Intergenerational Futures Thinking w/ Adam El Rafey
BONUS | Dubai Future Forum #03
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Bonus episode recorded live from the Dubai Future Forum at the Museum of the Future in partnership with the Dubai Future Foundation on 20 November 2024.
Summary
Young Change Advocate Adam El Rafey shares his thoughts on why ability, not age, should determine opportunity, how to reimagine education towards problem-based learning, and how the adaptability of the younger generation will prepare them for an increasingly uncertain future.
Guest Bio
Adam El Rafey is a 14-year-old change advocate, public speaker, and innovator. He is a learning enthusiast passionate about urban planning and transport, reforming education, breaking down barriers, and inspiring others to follow their curiosities and find their voices at any age. He is the youngest university student in the UAE at the University of Wollongong in Dubai and is in Year 10 in school. He was named one of the Future Top 25 Under 25 Global Changemakers by the Future Minds Network at age 11, and is one of the youngest TEDx Speakers in the world.
Show Notes
01:28 Becoming a Young Innovator
02:30 #AbilityNotAge
04:15 Embracing Curiosity and Risk-Taking
05:46 Balancing Technology and Human Values
08:54 Reimagining Education
11:02 Exploring Space vs. Virtual Reality
12:09 Advice for Future Leaders
15:04 Urban Planning through Gaming.
16:30 Curating Conversations on the Future
Links
Transcript (AI-Generated)
NOTE: This transcript is AI-generated and unedited. It may contain errors. A human-transcription is coming soon.
Adam El Rafey: Kids in the younger generation, I find, are becoming a lot more risk savvy and have grown up learning a skill of adaptability, which is going to be very needed in the future as things progress even faster.
Luke Robert Mason: You're listening to the FUTURES Podcast live from the Dubai Future Forum and the Museum of the Future, a space where generations meet to prototype better tomorrows. On this show, we meet the scientists, technologists, artists, and philosophers working to imagine the sorts of developments that might dramatically alter what it means to be human.
Some of their predictions will be preferable; others might seem impossible, but none of them are inevitable. My name is Luke Robert Mason, and I'm your host for this session. So, how can the next generation of future thinkers inspire us to see the world through fresh eyes? In an era of increasing uncertainty, marked by shifts in geopolitics and climate change, it's easy to believe that the future holds some of humanity's greatest challenges.
But as young innovator Adam L. Raffi demonstrates, optimism remains a powerful force to confront a world of unprecedented unpredictability. I guess my first question is, for anybody who doesn't know who you are, who are you?
Adam El Rafey: Well, first of all, it's a pleasure to be here. So thank you so much for having me on today.
And yeah, so my name is Adam Al Rafi. I am 14 years old in my third year of university studying computer science alongside year 10. I have been a change advocate for as long as I can remember, especially in the education field. I've done a TEDx talk at the age of eight, being one of the youngest speakers to do so.
I have attended three human accelerator programs. Um, and I've been nominated onto the future 25 under 25 list of global change makers. More than anything now, I find though, I'm really excited to see what the future holds and especially in the transport and urban mobility space, which is a huge passion that I've developed recently.
But yeah, it's just a brief overview on me.
Luke Robert Mason: All right. You both make me feel inferior and impressed. I mean, I think you are the youngest person that I've ever interviewed. On the futures podcast. And the reason I was so excited to interview you is because you have this wonderful phrase, which is ability is not age.
What do you mean by that?
Adam El Rafey: Yeah. So ability, not age has been my mantra for it's well, since I was eight, really. And even before, because I feel like to give it's true meaning, there needs to be a bit of context. So this whole thing started off when eight year old me as any eight year old does. applied for a job.
And of course, I was denied because I didn't meet the minimum age requirement. But I was like, wait, I could probably do this because well, it was on a Minecraft server. So I'd obviously be very, very inclined to get this job. So I'm like, I'm capable of this. So why can't I do it? And Fast forward a couple months or so, and I find that same scenario happening in school, where I was curious about learning physics, and the physics curriculum was held back, because I just wasn't old enough, and I was in a year group that didn't have access to that content.
