Foreword Researching a topic is like picking up the scent of something that already exists around you. When I decided to write on ‘Images of the future through innovation and design’, I wondered how and where I could even start looking for such a vast subject. Then I just opened my eyes and looked around me. I found fossils, clues and relics from thousands of years of creativity, and technological evolution left behind for us. All I had to do is put all the pieces together.
Background and Contents The Museum für Gegenwart (Museum for the present) houses one of the largest and most significant public collections of contemporary art in the world* (official museum website: smb.museum) The first exhibit titled ‘The End of the 20th Century - The best is yet to come - A Dialogue with the Marx Collection" has been curated around four famous quotes about the future 1. “The future isn’t what it used to be.” – Karl Valentin 2. “The future belongs to crowds” – Don Delillo 3. “The eternal return of the same” – Friedrich Nietzsche 4. “Each epoch dreams the one to follow” – Jules Michelet Just like the contemporary art pieces in this exhibit, I too would like to organize my research and thoughts using these four thought provoking quotes as framework.
“The future isn’t what it used to be.” Karl Valentin In this chapter, using personal and scientific examples, I would like to study the human capacity to adapt to new innovations. Reflecting on Valentin’s quote, I also research what the past thought the future would be. Neuroplasticity (Ba photo) My grandmother (picture 01) grew up a tiny Indian village, with no electricity. She travelled to the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) after marriage where she was introduced to the gramophone, radio and the telephone. She would have to book a call, days ahead, to talk to her son in America, briefly, on a barely audible connection. Today Ba lives in America, cooks in the microwave, uses the dishwasher, watches 5 Indian soaps on Internet television, Skypes regularly and has her own cell phone. How is a person who did not know what a light switch was able to comprehend, let alone, use the Internet - all in one lifetime? ‘Plasticity of the brain’ is what researchers say: ‘The human brain is almost infinitely malleable,’ says Nicholas Carr in ‘What the internet is doing to our brains’. (Carr, 2008) The brain does not become rigid or static when we reach adulthood, as was formerly believed. Instead, it is ever changing, evolving and hence learning throughout our lifetime. Adaptation – a survival mechanism helps us comprehend new ideas and inventions. James Olds, (neuroscience professor and director at Kransow Institute of Advanced study at George Mason University) tells us that ‘the brain
has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly altering the way it functions.’ (Carr, 2008) In the past, neuroplasticity has caused the neocortex of the brain to expand, which has led us to develop language and rational thinking. ‘Just think of the qualitative leaps, that we can’t even imagine today, when we expand our neocortex again.’ says Google futurist, Ray Kurzweil (Immortality by 2045, Youtube), ‘We will be thinking grander, deeper more hierarchical thoughts than before and creating whole new institutions like art and science’ What people thought the future would be. ‘Futurists’ throughout the ages - writers, thinkers, cartoonists, artists, philosophers, scientists, designers have all tried to prophesize where mankind is heading. In retrospect, it is humorous to read false predictions. Claims by established newspapers and scientific journals which are now bogus, make for fun Internet articles and Google searching ‘what the past thought the future looked like’, generates ‘about 306,000,000 results’. (see images) Then there are some who have quite accurately predicted our present – sci-fi author and professor of biochemistry, Isaac Asimov’s 1964 New York Times article, Visit to the World Fair of 2014. (see fig ) He predicts, in 2014 the existence of the semiprepared food industry, the fact that only an unmanned ship would have landed on Mars and that boredom would be one of the biggest psychological problems of the time. The idea of ‘big brother’ foreseen by George Orwell (Nineteen Eighty-Four) can be compared to what Google, Facebook and government secret services are today. Even the concept of
voyeuristic reality TV shows today, were portrayed in movies like Real Life (Albert Brooks, 1979), The Running Man (Paul Michael Glaser, 1987) and The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998) Accurate or not, the most important purpose of these futurologists seems to be to give fodder for the next generation to create their ‘today’ in accordance to these forefathers’ dreams. And that, in essence, seems to be the connection between scientists and comic books. As portrayed in the popular sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, ‘geeks’ are not just the scientists who research and develop innovations, but also the comic artists, writers and comic bookstore owners who generate the creative juices that fuel these researches. The popularity of television and the end of wars in the west, saw a rise in science fiction shows and cartoon series like Star Trek (Gene Roddenberry, 1966), Centurions (Ruby Spears, 1986), The Jetsons (Hana Barbera, 1962). They projected unto our minds the ideas of the future we live in today. And so, we live in a world of Printed food (Fab@Home), Visor (Google Glass), Universal Translators (TalirApps), Tablet Computers, Cell phones and Videotelephony (FaceTime, Google Hangout, Skype). It’s interesting to see the predictions about technology, research, food, popular culture, architecture, governance and media – all ultimately about predicting human behavior.
