We Can Work It Out
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    When humans imagined robots and computers in the workplace, they have envisioned them as servants and supporters of mankind. However, in recent years, many online platforms, such as Uber or Amazon Mechanical Turk, are “employing” myriads of human workers for tasks supervised, controlled and managed by algorithms. How does it feel like when your boss is an AI algorithm? How do human workers react when the algorithm maltreats them? And how can platforms enable workers in platform mediated-work to regain their voice and autonomy? In this session, Lior Zalmanson and Thomas Gegenhuber will share their insights from their recent academic studies and outline future directions for labor relations in platform-mediated work.
  • Politics & Society
    We Can Work It Out
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    Today few terms are more central to policy, planning, or economics then the term “resilience”. From urban planning to stress testing in economic markets, we have come to understand systems as constantly in a state of crisis that needs perpetual management. This talk traces the rise of resilience as a central epistemology and practice in environmental management, urban development, and finance. I will argue that resilience has become the dominant discourse by which time and uncertainty are currently being managed in computation, finance, and design. Moreover, resilience has become a new logic making the planet, and its living populations, computationally measurable and representable, and amenable to new forms of technical manipulation and action. This talk will be a whirlwind tour through the merger of cybernetics, ecology, and finance that are currently reshaping the planet from extraction infrastructures to smart cities.
  • Politics & Society
    We Can Work It Out
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    There has been much recent discussion about the impacts of new technology on work. There is a fear that robotics and computerization can displace and dislocate workers, and possibly lead to mass unemployment. While the technologies are new, this basic dynamic is hundreds of years old, going back at least to the industrial revolution.

    The impact of automation on workers is often presented in a mechanical or deterministic way, as if technology determines economics. But really, the future of work in the context of automation is always a political question.
  • Arts & Culture
    We Can Work It Out
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    The Institute of Human Obsolescence (IoHO) explores the future of labour in a society that progressively automates tasks previously performed by humans. We are facing unprecedented challenges in our relationship to technology and its new socio-political implications in society. In this talk we will explain how the IoHO challenges those questions through installations, gatherings, research and actions -specifically our most recent line of work exploring human-generated data as a form of labour.
  • Research & Education
    We Can Work It Out
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    Programming is the new literacy.

    Learning how to code is now an integral part of the curriculum in most schools nowadays. In the global south, different models are being used to improve youth skills for the future of the work and the work-less ages to come.

    What are the different perspectives from Latin America, Philipines and Ghana?

  • re:publica
    We Can Work It Out
    Die Technologie schafft uns ab: sagt das Valley, das Feuilleton und zunehmend auch deutsche CEOs. Roboter übernehmen unsere Jobs, das Denken übernimmt die AI. Muss Zukunft immer Angst machen? Wir sagen: Nö.
    In einer Exploration um die Welt haben wir Menschen kennengelernt, die Dinge anders machen, ihre Nische suchen oder im besten Einklang mit der Technologie leben. Wir machen diese Zukunft mit Videoausschnitten und Texten in einer Installation erfahrbar - und laden zum Mitgestalten ein.
  • Business & Innovation
    We Can Work It Out
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    Our economic models place “self-interested” right at their centre – in direct opposition to nearly all moral traditions. How do we respond when reality cannot prove true the promise of private vice delivering public virtue? We compromise, compartmentalisation, or pursue doomed attempts to reject, though not resolve, this tension. Let’s time travel to historic corporations and the ancient polis, to envisage a more ambitious and idealistic future for enterprise. 
  • Mobility & City
    We Can Work It Out
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    New Work und Smart City sind in aller Munde: Einerseits beschäftigen sich viele Unternehmen damit, wie sie mit moderner Zusammenarbeit und Kommunikation als Arbeitgeber attraktiver werden und Kundenbedürfnisse besser abbilden können. Andererseits nutzen Smart Cities zunehmend die Chance, um die Digitalisierung für den Bürgerdialog zu nutzen. Wie können die Erfahrungen dieser Akteure genutzt werden, um New Work auf dem Land zu stärken? Wie schaffen wir eine gemeinsame Arbeitswelt für uns alle?
  • Business & Innovation
    We Can Work It Out
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    Mehr und mehr Entscheidungen in Unternehmen werden heute ein für alle Mal automatisiert und von Computern ausgeführt – zuverlässig, aber keineswegs ausfallsicher. Was menschliche Arbeit dagegen heute besonders auszeichnet, ist der flexible Umgang mit Unvorhersehbarem. Oder anders ausgedrückt: Sich in unklaren Situationen einfach „durchwurschteln“ zu können. Doch wann und wo wird diese Kompetenz in der Organisation 4.0 noch gebraucht? Lasst es uns entdecken!
  • Business & Innovation
    We Can Work It Out
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    Algorithmen bestimmen, was wir tun. Wir bestimmen, was Algorithmen tun. Diese untrennbare Verflechtung von Mensch und Algorithmus wirft Fragen auf: Wie genau gestalten Algorithmen unsere Arbeitswelt – oft auf subtile Weise – um? Wer entscheidet – Mensch oder Algorithmus? Warum ist es uns so wichtig, dass Algorithmen genauer, fairer, objektiver arbeiten als wir? Welche Verantwortung tragen wir beim Einsatz von autonom arbeitenden Algorithmen in der Arbeitswelt?
  • Business & Innovation
    We Can Work It Out
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    Imagine a world of zero email and magnetic employee connections. As social media promises, the heaven of collaboration is only a click away - even now in the workplace. However, as lucrative as these promises seem to the employer, social media can mean hell for us - it's "empowered" users. How can one survive in the jungle of lurking colleagues that drive you nuts, annoying group chats that are pure distraction and your boss who "follows" every click of yours?