Design Tomorrow

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Latest Episodes:

The Last Thing We Need Are Smartphones Apr 08, 2019

Show notes

When so many problems of existence remain unsolved, we haven't earned the luxury of smartphones. So this is an intervention. A challenge to the status quo of waste and distraction and triviality and short-term pile-on that is our way of life here in 2019...

Links

"Give it a second! It's going to space!"
"not just actual attention but the promise of future, fictional, vaporous attention" - Dan Hon
Flint, Michigan still doesn't have clean water
Bill Gates made a machine that turns feces into drinkable water
It’s In the Bag! Teenager Wins Science Fair, Solves Massive Environmental Problem

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

Invicta, by Blue Dot Sessions
Bloom, by r beny
Electribe 2 Meets System 1, by r beny
4-Track Cassette Drone, by r beny
Comma, by Blue Dot Sessions

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Behind Every Robot Mar 25, 2019

Show notes

What is it about robots that compels us to create them? And what does it say about a culture that makes machine surrogates despite not having reached a consensus about why to make them in the first place? In this episode, we'll explore the robots taking over our world, and the agenda behind them...

Links

hitchBOT
the definition of "robot" from Google and Wikipedia
a drumming robot
a spring-making robot
oh, the many uses of springs
Uber's first self-driven truck delivery was a beer run.
Amazon's newest ambition: competing directly with UPS and FedEx
The permanent transition
The three laws of robotics
The One Thing Real Quick Podcast
"How to Keep Yourself Sane in Faketopia"

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

Inside the Toy Submarine, by Blue Dot Sessions
Rotary Cog, by Blue Dot Sessions
Bloom, by r beny
Novation Peak Ambient II, by r beny
Her Caliber, by Blue Dot Sessions
Exquisite Motion, by Blue Dot Sessions
Rainy Day Drone, by Blue Dot Sessions
Tiny Bottles, by Blue Dot Sessions
The Dustbin, by Blue Dot Sessions

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC. You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Real Value of Ideas Mar 11, 2019

Show notes

What are our ideas worth? Are they as valuable as we think they are? And what might change about how we act on our ideas once we start thinking differently about how we value them and how unique they really are? In this episode, we'll explore how simultaneous ideas and discoveries throughout history show that ideas and minds probably work differently than we think...

Links

The Discovery of Endorphins
Who invented Electricity?
List of multiple discoveries
The Theory of Multiples
Dueling Movies are a real thing
This episode is based upon an article I wrote in 2015 called "What is an idea worth?"

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

Ultraviolet Clouds Clone, by by r beny
Bloom, by r beny
Flashing Runner, by Blue Dot Sessions
Canopy, by r beny
Passing Station, by Blue Dot Sessions
E2 Ambient X , by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to Make Good Things Feb 26, 2019

Show notes

They say that practice makes perfect. I'll settle for "practice makes good," thank you very much! In this episode of Design Tomorrow, we'll explore what it means to practice - what there is in repetition that can help us to get better. Not just at what we do, but also at who we are.

Links

My drawing professor, Alfred Decredico.
Balancing Data with Intuition, by Jon Yablonski
The Way to Make Good Things is to Make Many Things, by Chris Butler

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

Arctic Draba, by Blue Dot Sessions
But Enough About Me Bill Paxton, by Chris Zabriskie
Illumination Ritual, by r beny
Drift & Divide, by r beny
Cold Summers, by Blue Dot Sessions
Volca FM Meets PO, by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Computer World Feb 11, 2019

Show notes

There are very few people left on Earth for whom the world isn't shaped by computers or seen through their screens. But does it have to be this way? In this episode, we'll explore how screens — and the images they reveal — are just as much a manifestation of the world from which they come as they are the raw materials of a story about the next one: the future...

Links

The IBM Portable PC 5155
Blade Runner - Opening Scene
Human Progress Landscape, the not-so-good student animation I made in 2003, but for which I still retain some fondness
The machine I used to make it: the Sony VAIO Digital Studio
Jony Ive's magical voice for Apple marketing
you may have noticed some sound from the Tron Lightbike Scene
The Matrix "What is Real?" scene
keen listeners and sci-fi aficionados will have noticed sounds from the Nostromo boot sequence in Alien
you may have also noticed some sound from The Lawnmower Man's disconnecting scene
What Technology Wants, by Kevin Kelly
The last clip you heard came from WarGames - The WOPR introduction scene

Music

With the exception of a brief sample from a live performance of Kraftwerk in 1978, all music used in this episode was independently produced and shared with Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use by Able Parris of kamuter.

