Ten thoughts on the Future

Joel Gethin Lewis

A remote presentation to SDE, Friday 6th August 2021.

The future is augmented.

The challenge is to design interfaces as elegant and universal as those that nature has evolved.

Image from research by Ilia Solov’yov and Klaus Schulten.

The future is a Hyperobject.

Global warming is a Hyperobject. It’s everywhere around us, but we can only see its lower dimensional effects.

See Hyperobjects by Timothy Morton. Image via Wikipedia article on the Hypercube.

The future is about secret signaling.

In an augmented reality future, how we signal to each other in secret ways will become even more important.

Image via Wikipedia article on the handkerchief code. Also see Hobo Signs.

The future is the same stuff, but rotated.

Image by Dhiru Thadani.

The future is random - as an art and design tool.

See fantastic short documentary on the artist Vera Molnar, and how she harnesses randomness in her work: "there is a thing that can replace intuition. It's randomness... it enriches the senses."

The future is short.

You don't have much time. Why not do something interesting? You probably have time for four or five 10 year projects. What are they?

Image and article by Wait But Why.

The future is layered.

It's our job to experiment wildly! We have to test the future. Then slower things can filter those tests.

Image and article by Stewart Brand.

The future is Atemporal. As William Gibson says:

"Very creative people get atemporal early on. Are relatively unimpressed by the “now” factor, by latest things. Access the whole continuum.
Less creative people believe in “originality” and “innovation”, two basically misleading but culturally very powerful concepts. #
Your bleeding-edge Now is always someone else’s past. Someone else’s ’70s bellbottoms. Grasp that and start to attain atemporality."

Image by Gonzo Bonzo.

The future is more than human.

See "Calling for a More-Than-Human Politics" by SuperFlux.

Image by SuperFlux.

The future is about making systems not designs.

See this amazing list of (digital) morphogenesis resources.

Image and article by Jason Webb.

Thanks! What questions do you have for me?

Website:
joelgethinlewis.com

Slides:
presentations/SDEPresentationTheFuture2021

Follow me:
@joelgethinlewis