This Week in Design Fiction - June 9, 2023
Some sights and attractions I found during this week's time travels.
Weekend reads to feed the fire of your imagination
I hope you’re breathing easy wherever in the world you are. It’s hard to ignore the massive wildfires in my country that are blowing smoke to our neighbours to the south and across the pond to parts of Europe. Remember what Smokey Bear says, “Only you can prevent forest fires”. In the meantime, spark your imagination with some links I’ve collected from this week’s travels.
This week’s links include:
Rotten Tomatoes Meeting Reviews Google Chrome Extension
Reality is Stranger than Design Fiction
Thoughts on Two Futures: ChatGPT vs Apple Vision Pro
Inspiration for a Design Fiction Quicky
Worldbuilding is the New Brand Building
🍅 Rotten Tomatoes Meeting Reviews Google Chrome Extension
How would you feel if every meeting was critiqued by an automated system? What if it might boo or cheer you?
Check out this piece of design fiction by Chris Butler of what it might be like if you were checking out various Google Chrome extensions for meetings and one was available to do more than just auto-summarize.
☁️Reality is Stranger than Design Fiction
This week, I began utilizing air quality layers on windy.com for the first time. This data set wasn’t really something I concerned myself with much living in verdant and fresh Canada. This made me think of my past investments in blockchain-based environmental initiatives like Planet Watch, a web3 platform, which rewards participants for sharing air quality data, by hosting a personal air quality sensor. More recently, initiatives like Purple Air leveraging community sensor networks for broader real-time data dissemination. This fascinating evolution from speculative concept to mainstream application has crept into the mainstream like "wind chill factor" and "humidex".
🔮Thoughts on Two Futures
@JasonFried on Twitter:
"What an interesting moment. We're staring at two distinctly different visions of the future. They may co-exist, but they are radically different takes on what's modern, what's current, and where things are headed. One vision gets the UI out of the way. One vision gets the UI out of the way. The other vision is UI everywhere you look.”
Jason’s comparison and contrast of these two technologies is worth contemplating. While the buzz around ChatGPT has been relentless ever since its release in November, I’m already feeling like the chatter around Apple Vision Pro has already weaned in the few days since it’s been announced. One point of comparison missed in Jason’s tweet is “one is free to use, the other costs as much as a used car”.
👩🚒Inspiration for a Design Fiction Quicky
I came across this article about how State Farm, the largest car and home insurer in the U.S., has announced it will stop selling new home insurance policies in California due to wildfire risks and escalating construction costs. I’m tempted to take a quick hop into the future and snag a contract off of a photocopy machine to see what it says. I’m curious to see what the domino effect of this is on other forms of insurance.
🚀Worldbuilding is the new Brand Building
In an era inundated with content, every product and advertisement must weave an encompassing story. Unlike isolated narratives, worlds unlock limitless branding opportunities. Advertising appropriated the term "Transmedia Storytelling" two decades ago, while a decade ago, the concept of a 360° campaign dominated the jargon. Now, it seems like Worldbuilding has become the trendy new strategy, and I'd contend it's worth exploring.
The charm of Design Fiction lies in its function as a worldbuilding tool. Yet, it's less about constructing a world and more about cultivating a space for imagination. It provides viewers just enough evidence and implications to encourage them to envision and build the world they perceive (or wish to see).
This essay maps out the historical evolution of worldbuilding, spotlighting the role of trademarked intellectual property's rise in the 20th century in driving the current surge in universe expansion.
