Time Travel to AI University

Neural Band journal entry:

August 2058:

My grandkids are gearing up for their first year of college at AIT (The Algorithmic Institute of Technology) and something just feels…different.

I think back 50 years ago when I graduated from college. It was the late 90s, and life was different, to say the least. No neural headbands. I drove my own car. Heck, we only had 50 states back then. I went to parties (too many if I’m being honest) and ran into the person that would later be my wife of 55 years. I actually carried a CD-playing Walkman with me to listen to my favorite music while walking to class. That’s how old I am.

Yet, despite the nostalgia, I’m excited for the future my grandkids will have. For my own kids, figuring out the landscape of college in the late 2020s was a hot mess. Education was seemingly in a free fall nationally and the cost of a 4-year degree in the U.S. involved student loans, second mortgages, and the selling of a kidney (I’m glad I didn’t end up doing that). Beyond the cost was also the uncertainty of the job market. Generative AI had just burst on the scene and looking back at it now, those first versions of ChatGPT seemed like the Wright Brothers trying to get off the ground back in Kitty Hawk. It’s come so far since then and yet, some things haven’t changed.

Phones were both everything… and not enough

The devices we carried back then (humorously called “Smart phones”) were essentially handheld distraction machines. After the great Screen Time Wars of the mid 2030s, we finally figured out as a society that really all we had to do was cut out the giant social media platforms and the phones became the bridge to what we have today. Back then, our smartest tool mostly just told us we had new notifications. Now it’s evolved into so much more.

Flash forward to the late 30’s and the invention of the Neural Band. It essentially became our brain’s pacemaker of sorts. It’s a wearable device that enhances cognition AND cultivates presence. The human experience ironically became richer because of this piece of technology. They even lay out their vision in their trademarked statement that “Most technology has optimized for speed. The Neural Band optimizes for wisdom.” I will say, it helps that I can write, reflect and capture this moment in time without having to step away from my grandkids because I have to sit at the computer for hours. (Yes, I’m writing this with my Neural Band.)

Lectures were one human talking to hundreds of humans

I remember (not fondly) sitting in a giant lecture hall while my professor spouted off about engineering physics and complex mathematical equations. I didn’t learn much to be honest, except how to cram for a final while drinking Jolt cola and pray someone didn’t break the bell curve. My own kids had it a little better. Going to college in the early 2030s meant some hybridized mix of lecture and watching videos on YouTube (before it changed its name to HoloStream). The professor would occasionally create a lab or experiment that students would experience, but there wasn’t a lot of time for curiosity or passion in higher ed. Their biggest fear wasn’t being wrong. It was being caught using a tool that made them right.

My kids used to download knowledge. Now it just shows up when we wonder. With universities like AIT (as well as those that attend its snobby competitor Ctrl+Alt+Elite University), students have time to create and explore any ideas that pop into their cerebellum. The balance of human-to-human interaction and human-to-machine investigation is a sweet spot for piquing students’ curiosity while also creating enough productive struggle so that the brain doesn’t become slothful.

The professor (using the hive-mind management suite of the Neural Band) can simultaneously see what all the students are learning while leveraging AI to create new and more creative challenges for students to dive deeper. These universities also realize the value of human connection, creating geographical cohorts for those that might want to stay in their local area. For those feeling inspirationally stagnant, they can take a ride on the HyperPath and interact with other colleagues around the world in a matter of minutes. All of this at NO COST.

The Death of the Major

I remember vividly all the people that asked my kids “what are you going to major in?” when they graduated high school. So much pressure, and the need to declare what you were going to do with your life before you were even 20. I myself changed majors three times before I landed in education. My own kids had some sort of amalgamation of major mixed with job path. They chose a major that meant they could work in a field they were tepidly interested in when they left K-12. These were static, front-loaded decisions.

Now, instead of declaring a major, we declare a direction. Back in the day, we’d say stuff like “I’m a business major” or “I’m pre-med.” When I asked my granddaughter about her own path through university, she told me she’s “building at the intersection of climate, design, and community systems” while also “exploring human cognition through storytelling and data.” It’s almost like I can’t even understand what she was talking about.