So again, I question, why? And that's where this whole thing stemmed from, it's just the notion that you should be able to get as many opportunities as you want, like, solely based on your, like, capabilities and what you're able to do, versus just on your age, which is, if anything, an arbitrary number, so I think that would help us unlock a lot more potential, especially with the future generation.
Luke Robert Mason: So, uh, just asking for a friend, does ability, not age, also apply to the older generation?
Adam El Rafey: Absolutely, it applies to anyone, I mean, after all, the focus is the word ability. So, regardless of whether you're 8, you're 60, you're any age, I still think that you'll be able to get, you should be able to get, like, as many opportunities as your capability meets.
Luke Robert Mason: So what do you think it is that next generation, your generation, can teach former generations about thinking about the future?
Adam El Rafey: Well, for starts, I think, creativity and imagination are really big things that should be carried on into the future because kids are naturally like curious and they're creative and they want, they keep their minds going all the time.
And you see the storytelling that kids have, it's full of imagination. So I think that just being that imaginative could really kick off a lot of innovation, especially and like curiosity goes hand in hand with that because if you're curious, Then you can just find a bunch of different things that you never knew you were interested in and that's why I say always practice curiosity and not just be curious because I think curiosity is More so just like a quality that you gain by practicing and just a lot of different things can come from that I mean, that's how I got here in the first place.
And the second thing that I'd like to mention is risk taking and adaptability, so Kids in the younger generation, I find, are becoming a lot more, like, risk savvy, and, like, open to taking risks, and just taking chances, and innovating, and just being adapting to their current environments, because, if we think about it, the rate of change is growing exponentially, and kids have grown up learning a skill of adaptability, which is going to be very needed in the future.
As things progress even faster.
Luke Robert Mason: Well, you seem like someone who, who really loves technology. And, and the ability for technology to give us that power of adaptability, but often when I hear discussions about your generation and the way in which they're encountering and using technology, it's not Often the most positive, you know, I hear things like you're distracted by your phones.
You're constantly on TikTok You're reliant on technology in many ways Do you think there's ways that the next generation can use technology more intelligently?
Adam El Rafey: You brought up a very good point there about us being reliant on technology And first of all, let me just say kind of to cover myself. I don't use TikTok So, um, I don't see much, no, neither of us, so I don't, like, the thing is, technology is a fabulous asset that we're very privileged to have today because that's, after all, that's what accelerated my learning, that's what, I got access to so much information which fueled that curiosity that I had and I would never have been able to access that much like from all around the world without the use of technology.
It's fundamentally, it's brilliant. Then again, with everything in life, it has a risk and we have to learn how to strike a balance because the statistics are showing that sadly there's an increasing rate of like loneliness and just sadness caused by Constantly being on technology. So I think the most important thing that we can do is strike a balance between being on technology.
And I mean, video games for education. I've been an advocate for that for so long, because I think that's truly great, but also taking a moment to disconnect, focusing on the human aspect, like connecting with friends in real life and more so connecting with nature.
Luke Robert Mason: You mentioned that curiosity is this skill set.
You seem like an incredibly curious individual, but for those who are still fostering their ability of curiosity, what advice would you have for them? How and in which way can they, can they culture their
Adam El Rafey: curiosity? Actually, As a kid, I coined a little something I like to call the dolphin method, where pretty much just like a dolphin, you pick up a new topic, you dive into it for a while, you research it, and like you just get yourself pretty hooked into it.
And then if you're starting to get a little bit disinterested with it or you wanna move on to something else, you just pop back out, right? Like a dolphin, pick something new, come back in. So that's, I think that, I think that applies to a lot of things in the modern day, and I feel like that's a skill that needs to be practiced.
To better be prepared for the future.
