Dean Russell gave a keynote speech today on the impact of technology on society, creativity and human purpose at the Parliament Street technology conference this morning.
The event took place at St Matthew's Conference Centre and included a range of speakers covering every aspect of technology in society from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence. The discussions looked beyond the tech itself, and explored the ethics, political challenges and societal changes occurring because of the emerging fourth industrial revolution.
Dean Russell added:
"Parliament Street always know how to put on a great event, and this was no different. The range of discussion was extensive and highlights the depths at which we need to think as a society around the impact of digital, social media, data and more on our privacy and future lives.
I argued that whilst the opportunity to accept and integrate technology into our lives, we should not do so without our eyes open. Whilst I am a big advocate for innovation, I also believe we need to think carefully about how quickly we become reliant upon it. From the days I worked on promoting the need for accessibility to enable the World Wide Web to be available to all - irrelevant of disability - I have been acutely aware that we risk creating a digital divide in society.
I hope there are a lot more of these events to debate these topics and create even more thought provoking discussions to explore how technology should and could affect us all in the future."