Summary
Want to learn how to make the future you see in your mind come to life? Cut through red tape, flip limitations on their head and inspire meaningful progress in both the short and long-term by creating artifacts from the future. Artifacts from the future are designed objects or creative representations of everyday life at a different point in time, meant to persuade or challenge, develop champions and align resources. Learn how to create and share your own “preferred futures” as well as cautionary ones through artifact design with a civic design strategist, experiential designer and certified futurist.
Key Insights
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The narrative structure can shape perceptions and assumptions about technology.
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Artifacts of the future can help visualize and prototype changes before they are implemented.
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Students are already using AI for writing tasks, raising questions about academic integrity.
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Engaging narratives can challenge biases and assumptions about emerging technologies.
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Prototyping future solutions can garner buy-in from stakeholders before actual development.
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Time horizons for considering future changes in technology may need to be compressed.
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Language alone may fail to capture complex future scenarios; visuals can enhance understanding.
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Cities can become central to discussions about technology's impact on community and work.
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Artifacts of the future can represent both desirable and undesirable scenarios to facilitate discussion.
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A focus on people's experiences is essential when considering technology's role in society.
Notable Quotes
"Good morning. I'd like to start off by sharing a story with you guys this morning."
"What if I told you that Evan actually spent less than 15 minutes on the essay?"
"What if I placed the story in 2040?"
"We want to create a prototype that captures the essence and ideal experience or a glimpse of what could be."
"What we want to explore now is how do we start to create artifacts of the future?"
"We're aiming to get to a yes more quickly in the near term."
"I urge you to consider life before place and consider place before technology."
"The speed of change in technology and citizen expectations are drastically different these days than they were 20 years ago."
"This is what I came up with: a simple text message thread between a parent and this service."
"We should be good design-minded practitioners as well in simultaneously thinking about where we can start."
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