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Designing for the Next Billion Seconds

understanding the scale of a billion seconds can help us reveal the interrelationships between time, money, power and energy

from the Everything Manifesto

We spent this first week of the term with Andres, the founder of IAM Creative Research Lab. We were invited to think about what futures do we want one billion seconds from now. I admit that I have often felt pretty overwhelmed and sad when I think about the future sometimes. I know I am not alone in this as myself, my peers and younger generations feel like we have inherited a huge mess of "wicked problems to solve". I am starting to wonder if the wild west problem solving-ism approach is not really serving us in dealing with all of this.

To me the future is uncertain - scary - hopeful - pessimistic - optimistic -- the future is everything.

💡 "The Future" does not exist. Futures are plural. There are many futures. Futures as tools. Futures to be invented.


A few other thoughts to highlight from this week.

  • We can't be neutral against something like racism and hate.
  • People aren't evil but their actions can be evil.
  • Resist "us versus them" and "othering" at all costs.
  • User centered design can lead to selfish individualism.
  • Degrowth vs green growth. Economies can be slowed by design or they will be slowed by disaster.

A Day in my Life, 1 Billion Seconds from Now

We started out by reading the Everything Manifesto and then imagining a day in our post-technological life.

A day in my post-technological life by agjarv

A Critical Hope

Reflection

References

Everything Manifesto

Extinction Rebellion


Last update: June 20, 2023
Created: June 20, 2023