Of genies and bottles...

 

Photo of cartoon in The Guardian November 23rd 2025


    

This time of year it is usual to reflect upon what you have achieved and perhaps set goals for the coming year. I'm going to look somewhat longer term as I feel we are reaching a point of no return and need to urgently address matters which could be catastrophic if they remain below the radar of our societal conscience. 

It is my privilege to continue to work with colleagues from UNICollaboration on virtual exchange and this has kept me researching the use of technical and digital tools for connecting educators and students across continents. I have reflected on my learning openly - as here on my Espace Sisyphe blog - showing my increasing concern about the power and influence of the wealthy controllers of many of our now limited numbers of tech platforms. Where the internet was once a place of lively, largely constructive debate and a source of help and community for many it is increasingly a dangerous, exploitative environment which requires greater skill if you are to avoid being targetted by nefarious forces. I also voluntarily work alongside the most amazing and well informed team of Future Teacher UK  to ensure that the best advice for teachers in terms of equitable access to education is shared openly and without commercial bias. 

So I feel I have been doing what I can post retirement from my position as an onlooker whilst maintaining my open education principles. I feel nonetheless that the sisyphian task is only getting more difficult as AI rapidly infects every aspect of our universe, becoming an existential threat on all that was great about the WWW. I found this interview with Sir Tim Berners-Lee really worth a listen. His belief that things may all work out is tempting but I'm afraid the big money and the greed of the Broligarchy may defeat the higher minded "public good" ethos I embrace and wish to see sustained. I salute him for maintaining dialogue with those who would spoil the internet we loved, he is the better man.

There can be no doubt that the AI race is already exacting huge environmental harms at a time when politicians still fail to enact policies to address global warming and when many world leaders are happy to talk down the risks. With outside interference in elections, democracy itself is under fire. We are standing by and even complicit in the endless exploitation of our planet's resources - that is the water and the air we need to live - so that the super wealthy can fulfil their greedy, selfish desires.  Companies with greater wealth that many nation states push ahead with data centres whilst claiming that AI will save us all - believe me they have no interest in the rest of us!

 So what can I do? 

• Keep calling out the fake and the falsehoods
• Listen to trusted critical thinkers (such as Cory Doctorow, thanks Father Christmas!)
• Resist the hype and mock those who try to fool us
• Make decisions which take power away from the wealthy. 

In the immediate, I am moving more of my reflective writing away from online spaces and back to pens and paper in the coming years. I continue to review critically the use of social media and online platforms to find more ethical spaces. I am not afraid to call out the realities of poor personal security practices online and exclusionary teaching technologies, their impacts are so negative. Please allow time as you reflect to take a deeper, critical dive into the real consequencies of the digital actions and choices you make. It is not easy but you are not alone.

Photo of my copy which came this Christmas