Welcome to the 'Then What' Expositions
The Un-Asked Question Plaguing Government and Healthcare Technology Globally and the Impact on Society
HELLO THERE!
My name is Marie Johnson and I am so excited to meet you!
Welcome to the ‘Then What’ expositions - the product of decades of getting hands dirty and pushing the edge in government service delivery, high tech, and innovation – and refusing to yield to the status quo.
Why ‘Expositions’?
Well, this will be a running no-holds barred narration on all sorts of topics, where I get right into things. I will challenge boring, biased limited thinking, and bigotry. I will equally celebrate extraordinary achievements and innovation. Particularly innovations from the edge, from the ‘dark side of the moon’.
The ‘Then What’ expositions will traverse topics including Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, healthcare, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), government technology, Digital Humans, Digital Identity, Cyber, Biometrics, Ethics, Risk, Accessibility, Diversity, Inclusion, Technology, Innovation, Human Rights, Fitness, Space, International Relations.
Yeah. I will talk about a lot of things. And that’s the whole point.
I am not aligned with any technology or consulting company. I am independent and will call BS when I see it. And I see a lot of it. So, you’re in for a ride.
And What is the Significance of the ‘Dark Side of The Moon’ Imagery?
It’s 50 years since the release of the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album by Pink Floyd. So, in many ways, the imagery pays homage to everything the dark side of the moon means to me. Creativity. Darkness. Light. Phenomenal innovation. Inclusion. My lifelong love of space. The unexplored. The unknown. The unwanted. The un-asked.
And for me, the un-asked question is ‘Then What?’
It’s a tough question. This question does not get asked enough – or at all. I think a lot of people and organisations are afraid of the answers. Or more likely, too incompetent and ignorant to ask.
The Philosophy of ‘Then What?’
Throughout my life, the ‘Then What’ question has become a personal philosophy. For Allan and me, this question has helped us in times of hardship and in times of joy. We met at school. Birrong Public School in the western suburbs of Sydney. Both did top level maths, all the really hard stuff, top level science (physics, chemistry, biology) at the HSC. We both topped our year 12 maths. We talked physics when we were out on dates. Such nerds and we still are.
As many of you might know, Allan and I were married very young – I was a teenager and Allan was in second year university studying engineering. And for a while, living with a baby in a caravan in the backyard in the western suburbs of Sydney. We were seriously dirt poor. Owned nothing for years.
And yet, Allan went on to dux his engineering degree, becoming an aeronautical engineer in the Royal Australian Air Force with his first posting as the aero engineer on the Mirage flight line at fighter base RAAF Williamtown, NSW, Australia. Followed by a stellar global career in technology. It was an exciting time. And he is a genius.
I commenced my studies, after our second daughter was born. Studying for twelve years throughout RAAF postings, gaining my BA and MBA. I would go on to attend the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. And would be awarded the prestigious US Government O-1 Visa for Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement, to take up my worldwide role with Microsoft in Seattle.
The ‘What Then’ question might have seemed impossible for a couple of kids living in a caravan with a baby, to contemplate.
It was this very question that motivated Allan and I to run the 42.2 km Melbourne Marathon together in 2011, by that time Allan as a heart patient with 5 cardiac bypass grafts + 4 stents. And in the years since, following his further heart surgery – with 8 cardiac bypass grafts + 4 stents – doing long distance challenges and hikes. And together, we created the AI powered Digital Human Cardiac Coach.
And this is why it pisses me off no end, when I come across people, governments, and organisations with rigid and bigoted mindsets; backward-looking postures; legacy arrangements locked in by vested interests; and not excitedly pushing beyond the boundaries of the impossible, the possible and the inevitable.
There is so much beyond the edge. Beyond the dark side of the moon.
Every time I hear of technology or servicing failures, or technology or servicing innovations, I ask ‘Then What’?
I don’t ask this question from a theoretical perspective. I ask this question from the practical, hands-on, detailed experience in large scale service delivery through complex ecosystems, where life is very messy.
There is no automating messy life.
The messy reality of life – the front line of service delivery in whatever domain – is a place where the latest consultant and marketing hype theory utterly disintegrates. This is the edge. The dark side of the moon. But it also a place of phenomenal innovation. This is why I love the edge.
And there is a common thread. The ‘Then What’ question is very often not asked. Not even contemplated. Out of scope of terms of reference. I was once told by a VERY senior bureaucrat, ‘Marie, we don’t have time for this future stuff’.
A bureaucrat too theoretical and caught up in committees, with no clue or care about the messy human reality of service delivery. This bureaucrat, so lacking imagination and inquiring mind, refused to contemplate or understand that it is on the edge where the future actually happens. I told the bureaucrat that the future happens - one way or another.
The past thirty years or so have seen incomprehensible multi-trillion-dollar failures in government and healthcare big box technology and servicing globally. Common patterns and methods replicated, often promoted and heralded by vested interests, latched onto by politicians eager for glorious announceables knowing they won’t stick around for the grind of delivery and the shock of disaster.
At the same time, the exponential acceleration and adoption of personal technology in all its guises and dimensions, is outpacing and changing the relationship between the individual, big box organisations and the state.
Whoever understands and embraces the edge – the dark side of the moon – can achieve the impossible.
I will get into all of these. Including one of the most catastrophic human rights abuses in government in Australia, and I believe the world: the large-scale application of algorithms harming people and creating risk to life for hundreds of thousands of Australians. The common genesis and lineage of RoboDebt and RoboNDIS.
The NDIS story is relevant globally. Because the patterns of servicing, technology, the frenzy to apply algorithms – that are not understood, and not explainable – in administrative decision making, are common. The technology hubris is dangerous. And the resulting harm is the only outcome.
I will be writing our story of the NDIS Class Action as it unfolds.
So Why Do I Write?
Literally, I am inundated with requests from people around Australia and around the world, asking me to write not only about the NDIS, but the broader technology, AI, and human rights landscape and futures. And where do the billions and trillions of dollars actually go, in face of such devastating failures?
People say they appreciate my unvarnished independent commentary, and want a lot more. The demand is coming from across every sector, international keynote presentations, university courses, and various media platforms.
Unvarnished. Independent. Expert. Experienced. Always controversial because I get deeply inside the issues.
Not consulting marketing ‘think pieces’.
So here we go!
For the first few months, ‘Then What’ will be free.
Then you will have a REALLY exciting choice. Pay MILLIONS to consultants.
OR subscribe for a FEW DOLLARS a month to the ‘Then What’ expositions.
And what do you get for a few bucks a month? Definitively NOT a ‘prepared by ACME Consulting’ marketing think piece.
You will get at least a weekly exposition of the only question that matters in government and health technology, globally. Always controversial. And I will celebrate the GREAT stuff.
And I will celebrate the GREAT people who have been to the dark side of the moon.
Sign up now to start receiving regular ‘Then What’ expositions when it launches very soon.
You can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and check out my website www.marie-johnson.com
‘Then What’ are you waiting for?