Stay ConnectedThe Near Future Laboratory Podcast is conversations at the vanguard of design, technology, futures, and culture, hosted by Julian Bleecker — founder of the Near Future Laboratory.
https://nearfuturelaboratory.com
https://julianbleecker.com
Support this podcast at https://www.patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
Copyright: © Julian Bleecker
SuperSeminar 005 is our second session on Speculative Architecture and Generative AI. Here's a sneak peek with Hassan Ragab where we get some insights into how GenAI is shaping what architecture is becoming. Do you want to know more? Sign up for SuperSeminar 005 at https://www.superseminar.school/ss005/genai-architecture our platform for learning from the key individuals who are at the vanguard of the transformational potential of new practices, tools, mindsets and approaches. Save 50% on all 3 of our upcoming Generative AI sessions! https://ti.to/near-future-laboratory/super-seminar-004/with/super-seminar-bundle-max
Episode N°005, Week Ending Nov 24, 2023 Promotion of Design Fiction for AI Policy Visualization: In this Last Week from the Near Future episode, I emphasize the importance of design fiction as a tool for visualizing and materializing the potential impacts of policies like the AI Bill of Rights. I suggest that design fiction can make complex ideas more tangible and understandable for the general public. Analysis of the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: I have questions about the current form of the AI Bill of Rights. If it had vivid, illustrative content it could make its implications more relatable to everyday people. I would suggest that this document, while essential, needs to be more accessible and engaging to truly resonate with its audience. Reference to NASA’s “Space Settlements” Report as an Inspirational Model: It's worth drawing a parallel between the AI Bill of Rights and NASA's 1973 report on space settlements. The NASA report used vivid illustrations to effectively communicate complex engineering concepts to the public, suggesting a similar approach could be beneficial for the AI Bill of Rights to make it make sense and also assert an implied policy as to what the world looks and feels like, what the experience of it would be, and what the Administration imagines this world to become should it adhere to the AI Bill of Rights. Need for Engaging and Accessible Communication in Technology Policy: I try to highlight the gaps that exist between complex technological policies and public understanding. I argue for the use of more engaging mediums, like design fiction, to bridge these gaps and thereby make policies more accessible and understandable. Call for Collaborative Effort in Translating AI Policies into Tangible Artifacts: Here's the proposal: A collaborative project to translate the AI Bill of Rights into tangible artifacts like, for example, newspapers and magazines. This approach aims to create a more concrete and relatable representation of what a future shaped by AI policies might look like. Thanks for watching, enduring, supporting and subscribing! Please support this work over on Patreon: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory or pick something up in the shop! https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com Blueprint for an A.I. Bill of Rights: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/ Space Settlements: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198275204-space-settlements Ezra Klein and Alondra Nelson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFdLxDgFjkk&ab_channel=NewYorkTimesPodcasts More with Rick Guidice, the 'Space Settlements' Illustrator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7UuWRTyx9U&ab_channel=TheWorld%27sFairCo
SuperSeminar 004 is our session on practical uses for Generative AI within the enterprise.
Here's a sneak peek with Drew Wiberg where we hear that he increased efficiency and productivity 40x with Generative AI, and how he used Generative AI to create the actual tooling he needed to bring about those efficiencies.
Do you want to know more?
Sign up to learn more about SuperSeminar at https://superseminar.school
SuperSeminar is our platform for learning from the key individuals who are at the vanguard of the transformational potential of new practices, tools, mindsets and approaches.
Drew Wiberg is a master knowledge navigator, helping Arup, one of the best known design, engineering, and construction services firm with over 18,000 employees — and gigabytes of knowledge data it has to manage.
Gabby Morris has soil questions — and a tarot deck to help think through those questions.
Check out the Grounded Wisdom Tarot Deck on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gabbyamorris/grounded-wisdom-tarot-deck
https://www.gabbymorris.co.uk/
Don't forget to support the Podcast over on https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory and pick up your copy of It's Time To Imagine Harder, the book that unlocks ways to create more tangible futures: https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/design-fiction-small-box-set
Scott and Susan's new book, Future Cultures, focuses on integrating futures thinking into existing organizational contexts rather than forcing entirely new practices. They emphasize understanding and mapping current networks, language, and processes first and identifying and cultivating diverse champions at multiple levels to spread ideas. In the book, they recommend starting small with regular gatherings to share signals of change. They also provide tactics like writing future scenarios to envision desired cultures. Their framework layers in complexity to meet an organization's specific readiness.
We had a great conversation, discussing the way Future Cultures reveals a practical approach for integrating strategic futures thinking into organizations. It includes case studies and a layered framework, providing leadership with a methodical guide to adopt prospective practices tailored to their existing culture. By starting small to build demand and embedding foresight into operations, executives can complement planning with futures-oriented capacity vital for innovation and resilience.
Please remember to support the podcast over on https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory, and please share with your colleagues, write a review and rate.
This episode is a Digest from General Seminar S04E04 where we went into some Circular Economy Futures and found a bunch of stuff to help us more tangibly imagine what these futures could feel like.
https://generalseminar.com
A conversation with Gemma Jones from School of Critical Design.
Check out the Near Future Laboratory's latest drop - 'Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' - the definitive handbook for understanding the psyche, motivations, desires, fears, and existential quandaries of machine & artificially intelligent intelligences from a slightly adjacent world where AI and their embodiments are about as fearsome, frustrating, and perplexing as a television remote control. Just don't antagonize them, okay? Some of them are well-armed and more than capable of handling themselves if in a rough spot.
