Category: Blogs, stories, & process notes

Today, May 26, 2050, is the tenth anniversary of the creation of my app. It is incredible how quickly time has passed. It all started just 10 years ago during a conversation with my friends. We were only 30 years old then, and we were talking about how we were approaching the age our parents…

In today’s fast-paced world, it often feels like we’re constantly juggling a lot of tasks, each demanding our attention like balls in the air. Through the years we can see a shift from handling just a few big tasks during the day to trying to uphold a lot of small tasks that all require our…

The vision of many designers is to develop products that make life more convenient. Technology makes everything easier in life. In the household, its main goal is efficiency considering effort and time. Women used to stay home to do house chores, but because of vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and dishwashers, this is not necessary anymore.…

Today, the 20th of May, 2060, is the first day of my new healthy living plan, designed through cutting-edge automation and personalized technology to optimize my well-being. I realized that my full-time job including travelling, co-parenting and social activities decreased my motivation for keeping an active lifestyle and led to unhealthy habits such as continuously ordering online or asking Alexa for non-nutritious meals. I gained extreme weight, worked…

20 May 2050, Fleur Vierhout The Hague, Netherlands – The Netherlands continues to grapple with the devastating aftermath of an unprecedented energy crisis that struck six months ago. As a result of widespread overuse of automated household systems, the nation’s energy infrastructure suffered a catastrophic collapse, leading to stringent energy rationing across neighborhoods. In this critical…

Predicting the future often comes from recognizing early trends. I want to discuss one such trend, one I am dangerously deep into. It feels like my generation is that frog in slowly heating water, already at 75 degrees without realizing it. This article discusses addiction to stimuli and the resulting information overload. I share my…

A newspaper article from 2038 According to the policy decided at the World Climate Conference in 2027, there should be a significant decrease in flights across the world. The plan consists of a worldwide cycling network across the whole planet. A new institution was consolidated; the World Cycling Foundation. This would be able to facilitate…

April 2018. As I open the bottom drawer of my clothing closet, I pick up a pair of  ®Teva’s | An immediate gentle waft of pleasantly warm, yet fresh air brushes against my face as the windows of our beloved family vehicle glide down. The melodic strains of Madonna’s “Die Another Day” reverberate through an…

It has been several months since I’ve started my investigations into PureBloom Innovations. As a brief recap, last week we talked to Jack Duncan, former member of the Product Preservation Alliance (PPA), who revealed political ties between PureBloom and the Nostalgia Renewal Front in the weeks leading up to the scandal. This week, we’ve secured…

Credits: Thanks to:– Hanny Pijnenborg– Tjerk van Lieshout– Rob van Lieshoutfor acting for the video. All material not mentioned below is recorded by myself.Video footage:– Office AI. (2020, September 16). Infinite Office. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_bVkbG1ZCo– Birthday candles. (2014, November 23). Birthday candles blowing out, slow motion stock footage. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMbQfumV_3M– Birthday video message. (2022, October 28).…

After a hearty family dinner at my grandparents’ house, I found myself in the attic. Surrounded by the scent of old wood and used electronics, a sense of nostalgia washes over me. As a child I had always loved exploring up here, where once used artefacts are laid to rest, now only for the purpose…

Consumerism and the Growing Class Division  In 1848, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels stated how society is increasingly splitting into two greater classes facing each other: bourgeoisie and proletariat (Marx & Engels, 1847). These groups, also referred to as the oppressor and the oppressed, have endured throughout history, under different names such as monarch and…

It is six in the morning, I hate standing up early, but I need to help my parents move. We need to finish packing most of their things before 11:30, otherwise it will be too hot and we will violate the governments midday break policy. For this morning the plan is to go through the…

INTRODUCTION With the current development and widespread use of artificial intelligence, Automated Decision-Making (ADM) systems have become an integral part of household life. The potential of AI to take over household tasks is stronger than ever. However, the proliferation of these systems has also brought widespread concerns regarding privacy and data security. In the homes…

My name is Kenny Lancher, you might not know me now but in the future, I am responsible for the environmental destruction of the planet to serve the economic growth of Tropos. Tropos is a company that sells personal clouds to consumers around the world. Now you might ask how is this even possible so…

