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Imagine if Digital Technologies are the Force to set us free as Humans

24. Nov 2022

At DDC, we are fundamentally in love with the possibilities of digital technologies. And we – on behalf of our society, businesses, and future generations – would like to keep it that way. But to do so, we have to radically change how we approach and design digital solutions

Quick insight

Our digital mission here at DDC is to support businesses integrating ethics into the design process of digital solutions and ultimately contribute to a world where digital technologies are emancipatory for people.

Our approach to this mission takes its starting point in our Mission Playbook, focusing on defining and unfolding our shared, preferred future, mobilizing the ecosystem, and building the capacity to reach our goals. We are inspired by the processes and methodologies of the New European Bauhaus project DESIRE and the mission initiative Imagine if we found a new and common direction for a thriving youth.

Daily, we meet outstanding examples of how digital technologies can accelerate the green transition and how we can communicate faster and smarter with each other – no matter the distance – no matter who we want to communicate with. The list is endless. But we have also long been aware that something is wrong with our relationship with technology, and daily, we meet examples of digital technologies that harm people

The good news is that we can do something about it! If we imagine the digital future we prefer, we can design for it. Simply.

Let’s start imagining

Scenario design is one of our preferred methods when working with missions. Take a step with me into your imagination. Now, we are in the future we both want.

Imagine a future where digital technologies are the force to set us free as humans. 

A future where digital technologies truly help us, make us feel empowered, make us thrive, support us in being healthy and safe, and provide us with a sense of belonging – to ourselves, others, nature, and the planet.

Imagine a future where we have discovered how to design and create nourishing and emancipatory societies through digital technologies and collaboration, locally and globally. People, businesses, and governments have embraced that humans and species need to be at the center when using digital technologies as a resource – simply because it is the obvious thing to do, more just, more meaningful.

Imagine a future where we as people and societies profoundly understand what technology is and how it supports us – we are in control. We, the people, lead technology, not the other way around. Globally we share that this is our responsibility.

Finally, imagine a future in which the fear of digital technologies creating inequality, manipulation, addiction, loneliness, misinformation, echo chambers, and polarization simply belongs to the past.

It took a lot of work to get here. It took a tremendous amount of effort.

What did we do differently?

Besides realizing that humans always need to be the starting point and center throughout the development of digital solutions, it also became a global mutual strategy to avoid manipulation and undermine people’s basic urge to decide over their own lives.

We agreed to avoid creating inequality at any cause. We decided to run the extra mile to make the technology we use understandable by being completely transparent about how the various technologies that serve us – and the planet –  impact us.

Finally, it became crucial to give humans control and stay true to the promise of avoiding any sense of losing essential control of our own life.

All in all – the future looks bright. We’re ready.

Are you ready?

If this resonates with your hopes and ambitions for the future, you can start making the first changes yourself. Our toolkit, the Digital Ethics Compass, helps you ask all the right questions when designing and developing digital solutions and products.

You and I might need to talk if you have even higher ambitions. Maybe you and your organization should join us in designing and realizing this digital mission? Reach out to me; I’d love to get in touch.

Christina Melander

Director of Digital Transition

Mail cme@ddc.dk
Phone +45 2946 2922
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Want to join the digital mission?

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