Luke Robert Mason: I love the, uh, I love the dolphin method. Later today I'm interviewing someone who's using AI to talk to animals. So soon we'll be able to find out what dolphins are curious about. So, uh, so we can, we can add to your dolphin method there. You're someone who's still in the education system.
You're quite early on in the education system. Although, I do believe you've already enrolled in higher education. Is that correct? Yes.
Adam El Rafey: That is correct. I'm in my third year of university.
Luke Robert Mason: Okay, man. All right. I, I struggled at the regular age of university. I mean, obviously, uh, you're, you're a unique individual in your ability to do that, but when you look and you take one step back and you look at the education system and the education curriculum, what do you think is missing from that curriculum for your generation that you think we really need?
We really need to foster it.
Adam El Rafey: First of all, I'd like to just state the obvious that standardized tests aren't working. Like, I feel like, cause even myself and like my friends, sometimes I'm guilty of this, I, I go into a test, I memorize a bunch of content, I regurgitate it on the test, and then I just That's the checkbox and I forget the information later on, but I feel like if we can find a way to apply that learning that we get in like classes and in school to like real world projects that have like actual fruition, then I feel like that would be a much, much better way to not only foster learning, but understanding and application.
So I actually worked on a project myself, which is, um, purifying water. From the surface of Mars by like digging into the surface and just extracting it. And I did a bunch of like, I looked into that and well, partially because I was like curious, but I looked into that for a while, I developed the whole thing.
It took a while to develop. all when I was nine. So I think that we can take a lot of inspiration from that in terms of like project based learning as well. Speaking of purifying ice on like the surface of Mars, I don't think that's something that's conventionally taught in most school systems. So that brings me on to my next point of future forward subjects because I've learned about Brain computer interfaces, cellular agriculture, biomimicry, longevity, and everything.
I've learned that in human accelerator programs and not necessarily in the core education system. So if we can manage to incorporate that then I feel like That could really open up a lot of doors for the future if we're equipped with future skills and subjects.
Luke Robert Mason: So you're essentially saying we need an education system that is led by problems.
We identify the problems and then educate into the problem space. Yeah. Yeah, fascinating. I do want to ask you one question because you mentioned Mars there. What are you more excited about? Inner space or outer space? Minecraft style worlds? Or potentially going to Mars?
Adam El Rafey: Wow, this is a great question. I mean, like, wow, I think since I was a kid, I found space fascinating no matter what space.
Like I've delved into outer space, I've been super curious, like, and just explored the solar system and even everything beyond. And I've also had my fair share with virtual reality and augmented reality and I've dabbled a bunch in that and I've like had a bunch of experiences. So I'd say the answer to that question is Both, because I'm curious about both and I'm just excited to see where the future is going in both spaces.
Luke Robert Mason: It may be a convergence. What may actually happen is you can put on a VR headset and then control a humanoid robot on Mars. And that's the way you'll get to embody and experience what it's like on Mars. Perhaps do your experiment in real life through a robot avatar. So the wonderful thing about being able to talk to one of your, uh, your generation is that, is that.
I see you as one of these future leaders and, and walking around the Dubai Future Forum, uh, today and yesterday, it was so fascinating to see the wide eyed wonder with which younger people were exploring some of the exhibitions and some of the talks. But if you were to, say, mentor a future, future leader, in what way would you work with them?
In what way would you want them to make an impact? Where would you want them to start in thinking about becoming a future leader?
Adam El Rafey: I'd say my advice for getting started in becoming a future leader, which is, again, of ever increasing importance as we move into the future itself, is Just start. And what I mean by this is that you don't have to know all the answers like, for example, like at day one You don't have to have everything you'll find out.
So it's a process that takes time. You know, it's a process that takes time, effort Anti fragility like bouncing back up for money fail because let's accept it failure is going to happen And it's a way that we deal with it that makes us stronger, right? And it makes us learn because failure after all is where the learning lies.
