Mark, one of our newest master's students writes about his experience so far after his first few weeks of the degree. Mark, a seasoned professional, is learning new methodologies to generate faster, more extensive insights into current moral systems.

We tend to think of the word chaos as general disorder and confusion. Randomness, anarchy, a lack of structure. If you are a fan of Greek mythology (or play the video game Hades), you might know Chaos as a Greek primordial deity. You might have even heard this word used in connection to the famous butterfly effect, the idea that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can somehow influence the formation of weather systems.

Buzzfeed recently published a now deleted article on what AI thinks Barbies would look like from different countries around the world. The results contained extreme forms of representational bias — including colourist and racist depictions, with AI image generators currently gaining huge popularity, it’s important that we are vigilant about the forms of bias that these technologies can fuel.

The university has been subject to internal strife and external pressures throughout its 900-year history. What makes its current troubles distinctive is that they go beyond political ideology and financial security, and straight into a conceptual ambiguity at the heart of the institution since its inception. The ambiguity is neatly epitomized in the noun and verb, ‘discipline’. Resolving this ambiguity is at the heart of the LIS mission.

When I left sixth-form college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I didn’t do well in my A-Levels, further exasperating my hopelessness. After some time, I applied to a University for a Business and Entrepreneurship degree. It was the only course that appealed to me, but I was disappointed when I got there. I remember feeling alone in this big university and not knowing where or how to find places I needed to be.

When I create a high-quality piece of work I can see how it’s something that, with a little more polish, would be able to go out into the real world. I’ve put together my knowledge and experience and methods to create something that is useful to more than an academic, and that means concern for design, form, and intelligibility as well as the quality of ideas present.

For one, this degree did not force me to pick one subject and stick with it. It didn’t limit my options in what I could study or what I could do after the degree; and in doing so it opened doors rather than closing others.

As I reflect upon my journey, I am filled with gratitude for the series of events that led me to the embracing environment of LIS.

Throughout my university career I have challenged my students to take risks and to keep growing – both as a person and intellectually. I have urged them to see education as a process – a wonderful, privileged process full of creativity and potential – and not as driven by targets or outcomes. Above all, I have urged my students to keep learning. Once you stop learning in life, what is left?