Thursday 18 June 2026
The latest Round Square Postcard - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Choosing Our Future - hosted by Australia's Oxley College stated: Humanity stands at a crossroads. Artificial intelligence, climate change and new technologies promise dazzling possibilities - but also profound risks.
In his latest book, The Challenge of the Future, philosopher A.C. Grayling asks: ‘What should we keep from yesterday as we rush into tomorrow?’
In the Round Square Postcard - a videocall meeting - held on Wednesday 17 June, four of our Round Square students - Lachlan McFarlane (Year 11, School), Lachie Turbott (Year 12, Greenbank), Hugo Velvin (Year 13, St John's) and Emily Yang (Year 12, Taylor) - attended the online gathering along with an international student audience to explore that question.
During the call, the students who were tuning in from Delhi, Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and around Australia, heard insights from Professor Grayling himself via pre-recorded interview and discussed the following points:
- What values should endure in a world transformed by technology?
- How can democracy survive in an age of surveillance and AI?
- What role should young people play in shaping a future that is fair, sustainable, and humane?
This was a fantastic opportunity for our students who are not usually able to join these calls due to the time differences, but as Oxley College was hosting this session and based in New South Wales, this worked perfectly for us.
Bringing curiosity and individual ideas to the call, the students were not just imagining the future but deciding on the kind of future they wanted to create.