“The future belongs to crowds” – Don DeLillo In this chapter, Id like to examine Don Dallilios quote and investigate its true meaning & relevance today. I study the democratization of opportunities brought about by the Internet due to fall of gatekeepers. I conclude by wondering if the future will have only creators and no consumers. For centuries, the idea of Utopia has been a place of abundance - this perfect world where everything is plentiful and beautiful. Be it the Garden of Eden (Genesis, Ch. 2 and 3) or the idea of Paradise (Luke 23:43), the ideas of socialism or democracy, it was all about free-ing society from limitations and being able to get the maximum output out of life and lessen suffering. We prayed, voted, hoped and dreamed, until science saved us. The Internet seems to hold that promise of abundance. It has truly opened up the world to the masses. As Andy Warhol had famously predicted, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” (Sweden, 1968) Knowledge, a source of power, safeguarded by the elite few in the past, is now open to everyone without gatekeepers and filters, hence making the Internet an ultimate ‘library’. However also, as the Internet evolves, it becomes the greatest ‘stage’ there is, to display all your talents, ideas and thoughts. Alexis Ohanian, (co-founder of Reddit, Hipmunk and other Internet start-ups), a direct product of this phenomenon, says in a talk at the 99u conference ‘Traditionally there were gatekeepers, traditionally there were people who decided what succeeded and what didn't and slowly but surely that is transitioning to a time of great power for the people
who are actually the makers, who are actually the doers’ (Ohanian, 99u conference, 2014) Today, there are millions, dreaming up start up companies, films, novels, scientific projects or just personal blogs on food, fashion, or utter irreverence like hypothetical text messages from your dog (textfromdog.tumblr.com). Kickstarter.com, a crowd-funding website is both a propeller and a product of this trend. The website lets people pitch their ideas to the entire global community, and if the idea is powerful according to masses, each user will contribute to fund your dream project. Sounds like a philosophical idea from The Alchemist (Paulo Coehlo,1988), but it is a reality now. ‘On March 3, 2014, Kickstarter passed $1 BILLION in pledges. That’s $1,000,000,000 pledged by 5.7 million people to creative projects.’ (kickstarter.com/1billion) There are growing stories of ordinary people, finding extraordinary opportunities on the Internet, and hence transforming their lives (see figure) Ohanian concludes: ‘…we don't actually know where all this is going. In a lot of cases, it is on us to determine where this heads. Does this Internet head to a more open place with more ideas and services, where more people get to come online and we get to benefit from their genius, talent and hard work? I hope so.’ (Ohanian, 99u conference, 2014 Will the future hold billions of micro religions, ideologies and cults? Will everyone be a celebrity, guru or a God? If everyone is going to preach, who is going to listen? We will only have to wait and watch.