June 28,2050  Sunny Many years ago, when I traveled to New York City, I had a feeling that the concept of the unmanned economy would sweep across various service industries. At that time, I found Amazon Go to be quite novel. The seamless experience of entering the store, grabbing what you need, and leaving without…

Time travel has long been a common theme in science fiction and mythology. Putting any point of view and any social form in the coordinate system of time reveals a fluidity in all seemingly stable concepts. I am very interested in the impact of the concept of time on the evolution of society, so I…

The fascination with a future materializing When I was in middle school, I’d say from 13 to 16 years old so around 2012, I was very intrigued by Apple. By that I don’t mean current day Apple, but Apple back when it was called Apple Computer Inc.. I think I’ve seen every Apple advertisement from…

Designer Role in Imaginaries of futures The concept of envisioning futures serves as a means through which individuals can construct alternative possibilities by bridging the past, present, and future. (“Special relativity theory expands the Futures Cone’s conceptualisation of the futures and The Pasts,” 2023, Fig 1) While the overarching objective is to embrace the potential…

What will our future look like? Depending on who we ask, we will get vastly different answers. A tech-enthusiast might tell us about a future in which we have loads of free time thanks to robots and AI doing all our work. A climate activist would most likely warn us of unbearable heatwaves, floods and famines. While…

The original and ideal humans-AI relationship When you open your eyes in the morning, the sunlight sprinkles on your body and you feel incredibly comfortable. You get dressed and go to the dining room, the robot butler has already prepared breakfast and is just waiting for the whole family to sit down and enjoy it…

The Automated Home Wow, the future! Imagine how smart technology will be. When you get back from work on a cold winter evening your house will automatically be pre-heated and a nice cup of hot tea is prepared for you standing on the side table next to your couch. Your dog was already laying on…

We humans have a fascination with the concept of time, though -or perhaps because- we do not fully understand the nature of time. Is it continuous, constant, unchangeable and irreversible? Is it relative? Or is it an illusion? While there are many definitions and different ways of interpreting what we mean with ‘time’, a commonly…

As I step ashore, I feel the gentle breeze touching upon my face. A fresh delight in this weather, allegedly ‘remarkably hot’ for this time of the year, once again. The year is 2054, my coastal hometown, once 100 kilometers away from the nearest sea, is a bittersweet reminder of how things could have been.…

A Powerless Future On a quiet morning in 02038, you wake up and check your phone as always, the battery is quite low. You consequently attempt to charge it, but to no avail. After double checking the settings you realise the lights can’t turn on, and the air conditioning has failed. Another power outage, how…

Have you heard from time travelling designers? Neither did I. Designers are often thinking about the future and the impact they can have on it. However, it can be hard to think of the future for people who do not regularly engage with the future. Time travel always sounds like a science fiction story, but…

“The true measure of progress is not in the absence of work, but in the empowerment of individuals to find meaningful and fulfilling paths amidst automation and innovation.” – Greta Thunberg, Eindhoven 02038 Recruitment Letter My name is Ioana, and I am a talent acquisition manager for the biggest design firm in 02038. I write…

written by: Leqi Wang MAY 28TH 2023 Imagine a scenario where helping each other is no longer considered a virtue because future technology can address 99% of your life’s problems. In 2038, when you unexpectedly get injured, your instinctual first choice would be an automated bandaging medical kit. When your phone is running out of…

A FICTIONAL REALITY: Oxymoron Illustration by Brett Ryder Article, design fiction & imaginary futures written by Jennifer Gasser, mentions that author William Gibson, in a 2012 interview, dismissed the idea that his writing should be predictive: “You’re not creating enough imaginary futures. Because if you create enough of them, you’d better get it wrong —…

Written by Hanna van Rixtel27/05/2023 May 2011. My little brother and I are having a sleepover with my grandparents, in their lovely big house in a small village. It is a warm spring evening, so we have dinner outside in the garden. Grandpa, as always when we visit, is frying chips in the shed. A…

The internet holds a lot of ideas about the future and no extensive research is necessary to find them: YouTube provides us with the morning routines of 2050 (Kirsten Leo, 2019) and Pinterest teaches us that change is the only constant. Focusing on healthy morning routines, I was curious to see what YouTube vloggers think…

How would you react if I told you that I have time travelled from the year 02038 to now (02023) with the goal to warn you against a time travelling company that tries to convince people to work for them to increase unsustainable behaviour? You would probably think that I am joking or acting. That…