AI plays a large role in the pathway she’s selected. It adapts as her interest, knowledge, and understanding change. It’s continuously mapping her path using strengths, curiosity, emerging global needs, and then becomes the architect for experiences, not courses. Instead of planning a static degree and making a declaration, her pathway is co-designed daily.

Grading systems of the early century were quickly abandoned, once we realized they did more harm than good. They encouraged students to play the “game of school” rather than learn. They were scored on compliance not creativity. Now students are evaluated on depth of thought and ethical decision-making. Part of their overall progress includes their ability to disconnect and live real-world experiences (more on that in a moment).

Changes in the job market certainly helped this shift. Instead of degrees on the wall, we became a “living portfolio” of sorts. Employers no longer ask “What did you study and where did you go to school?” Now they ask, “What have you built, designed, solved, or contributed lately?” Little did we know that passing the universal living wage in 2045 would open up so many more opportunities to make this planet a better place. Rather than competing for every dollar, we began collaborating to solve global issues.

The evolution of social life

Of course, academia is only one part of the university experience. When I was in college, a social event could pop up around any moment of imagination. Someone saying, “Hey, we just got 50 lbs of Jell-O” became an opportunity to either wrestle in a kiddie pool full of the red stuff or fill a small car to the top with it. Sure, when my kids went to school, there were some social interactions taking place but most of those centered around a planned gathering, music festival or sporting event. No spontaneous “hey there’s a kegger at the moon tower” moments. Such a shame.

Nope. For my kids, after they went to class they would retreat back to their dorm rooms to connect with friends around the world and spend hours in the “scroll-hole.” It was a different way of wasting time. Spontaneous in-person interactions were rare (largely a result of COVID-19 and COVID-32) and they lived in a world where every exchange was funneled through an app of some sort. IRL friendships mixed with digital validation. We were together…but still checking if something better was happening somewhere else.

Of course, all along the way, our little AI companions were growing and changing. They were becoming more and more a part of the social circle. The group chats my kids had evolved to include an AI friend that helped navigate conflict and even remember things about their friends better than they did. It seemed that some of the best listeners in their friend groups…weren’t even human. This, of course, all unraveled in the early 2040s as people started to ponder, “Is it connection…or simulation of connection?”

Now, as my grandkids head off to college, they’ll finally get the full human experience as their content regulators are finally removed from their Neural Bands. They will truly be able to see people with their own eyes and not through a filter. And with the P.A.U.S.E. Council (People for the Alignment and Use of Screen Engagement) enacting “offline” requirements, my grandkids will also get to experience some of my own nostalgia. Maybe not a kegger (alcohol was banned a few years ago), but through “analog nights” and nature-based social rituals (usually involving a camp fire).

Once the Neural Band advanced to create emotion-sharing, the world became a much better place almost overnight. No more political strife. No more arguing online with distant relatives about whether or not we actually went to the moon. You could send feelings and memories to others, creating worldwide empathy. I vividly remember the first time I experienced this back in 2042. When my first grandchild was born, I got to experience the joy of my daughter’s emotions and feelings when she had that first skin-to-skin contact with her child. (I’m glad I didn’t experience the other part that came before, as natural labor was a thing back then.)

Yup. The hustle and bustle of my “always-on” life back in the 2020’s has thankfully given way to long periods of undistracted time and deep conversation. This shift of shared presence meant our status shifted from “how many followers” to “who gets your time.” Back in 2026, we were connected all the time, but rarely present with each other. Needless to say, I’m happy we as a society have finally figured things out.

It hasn’t been without turmoil. Bringing back handwriting unknowingly created shockwaves and tension between the No.2 pencil community and those that champion felt pens. The first attempts at emotion-sharing backfired when someone figured out (in a moment of grief) how to hack into the Neural Band network and shared the devastating loss of a loved one to the entire planet, leading the 2nd Great Depression.

But, hey…you have to crack a few eggs every now and then.

Even if we no longer eat real eggs…