The World Dialogue Organization detect an emergency worldwide,syou will part of the antidote?
This message comes from the year 2040. Three viruses—polarization, relativism, and indifference—are spreading unchecked. People no longer converse with one another; they delegate the task of interpreting others to AI. Questions vanish, dialogue becomes nearly impossible, and society loses the capacity to understand itself.
Our last hope lies with a group of communicators. Their mission? To rebuild bridges, find an antidote, and design a campaign capable of halting the fragmentation.
This was the starting point of «The 2040 Outbreak"A narrative simulation game developed by students of the Bachelor's Degree in Communication as a closing project for the Epistemology course, under the guidance of Professor Roxana Fantín, who shares with us in this interview a reflection on the experience of educational innovation."
Working in small groups, the teams diagnosed the "viruses," designed antidotes based on epistemological principles, created a communication campaign, and defended their proposal before a panel of stakeholders. They integrated ideas about dialogue, hermeneutics, shared truth, and recognition of the other to imagine communication strategies capable of rebuilding social bonds.
How did the idea of using a narrative simulation game as the closing activity for the course come about?
—I like to end the course with a fun activity because it allows us to revisit the material from a place of enjoyment and creativity. It's a way to integrate what we've worked on throughout the semester. I chose a narrative simulation because it allows us to build future scenarios and understand communication as a complex and interdependent phenomenon. Imagining that future helps us analyze reality from a broader perspective. The students had to assume the role of communicators in 2040, rebuild bridges and create conditions for dialogue.
What did this experience seek to show them about their professional role?
—I wanted to highlight the role of the trained communicator. Today, anyone can produce information or disseminate messages, but that makes the specific contribution of the professional even more important. In contexts of polarization, relativism, and indifference, the communicator needs to understand complexity, generate dialogue, interpret contexts, avoid oversimplifications, and contrast perspectives. The experience sought to showcase this role as a builder of bridges and a promoter of a culture of peace.
Why is it valuable to address challenges such as polarization, indifference, or lack of dialogue through a playful experience?
"These are problems that are already among us and that often generate discouragement. Play allows us to approach them from a different perspective: games function as a 'what if' scenario, enabling us to imagine possible situations and return to the present with new questions. At the end of the activity, many students told me that 2040 was much closer than they imagined." That was precisely the intention of dystopia: to mobilize.
After seeing the teams' proposals, what reflection did the experience leave you with?
“I was surprised by their commitment. They didn’t look for magic solutions; they seriously debated how to generate more dialogue and less polarization. I was also struck by the fact that, in a generation so deeply influenced by technology, many of the proposals found their answer in the most human aspects of life. They chose to draw by hand, talk, and debate. Many emphasized that the conversations used to develop the solution were as valuable as the final result. Through play, they understood the true purpose of the subject matter. The content ceased to be merely theoretical, and they were able to see how to apply it in their professions.”
