This article, Bruce Sterling on Design Fictions (this week’s reading) was very interesting to me. I read it literally two hours after having an interesting discussion with a friend over coffee regarding the development of technology. We pondered how in the 2000’s when each “new” equipment came out; Motorola flip phones, Limewire, portable laptops, USB’s, iPods etc., people were so blown away by how futuristic and life-changing they would be, however soon enough all those technologies became completely redundant with faster, smaller, thinner and better technology.
By this natural progression of technological advancement, does this mean that one day the iPhone will be redundant? A macbook air? Utorrent? Will there be a time where people look back on it as nostalgically and fondly as I do to the first iPod, floppy disks, myspace and Gameboy advance? It spooks and baffles me, however it does make me excited to see what the future will hold; how we could possibly improve from the iPhone!! This course has really made me start thinking about how much we take our incredible communication technologies for granted. They didn’t just appear out of nowhere, they’re intricately and cleverly designed wonders of technology created by absolute geniuses (or magic). However our culture has adapted around them so dependently that they’re no longer technological marvels but just parts of everyday life that we can’t live without.
This article was really interesting because it made me think further into this concept but with more of a logical understanding; that there are people who dedicate their time to Design Fiction; the process of imagining, designing and pseudo-creating (i.e. showing through a video) brand new technology. Each bit of design technology is like a look into the possibilities of the future, “giving futurism a second wave” particularly in the minds of cynics like me who think we’ve officially beaten technology with the iPhone and there’s no possible improvements to it.
This article was great because it included videos that demonstrated the concept clearly; the Glass Technology video was incredible and honestly I could see something like that happening in the near future. It’s linked to the iPhone technology of on-the-go easy access to information and communication through screens, but went above and beyond a tiny screen on your iPhone to showing how this idea could spread to every glass surface whether it be a tabletop or a mirror. It totally blew my mind.
Design Fiction is honestly something I will look into deeper, as it really interested me to see where creative minds envision the future being in a few years time (even film and TV makers when they use “futuristic” technology in their works). This article has really made me start thinking about the future and what amazing inventions I use in my everyday life that were once just a bizarre sci-fi dream in someone’s head.