Stratosfear, by kamuter
Discovery, by kamuter
the robots (live), by Kraftwerk
Frequency, by kamuter
Terraform, by kamuter
Interrogation, by kamuter

Some of My Favorite Independent Media

Robin Sloan is a writer and self-styled media inventor who constantly inspires me by independently producing short stories and "odd-shaped internet projects." His latest workspace is called Year of the Meteor, where he's writing a regular newsletter and producing some interesting zine-like media. Robin and his partner Kathryn Tomajan also independently produce California extra virgin olive oil under the label: Fat Gold
Desert Oracle is a pocket-sized field guide (and radio show) to the fascinating American deserts: strange tales, singing sand dunes, sagebrush trails, artists and aliens, authors and oddballs, ghost towns and modern legends, musicians and mystics, scorpions and saguaros! Independently produced by Ken Layne.
Mysterious Universe is my favorite podcast about the weird, the strange, the paranormal, and the metaphysical independently produced for over a decade in Sydney, Australia. You can support them by listening and becoming a member of their Plus Club.
Logic Magazine is a print magazine about technology that publishes three times per year and maintains an intentionally small digital footprint.
Hurry Slowly is a podcast about how you can be more productive, creative, and resilient through the simple act of slowing down.
Aquarium Drunkard is an eclectic audio journal focused on daily reviews, interviews, features, podcasts and sessions.

Credits

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Creation of Our Genius Jan 28, 2019

Show notes

As long as we've been self-aware, we've desired companionship. And yet, we are not enough for one another; we hunger for something more - something that folklore, imaginary friends, and now technology have attempted to satisfy. Today, we stand at a crossroads beyond which is a future full of artificial lives. What kinds of minds will we create for ourselves? And what kind of future will those minds make for us?

Links

"The Measure of a Man," Season 2, Episode 9 of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Her
"Be Right Back," Season 2, Episode 1 of Black Mirror
THX 1138
The confession scene in THX 1138
"When her best friend died, she rebuilt him using artificial intelligence."
The tablets on Star Trek: The Next Generation were called PADDs
...and there were a lot of them

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

MD by r beny
But Enough About Me, Bill Paxton, by Chris Zabriskie
Cities Sleep Like Seeds by r beny
The Sea's Sullen Green by r beny
Empty Grinds by r beny
Glisten by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to Get Your Time Back Jan 14, 2019

Show notes

The more time passes, the faster it feels it's moving. It's an illusion, of course, but does that really matter? If you feel like it's moving faster, it might as well be. The shrinkiness of time is part of the human condition. But the secret you may not know is that you can slow it down. You can get your time back. Here are eight ways...

Links

"Life is Short," by Paul Graham
The boiling frog phenomenon\
My preferred notebook
Deep Work, by Cal Newport

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

Morning Colorwheel, by Blue Dot Sessions
Machination, by Blue Dot Sessions
Our Digital Compass, by Blue Dot Sessions
Basin, by r beny
Ecrins Eurorack Ambient, by r beny
Cold Summers, by Blue Dot Sessions
Full Blossom of the Evening, by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ticking Progress Bombs Jan 01, 2019

Show notes

Progress is something we all try to work toward, but how do we really know if we're making any? And if progress isn’t permanent, is it progress at all? In this episode, we'll explore progress and the ways that certain forms of it actually trap us in the past...

Links

Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress
Interview with Ronald Wright, "What is Progress"

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

Early Renaissance Music, Shakespear's Time
Western Sycamore, by r beny
Our Digital Compass, by Blue Dot Sessions
String Theory, by r beny
Traditional Polynesian Music, The Culture Society
Burl, by r beny
June 12, 2014, by r beny
Dulcinea Eurotrack Modular Ambient, by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Voice Interface Nov 20, 2018

Show notes

We're all using voice interfaces now — a thing of science fiction now very much in our reality. But it turns out that feelings — things like fear, loneliness, trust, and desire — play just as much of a role in the way these machines work than do databases and code...

Links

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

Mercurial Vision, by Blue Dot Sessions
I Can't Imagine Where I'd Be Without It, by Chris Zabriskie
Cascade Symmetry, by r beny
Auroral, by r beny
Sidrax Organ Black Fountain, by r beny
Elatan, by Gustav Landin

Credits

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co. Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Power of Perspective Nov 01, 2018

Show notes

In a world as crowded with technological tools for measuring our progress as ours is, sometimes the best way to see how far we've come is, literally, in our own hands and on our own faces. In this episode, we'll discuss a simple exercise you can do to test your perspective and how well it accounts for other people, not just you.

Links

A 30-second test to determine whether your boss is a gem or a jerk

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

The Terrarium, by Blue Dot Sessions
Mercurial Vision, by Blue Dot Sessions
Novation Peak Ambient, by r beny
The Fossils of Intention, by r beny
Paper House, by r beny

Credits

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

After-Credits Links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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