STEM is dead.*
*Not really. But it's no longer the whole answer.
Let me be clear up front: science, engineering and technology are not truly dead. We will always need people who understand how things work — I still build things every week.
But with AI now able to write code, work equations and draft designs in seconds, we must now put the emphasis on human interaction and the liberal arts: music, dance, art, history, philosophy, and the plain old skill of being with other people. Those are the things that will matter most in the future.
Welcome to StemIsDead.com. I'm Eric Sundberg, a retired electronics business owner in Richmond, Virginia. In 2013 I founded RVAstem.com to help Richmond families find science, technology, engineering and math programs. I believed in that mission then, and I still do.
But I've spent the last few years watching AI arrive (I document it over at Graylinks.com), and it has changed my mind about what young people — and the rest of us — most need to learn next. This site is the other half of the story.
— Eric
A tale of two websites
RVAstem.com
Find a robotics club. Learn to code. Build a circuit. Enter the science fair.
For roughly twenty years American education pushed STEM hard — from the America COMPETES Act of 2007 to national STEM campaigns, coding camps and robotics leagues. I was part of that push, and proud of it.
Visit RVAstem.com →StemIsDead.com
Join a choir. Learn a dance. Argue about ethics over dinner. Interview your grandmother. Paint badly and enjoy it.
When a machine can do the calculating, the valuable parts of a person are the ones it can't copy: judgment, taste, empathy, persuasion, memory, and the ability to work and play alongside other humans.
Why I changed my mind →The most important things to learn now
If I could hand every kid (and every retiree) one list, this would be it.
- Human interaction — conversation, listening, debate, teamwork, kindness. The one skill that gets more valuable as AI gets better.
- The liberal arts — reading, writing, languages and reasoning: the old "arts of a free person."
- Music — playing and singing together is practice in listening.
- Dance — moving together, in time, in a room full of people.
- History — knowing how we got here, so a confident chatbot can't rewrite it for you.
- Philosophy — the big questions: what's true, what's fair, what's a good life.
Browse the topics
Summer programs worth knowing about
National camps and seminars that put the arts and humanities first. See the full list →
Telluride Association Summer Seminar
Free, five-week humanities seminar for high school sophomores and juniors — tuition, books, room and board covered.
Visit site →Interlochen Arts Camp
Michigan summer camp in seven arts areas — music, dance, theatre, visual arts, creative writing, film and interdisciplinary arts — for grades 3–12.
Visit site →Virginia Summer Residential Governor's Schools
Month-long Humanities and Visual & Performing Arts programs for Virginia 10th and 11th graders.
Visit site →Iowa Young Writers' Studio
Two-week creative writing program for high schoolers at the University of Iowa, in person or online.
Visit site →Learning for grown-ups, too
You don't age out of the liberal arts. A few places I'd start:
The Great Courses
Lecture courses from university professors on history, philosophy, music, literature and religion.
Visit site →MasterClass
Short, well-produced classes from working artists, musicians, writers and thinkers.
Visit site →Some class and shop links on this page may be affiliate links. If you buy through one, this site may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. How that works.