What are you doing at the moment then to, uh, make that easier?

Well, in addition to my worldwide telescopes that are hosted in the grounds of schools, I've recently started a new initiative called the STEP program.

This is an initiative of the Global Jet Watch, which is my worldwide telescope program, and STEP here stands for the Science and Technology Education Program, and the idea is that we can make learning a bit about science accessible to people who don't necessarily have any scientific literature in their native tongue.

So, for example, in the case of one of the languages spoken at the school that hosts my telescope in South Africa, that language is called isiXhosa.

Now, let me emphasize, I do not speak any isiXhosa, but a good many people do in Southern Africa, in South Africa, in Lesotho, and so on.

But there's next to no scientific literature in that language.

There are essentially zero scientific textbooks.

opportunity.And are the teachers and the parents on side with this? 'Cause it-it's a bit of a leap for many of them, going to physics.

How do you view kind of Australia's role in the sort of global technology world?

What answer do you want to that question? The truthful answer.

Oh, gosh.

I'm just going to tell you what's happening at the moment in terms of science funding in this country.

So the academic body that represents all scientists is currently running a campaign for people to sign a petition or write to their MP to ask We are currently the lowest we have ever ranked internationally in the last decade or 15 years in terms of innovation.

We are the lowest ranked in the whole of the OECD for AI uptake.

across corporate industries.

I'm aware of her work.

And too much energy with all these devices zooming around, cluttering up the horizon.

Well, if you think about it, it's just going to replace other types of vehicles.

We don't have exposure here in Australia to a lot of other kinds of vehicles.

So when I was at the University of Utah, I saw this little delivery robot on the path, and it was really cute, and it knew where it went, and it went on a path, and it had a designated place, and off it went delivering Mexican food to some s- hungover students somewhere.

[laughs] In the US, we've got things like, you know, the Waymos, the Teslas, the Zooxes, all of these autonomous vehicles, and they will be doing lots of delivering.

And the thing will be, even if we have autonomous buses, it doesn't mean we won't have a bus driver per se, but the bus driver won't be driving necessarily.

They'll be there for social interaction, helping the local community, being there for a safety measure, not having to worry about swerving around on the roads.

Is that really why you wrote the book?

... cluttering up the horizon.

Well, if you think about it, it's just going to replace other types of vehicles.

We don't have exposure here in Australia to a lot of other, uh, kind of vehicles.

So when I was at the University of Utah, I saw this little delivery robot on the path and it was really cute and it knew where it went and it went on a path and it had a designated place, and off it went delivering Mexican food to some st- hungover students somewhere.

[laughs] In the US we've got things like, you know, the Waymos, the Teslas, the Zookses, all of these autonomous vehicles, and they will be doing lots of delivering.

And the thing will be, even if we have autonomous buses, it doesn't mean we won't have a bus driver per se, but the bus driver won't be driving necessarily.

They'll be there for social interaction, helping the local community, being there for a safety measure, not having to worry about swerving around on the roads.

Is that really why you wrote the book?

And so I would like to welcome to the stage, author, scientific futurist, global XPRIZE visioneer, and expert in cybernetics, Associate Professor Dr. Catherine Ball.

So as a futurist, I have to try and throw balls around the room.

And the first one I'll say is, can everyone remember about 10 years ago? I mean, the Internet's been going a little bit crazy on the idea of 2016.

So can everyone think about where they were in 2016? Now I want you to take that time and I want us to go forward.

And it's 19th of February 2036.

And I'm about to read you the news from the future.

After a decade of AI-assisted bioacoustics, the International Court today has recognized certain citations as legal persons, not as symbolism or as activism, but as evidence-based governance.

laying cables,