Suggestions for folks to come on the podcast? Send me your thoughts.
Want to say thanks? Buy me the equivalent of a coffee and bacon sandwich or just say thanks and give a follow on IG.
https://julianbleecker.com/contact
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemma-jones-93b48742/
https://critical.design
https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/androids-dream-of-electric-sheep
Last Week from the Near Future Laboratory Episode 002 The Show where we look at some highlights from, you know _ Last Week in the Near Future Laboratory Let’s Go! 1. • Daniel Schmachtenberger l An introduc... 2. https://www.futures-in-maps.com/san-t... 3. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/... 4. https://aw.network/2023 5. https://uxdesign.cc/a-smart-home-is-o... 5.5 https://lamemage.com/microscope/ 6. https://github.com/srspear/scifitropes 7. https://restofworld.org/2023/ai-image... 8. https://www.designfictiondaily.com/p/... 9. The Work Kit of Design Fiction Digital Edition Test Session https://lu.ma/8xk3dkql 10. https://daydreambelievers.co.uk/https://vimeo.com/870581365
Episode 076 is a discussion with Jan Rod and Kenta Kondo from IDEO Tokyo sharing their Project Inari in which created a sushi box as Design Fiction artifact. They collectively imagined a future that considers and reflects upon sustainable harvesting and issues of food security. It is a public project that also served to allow IDEO to explore how Design Fiction can be brought to bear to help clients make sense of their possible futures, whether food futures or any other topic.
Chesterbot 🤖 Says 👇🏽
"confidence": 0.9519705766608136
IDEO designers Jan Rod and Kenta Kondo in Tokyo created a fictional sushi box to explore food security. They made an uncanny metal box resembling disposable supermarket packaging. Inside were sushi pieces they crafted. Details like powdered condiments provoked questions about the fictional 2027 world. Through workshops, the box aligned perspectives on food systems. It activated imagination beyond abstract concepts.
"question": "What was the main purpose of this conversation?",
"answer": "The main purpose of this conversation was to discuss how design fiction and props like the fictional sushi box can help organizations explore potential future problems and spark imagination and alignment among diverse stakeholders. The guests spoke about their experience using a fictional sushi box prop in workshops to get participants to think about future challenges around food systems."
"question": How does the topic help people imagine more thoroughly the contingencies and challenges to be faced in the future?
"answer": The topic of using design fiction and props helps people imagine future challenges and contingencies more thoroughly in the following ways:
- The fictional sushi box created a tangible artifact that participants could examine and discuss. This helped ground the speculation in a concrete object.
- The highly detailed prop packaging and labels sparked participants' imaginations about how future food systems might evolve.
- The familiarity of sushi helped participants project their thinking into the future starting from something they knew.
- The prop provided a shared reference point for workshop participants from different backgrounds to discuss future implications.
"question": "What are five key take-aways from this presentation?",
"answer": "Five key take-aways from this presentation are:
1. Design fiction uses props and artifacts to help imagine future scenarios, not propose solutions.
2. Tangible props can align stakeholders by creating a shared object to spark discussion.
3. Design fiction aims to explore future problems worth solving, not just extrapolate the past.
4. Making design fiction practices mainstream involves connecting them to company innovation processes.
5. Detailed props provoke questions about future contingencies and implications."
"question": "What's a good summary of this conversation that can be used to post and share in an email?",
"answer": "The Near Future Laboratory podcast featured IDEO designers discussing how they used a fictional highly detailed sushi box prop in workshops to spark participants' imagination about future food system challenges. The prop packaging and mock sushi helped ground the speculation and align diverse stakeholders in the discussion."
"question": "What's a good summary of this conversation that can be used to as an engaging exciting way to get people excited to listen to the podcast?"
"answer": "Hear how IDEO designers created a fictional sushi box prop to take workshop participants on a imaginative deep dive into future food system contingencies and innovations!"
A new show. Last Week from the Near Future — a summary of some interesting things that came through and around the Near Future Laboratory Discord.
1. The Imagine Harder Summit (Detroit, Sept. 22/23, 2023) 2. Dave Eggers is outraged by AI on the Ingenious Podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Ngt80qNlrtDMH3j5jBf3p?si=1e27914d58544887 3. Donna Harawy & Bruno Latour (RIP) at ZKM's "Critical Zones" exhibition https://zkm.de/en/media/video/storytelling-for-earthly-survival-discussion-on-the-film-with-donna-haraway-bruno-latour-and-peter https://www.icarusfilms.com/if-donna 4. Thomas Euyang drops off Green Pages - our magazine from the future of filmed entertainment / Hollywood 5. Androids? They Dream of Electric Sheep? https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/androids-dream-of-electric-sheep 6. Evan Raskob shared a link to a podcast he was on, the Ludogogy Podcast (good luck pronouncing that into a microphone.) https://ludogogy.co.uk/evan-raskob-on-speculation/ 7. Don't forget — Office Hours is a great way to get some perspective on Design Fiction, Speculative Design, and all that kind of stuff, and learn more about what we're doing in the Discord! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tbqg4S7EDM&list=PLLeCmAPS7v1ll9SxykBfosFGju_IihvEU 8. Go pick up something in The Shop — support all the things on Patreon! Do it now! https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory 9. Ursula K. Le Guin's Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction — a reflection I had while on a walk. https://otherfutures.nl/uploads/documents/le-guin-the-carrier-bag-theory-of-fiction.pdf
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
