two visions of the future

04 Mar, 2009 • posts i've written • 1 comment

The first, from Microsoft.

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

The future is certainly all about user interfaces, no? Microsoft sees touchscreens everywhere and Bruce sees a world that is, in essence, its own user interface. This must be an expression of our current state of technology and culture.

Think about the 50′s. Society was enraptured in thinking about the future of transportation, everything was a jet pack, rocket car, etc (even our regular cars had space-age fins). As a culture, we seem to be less focused on physical travel, moving from point A to point B, and much more obsessed with the movement of bits and bytes and our place in that world. This is a bit frightening to me in some ways. Our exploration of outer space (the place and the thing) seems to have been replaced by a fascination with inner space.

What do you think? Seriously, I want to know.

futurecast: a social graph enabled superorganism

16 Dec, 2008 • posts i've written • No comments

Nanotechnology + semantically enabled devices + a giant global graph of connections between humans and data could one day create the ultimate superorganism houseplant or pet.

Imagine an organism that grows in relation to the strength and abundance of one’s social graph. Picture it on your desk and think of it as the new pet rock of 2045. Gain a few friends on future facebook and the organism grows. Now picture the same product on desks all over the world and consider the consequence of their inter-communication and co-dependence. Healthy growth from one spurs growth among them all. Suddenly you have a superorganism that is a living manifestation of the giant global graph.

It’s a chia-pet on crack.

I’d love to build this as many art pieces connected to many individual’s Facebook social graph.