I'd say build a support network and ask for help when needed. That's absolutely crucial because you don't have to do everything on your own. I mean, I mean, I couldn't have done it on my own. I have my wonderful parents. So thank you like for getting me here and constantly being supportive along the way.
So. The importance of a support network is immense, but also networking and finding like minded people is a great skill because that could help like foster your innovation and curiosity and get you more involved in the space. Above all this, just have fun, ride out the process. It's a great journey. And I think that's just one of the most important things.
Luke Robert Mason: What would you say to the peers that perhaps are anxious? I heard this interesting phrase the other day, eco anxiety, that there's a future generation who are really worried about things like geopolitics and climate change. If you encountered one of your friends, your peers, who had that anxiety about the future, what advice would you have for them?
How would you foster their curiosity and positivity?
Adam El Rafey: What we have to realize is we take a step back and realize the future holds so much. So much good is going to come out of it, so much innovation, so much change, and so much positivity is going to come out of the futures. That's, that's personally what I believe, and I'm really excited to see all this change happen and everything, but I mean, I can understand, like, where they're coming from.
Also, I think educating yourself and getting proper, um, like, source of information to, like, educate yourself about what is happening and what can be happening and being an active participant in the future that you want to create can also really help. So what's next for you, Adam? What problem are you hoping to solve in the immediate future?
It's urban planning and urban like transport design that's been one of my fascinations for the longest time now and I'm really interested in like looking at how the future comes into that space all the different like innovations and like different cities the cities of the future especially and I think that that could be a really interesting space that I want to look into more.
Luke Robert Mason: I know you've interrogated this this space that we're in right now this city Dubai through gaming could you just share a little bit of what you did to explore Dubai through the medium of gaming.
Adam El Rafey: Well, in regards to games and Dubai, I, I myself created a game that I coined Dubai dash, and I basically used Dubai as the board for a game.
There were like three or four teams or however many teams you had a list of challenges to complete each challenge. You tick off like you're worth a point and you could only use public transport to get to each of the challenges. So no taxis, no Ubers, no cars, nothing. Just the public transport network. I gave everyone four hours and I let them disperse.
And the goal was get as many points as possible in the four hours. If you're even one minute late, you're disqualified. So that's how I turned Dubai into a game. And I think that's a really cool concept. Teach kids how to use public transport.
Luke Robert Mason: Yeah, I've been the back of some Ubers where they're driving.
Like it's that sort of game. Trying to get from one location to the other as fast as possible. You're here today at the Dubai Future Forum, and you're looking around and going to see some of the talks. If you got the possibility to curate a panel or curate a conversation between a bunch of individuals or theorists or thinkers, what sort of topic would you be excited and curious to explore?
Adam El Rafey: Wow, that is a great question. Like, naturally, I have a curiosity for many things. I think if I was curating a panel, since I'm just so curious to discover, like, what's going to happen and the possibilities of the future. I think it'd be something regarding that, just seeing how the world is changing, how we're all adapting to the, to the future, how technology is changing.
Just everything in that space is honestly really cool to, um, discover. And I'm really glad that we have spaces like this, where we can get to discover that, like Dubai Future Forum.
Luke Robert Mason: Perhaps next year, we need someone like you on every single panel, a member of the future generation on every single panel to say, look, it's my future that you guys are building.
So this is my thoughts and my opinions on that. Adam, I think it would be ideally positioned. So on that note, I want to thank you for joining us for the Futures Podcast live from the Dubai Future Forum. If you like what you've heard, you can find out more by visiting futurespodcast. net. And I just want you to join me in thanking.
Thanking Adam for joining us at the podcast lounge at the Museum of the Future. Thank you, Adam.
Adam El Rafey: Thank you so much for having me here.
Credits
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Producer & Host: Luke Robert Mason
Assistant Audio Editor: Ramzan Bashir
Transcription: Beth Colquhoun
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