“The eternal return of the same” – Friedrich Nietzsche In spite of the countless inventions and innovations, one cannot help but wonder, are we creating the same things over and over again? Why have certain things never changed? - like a spoon or a chair. We have been scooping our food with the same shaped device and resting on similar objects since centuries. This chapter attempts to reflect on this occurance and ponder possible answers. Industries, like fashion and furniture design seem to be constantly inspired by nostalgia of the past. We keep seeing objects inspired by modern, vintage and sometimes even ancient designs in new collections. The radical designs, which have an alienesque quality (eg. Zaha Hadid Architects) don't always receive mass public acceptance and seem to remain artistic or scientific R&D experiments and expressions. It is understandable that our needs and the human anatomy haven’t changed, yet, can’t there be alternate design solutions to the same problem? Three reasons could be suggested for this repetition of trends 1. Fear of the new 2. Gatekeepers 3. Medium being the message Fear of the new As Socrates feared that writing would make us forgetful, today it is claimed that the internet is making us, ‘skimmers’,
‘bouncers’ (‘Is Google making us stupid?’ Carr, 2008) and an ‘ADD generation’ (Charles Ngo, How to focus in the ADD Generation) Partly true, one can argue the characteristics of skimmers and forgetters don't change; they just get a new platform. "We used to evolve every 30 years, now we evolve every 10 minutes. Evolution hasn't changed, but how fast we do it." (Aron Dignan, twitter: @arondignan) This hesitation can also be attributed to the familiarity and confidence we feel towards something that has ‘worked’ for us in the past, and a fear that a new ‘something’ may not serve us as well. Gatekeepers Our parents, teachers, bosses, traditions, norms, etiquettes, manners, media, gurus, leaders, politicians –almost everyone around us, this invisible social fabric acts as gatekeepers to what is ‘right’ and socially acceptable. All human innovations help hold up this social fabric. How would we ‘eat with a fork and knife’ or ‘dress appropriately’ if the notions of fork, spoon and dress were completely different? The television the first window to the world opened up people to other realities and made normalized new ideas. The Internet is doing the same, exponentially - as idea consumers become idea generators themselves. Medium is the massage Marshall McLuhan’s famous book (‘Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, McLuhan, 1964) talks about how the container of one medium is another medium.
Applying the idea to inventions eg 1 The wheel is contained in a clock, a steam engine, a factory machine... eg 2 The electricity is contained in light bulbs, telephones, satellites‌ and so on. And this temptation to invent things linearly rather than laterally, leads us to discover fewer radically new things. Rather, we prefer to further develop a previous thought. Its feels like we are trying to exploit and exhaust the potential of one discovery before we move on to a new idea. But are we getting stuck, inventing the same things with slight variations and different names in the name of innovation? (example: Spork –fork + spoon)
“Each epoch dreams the one to follow” – Jules Michelet This chapter attempts to reflect upon the idea of ‘futurism’ and peek into what the coming future holds for us according to today’s futurists. The article, ‘The Future of Futurism: A view from the garden, looking to the stars’ (Wurgaft, Boom, Vol. 3:4, pp. 35-45) claims that contemporary futurist practices can be traced back to think tanks and consultancies developed during WWII. They would cross reference predictions and “convergence of opinion” translated into “accuracy of prediction” Perhaps that’s why the past images of the future looks less like our actual, practical present and more like a stylistic moodboard of metal, glass and plastics. (see figure) A Reddit discussion titled, ‘Retro futurism: For the fantastic, dreams of our past’ comments, “Dreams of the future reveal more about the mind of the dreamer than the future itself” (moderators: darkmuck and MyNameIsRobPaulson) As the human mind continues to evolve, so do the horizons of its imagination and dreams, and hence, the future, is constantly evolving. (see video and caption)
Conclusion Reflecting on texts by Arthur Schopenhauer (On the Vanity of Existence, 1851) and Mark Fisher (Ghosts of my Life, 2014), I cannot help but conclude that the future is just an illusion, a perception of linear development. It is unattainable since we are constantly in the present and it leads us like our shadow cast before us. All we have is past experiences and memories, which haunt and influence us. Can we ever, then, dream a radical new future, completely devoid of our past?