What this is all for

Around 1995 while I was researching artificial intelligence for my PhD, I read a novel called The Diamond Age, or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Its story is set in a near-future dystopia where nanotechnology is everywhere. Society is dominated by a small number of "phyles" — globally-distributed groups of people with shared values and cultural similarities — which have supplanted nation states as the dominant political and economic powers.

The main protagonist is a young girl called Nell who does not belong to any phyle, and because of this she is among the lowest in society: people living in slums whose basic needs are met, but who have no opportunity to ever do anything meaningful with their lives.

But when Nell is four she is given a stolen copy of an AI-infused "book" — the Illustrated Primer of the title — which becomes her constant companion, serving as a personal guide and teacher well into her teens. Words and images appear on the pages as Nell reads, with the narrative shifting in response to the girl's evolving understanding and questions. By weaving together critical knowledge with well-known fables, the book leads Nell on a multi-year journey of discovery that encourages her to challenge the status quo, transforming her into a young woman equipped to thrive in a complicated world.

I don't recall much else about the story — other than that it was a ripping good yarn — and I didn't think of it again until a few years ago, when I was about a decade into my quest to save the world. As a father of two children, one a teen and one about to be, I spent a lot of time dwelling on how complicated today's world is, and how it's only going to get worse. I was painfully aware that what my kids were learning in school was doing nothing to prepare them to thrive as adults.

The syllabus they had to sit through was almost identical to that which I endured in a very different world, 40 years earlier. They could recite facts about the populations and major exports of 'important' countries, solve equations, write neatly, and tell me what rivers flowed where. But they knew nothing about what systems are and why they matter, how the economy operates, why people do seemingly crazy things, how to manage their time, think about money, or manage their mental health.

And that's when it occurred to me that my kids — all kids — need something like Nell's Illustrated Primer: a source of knowledge which they can tap into and explore as they see fit. One which prepares them for life in the not-quite-dystopian-but-we're-working-on-it future they'll soon be stepping into. And one which can perhaps help them find their own way to make that future slightly better than it would otherwise have been — not just for themselves, but for all life on Earth.

That's what this is all about. It's taken me a while to get going. The task seems overwhelming and it's hard to know where to start, let alone where it all might end. But I've got to give it a try.