Extract from a BBC News interview with Dr. Julia Kensington, director of the United Kingdom Advanced Incubator (UKAI) talent development programme.
“So you agree that the conditions within the Incubator programme induce stress above that produced by the national curriculum, which has already made British schoolchildren more stressed than their counterparts in Korea and Japan.”
“Absolutely. We demand all Incubator candidates—we intentionally don’t use the word students because we do not treat them as hapless innocents in need of assistance—to produce work equal to or surpassing that of university candidates. This work includes novel reflections on a broad range of issues including social systemic analysis, crisis mitigation, hard-science research, and ethical issues that have remained as unsolved conundrums since the days of Aristotle. They do this in an environment of relative material plenty and with expert assistance, to be sure, but the time and workload demands placed on these candidates is beyond that of some Oxbridge courses designed for applicants two years older than them.”
“And you think this is okay? We’re talking about an attempted suicide at the Westminster Incubator right now—”
“I don’t think it’s okay, I think it’s necessary. It is true that this level of stress makes certain candidates, or indeed most candidates, unsuitable for the Incubator programme. While we ensure that the stress comes from appropriate sources—”
“Excuse me, appropriate sources?”
“We are not arbitrary or capricious in our demands. We do not intentionally set ridiculous homework tasks to watch them suffer. They are expected to work as qualified professionals, with the standards and expectations that come with that. In exchange, we treat them as professionals and pay them for their time while covering all costs of living and essentials in Incubator facilities.”
“These are children we are talking about here, Dr. Kensington.”
“Yes. They are children. They are young enough to be the first in line to suffer when our economies collapse and the climate becomes uninhabitable in many parts of the world. They are young enough to lose their futures. There is no other choice, because we as the previous generations have failed them. The strict annual disqualification mechanisms implemented ensure that only the most adaptable and resilient candidates complete the Incubator process, minising any harm caused.”
“You are talking about intentionally stressing out poor and underprivileged students to find these so-called candidates that can complete your insane demands—”
“Demands that they will face in the real world. Our tasks are designed to model real problems in our world today, and the work done by our candidates has already led to multiple academic and commercial applications, with the candidates responsible receiving all appropriate credit and financial remuneration. Our methods are based on the research conducted by organisations like the Radix Group during the pandemic years to identify people who can develop the innovations necessary to lead us out of the present state of crisis. We are looking for those with a high Genius Quotient, if you will.”
“Genius… Quotient.”
“The term emerged an internal metric developed by organisations like Radix focused on identifying human talent. We use it to sort and rank our candidates based on their aptitudes in a variety of tests both before they are formally matriculated and during the Incubation process, and organisations around the world are working on similar systems.”
“What you have done is you have turned people into numbers. Right, that’s it, cut the cameras, I’m out—”