Harari N.H. You Tube (Home Deus) CBC News: The National Canadian Public Broadcast Service Sep 2016

 

Katona, C., Peveler, R., Dowrick, C., Wessely, S., Feinmann, C., Gask, L., Lloyd, H., de C Williams, A. and Wager, E. (2005). Pain symptoms in depression: definition and clinical significance. Clinical Medicine, 5(4), pp.390-395.

Benedikt Frey, C. and Osborne, M. (2019). From brawn to brains: the impact of technology on jobs in the UK | Deloitte UK.  

 Harris, B. (2007).  Identifying Neurologic Music Therapy Techniques Amenable to Automation 

As a student, studying at university for Psychology, I am aware of my need to future proof in the age of advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and automation of transport and learning. The mastering of new technologies and gaining a deeper understanding of technological shifts could make a huge difference for my future employability. Such areas to clearly pay attention to are data software, Big Data and cloud storage given that ‘digital knowhow’ has been found by the Centre for Workplace Learning (2014) as the most required skills for organisations. In order for me to become a professional of the future, I must learn to use these tools to extract insights and other information that help in creating more effective strategies for my future work in the field of psychology. Going to specific courses and   attaining didactic materials to get the most out of these resources is one of the tasks I will embark upon to move forward wanting to build a promising career.

 

 

However, I as an individual must not lose sight with how the world is moving towards not only different technologies, yet also different paradigms towards living. This links to the Israeli writer, Yuval Noal Harari’s who appeared on CBC News (Sep 2016) talking about his new book ‘Home Deus’ in which he brings about the need for  our awareness of working in parallel with the insight of both aspects of our intellectual and emotional intelligence in order to preventing disillusion.  He subsequently offers his prediction to the future surrounding “The Big Questions”, which are related to the accelerating growth of technical facilities in our Global planet. These might passively be experimenting pathways on how to gradually overtake mankind.  

 

Another area I am acutely aware of is the continuing increase and move towards freelance jobs; this  may create a tremendous impact on the psychological aspects and wellbeing of family units and communities.  This was mentioned partly by my lecturer, Bob Hope (3-4-2019) in recent meeting. Ultimately, mankind might eventually become constricted in their single world which could result in social and physical impediment and furthermore, could lead to premature death (Hatzenbuehler, Phelan and Link, 2013). This ties into population as one of the various aspects of stigmatisation where social exclusion could be enhanced with the advent of artificial intelligence, whereby entire portions of populations cease to become necessary in labour forces. This demonstrates a need to be more holistic in our view about the potential negatives of creating ‘Frankenstein’ technologies i.e. remote professionals such as Scientific   Researchers, Call Centers or even parents who opt for the online home-eduaction system. Individuals undertaking such forms of work might never get to know their neighbours or  interact with local communities as technological commodities removes the need for  face-to face interaction.

 

By keeping up with the revolutionary technical conversation from humans being elements to robotic beings will allow professionals, like me, in 10-20 years’ time to make use of the updated gadgets as a form of supporting and  minimising various forms of suffering from the aspects of  emotional, psychological and or physical human species are to  experience. This allies to how medical experts view patients for causes and symptoms of mental and physical pain. (Clinical Medicine, 5(4), pp.390-395.  It will also be vital for me to understand that asthe world becomes more uncertain I myself, despite developing a career in psychology, may one day need support in the form of therapies I have studied. This should and will be part of my learning process as I am a huge believer that learning widely should be part of one’s learning package. I for instance, am very curious and am very open to further improving myself as an individual in preparation for one day perhaps being  able to answer “The Big Questions’. While our world is rapidly moving towards a virtual existence it might still allow me in10-20 years’ time to adapt my work to an organic approach via fade-to-face interaction, as well as virtual interaction. I am aware of the need for my keep working in parallel with the insights of my intellectual and emotional intelligence as to shape my actualisation, empathy, professionalism as a future proof transpersonal psychologist.

In order to ensure future employment, I must ensure that I have the necessary skills required, both in my chosen field of psychology as well as being able to incorporate the use of technology into my work. “Over the last 15 years, the UK has benefitted from a technology-driven shift from low skill, routine jobs to higher-skill, non-routine jobs” ( Carl Benedick and Michel Osborn, The Relentless March of Technology and London´s response), as music therapy is a non-routine, highly skilled job, it is unlikely that this would become fully automated. It is, however, important to consider and prepare for the role that automation and technology may play in the future of music therapy, and how I could incorporate this into my skillset. An example of this would be using video-conferencing software to allow therapy sessions to be conducted when the patient is not in the same physical space. This allows much greater flexibility for both myself and my patients . The use of video-conferencing is likely to increase greatly in the future as per the widespread availability of capable devices, such as mobile phones. Ensuring that I have the relevant skill to use technology in my work will allow me to adapt to the changing landscape of work schedules, with many organisations allowing both flexible working hours and working from home, I will therefore be able to offer flexibility in terms of how the therapy sessions are provided.

Furthermore, an example of technology that is already being used in music therapy is interactive robots. In order to ensure that I am future proof as a psychologist, I need to understand how this is being used, and how I may be able to incorporate it into my own work, for example by analysing the patients behaviour towards the robot, or by using the robot to store data and information about the patients sessions. Currently, some robots are used in therapy for children with special needs