Connecting with a not-so-distant future

ASU exhibit, “Mission Future: Arizona 2045,” sees Arizona through the eyes of a younger generation, all grown up

Adult siblings Lucas and Isabela debate innovation against tradition as they run their family farm. Twin teens Zoe and Ava ponder whether they will live on Earth or shift their career aspirations off-planet.

These stories are the core of “Mission Future: Arizona 2045,” a new exhibition at the Arizona Science Center. The interactive experience, developed by Arizona State University’s Center for Innovation in Informal STEM Learning in partnership with NASA, opened early this year and combines space and earth science, storytelling, and hands-on elements.

“‘Mission Future: Arizona 2045’ allows guests to see ourselves in our potential collective future as Arizonans,” said Sari Custer, chief of science and curiosity at the Arizona Science Center.

“We’re thrilled to be able to partner with ASU, the National Informal STEM Education Network and NASA to bring this exhibit to life and help participants think about the impact their everyday actions have on our immediate ecosystem.”

By following the perspectives of Lucas, Isabela, Zoe and Ava via video recordings, audiences of all ages are prompted to think about a future driven by human actions both on and off Earth.

“We’re seeing the future through the eyes of generations that will inherit the planet from us,” said Paul Martin, a research professional in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and co-director of the Center for Innovation in Informal STEM Learning, or CIISL, which is based within the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. “‘Mission Future’ takes us to the future, but it’s close enough to the present that it’s still real. The person telling you their story could be your child or grandchild.”

Visitors are guided through the experience by a fifth fictional character: AILI. AILI is an Artificial Intelligence Learning Investigator who, in this fictionalized future, studies how humans interact with systems to create desirable future outcomes. AILI tells exhibition visitors that they are not a real person, but they are still alive — “don’t overthink it.”

AILI was created for this exhibition through a combination of AI and human efforts: their voice and general design were both created by AI, which serves as an example of how quickly technologies can advance.

“We were excited to actually have AI be involved in the exhibit,” said Rae Ostman, a research professor in the School for the Future of Innovation and Society and co-director of CIISL. “The exhibit focuses mostly on climate change and earth and space exploration, but including AILI was a way to weave in the idea that a lot of things will be different in our future, including how we’re interacting with AI.”

The creation of AILI was largely led by Nicholas Pilarski, an associate professor in The Sidney Poitier New American Film School and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering. Pilarski and his team used Unreal Engine, a 3D computer graphics game engine, to design the videos shown in the exhibition. These videos were created using a blend of AI and human elements. For example, an actor modeled AILI’s movements, but AILI’s voice was created using AI.

“We thought about the AI pipelines we designed like a partner, or a tool, in the design process that allowed us to quickly prototype and come up with ideas,” Pilarski said. “I think we had a lot of fun, just thinking about it as a rough draft that then we can build on.”

Using AI to generate the videos showcased both the technology’s abilities and limitations. Zoe’s storyline in the exhibition takes place on a space station in low Earth orbit. In an early version of the AI-generated backgrounds, the program included a staircase, which would be unnecessary in a microgravity environment. This element had to be corrected by Pilarski and his design team.

It was important in the world-building of the exhibition to find a balance of present and future technologies. Martin, Pilarski and Ostman researched up-and-coming technologies that they believed could feasibly become widespread in the next 20 years. They have seen some of their predictions come to fruition even in the months that followed the opening of “Mission Future.”

Right around the same time that the exhibition opened, the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT skyrocketed in popularity. Conversations about AI’s role in society boomed — meanwhile at the Arizona Science Center, the fictionalized AI program AILI was guiding exhibition visitors through the experience. Characters in the exhibition are shown working on daily tasks with digital hologram screens. In June, Apple announced its Vision Pro, the company’s “first spatial computer.”

Twenty years can feel both like tomorrow and an eternity away, especially when it comes to developing technologies, and Ostman said the tools on display were created from the seeds of today’s advancements. Ostman said it was important to find a balance between unexpected changes and present-day familiarities, both for realism of the experience and to support the exhibition’s self-guided nature.

“The exhibition is an immersive space where you can do activities without being given a list of instructions or explanations,” she said. “You gather information from the context around the activities, so it really puts you in the world.”

The exhibition also suggests that even though people may have differing ideas about what the future should be like, all perspectives are important. Characters Lucas and Isabela disagree deeply on what should happen with their family ranch, but as siblings, they love each other, they cooperate, and they are a team despite their differences in opinion.

“The first step for any change is empathy across the way that people solve,” Pilarski said. “We are all different, and we all have different ‘mental models.’ I think that’s actually a strength of humanity as we tackle problems in the future. Our characters have different opinions and different ways of thinking, but at the end of the day, they care about each other.”

Ostman and Martin, both senior global futures scientists with ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, agree that the future shown in “Mission Future: Arizona 2045” is just one possibility.

“What will the future be like?” AILI asks exhibition visitors. “That’s for us to decide.”

Visit "Mission Future: Arizona 2045" at the Arizona Science Center.

600 E Washington St. Phoenix, AZ 85004

Open Daily 10:30a.m. – 4:00p.m.