Products, services, and systems are interventions that are designed to create what psychologist Herbert A. Simon called “preferred futures.” Any time you use Anthropic’s Claude, a broom, or attend an art history class, you are using these designs with the hope that they will change your future. Even more importantly, none of these designs work in isolation—they are interconnected. Using Claude to brainstorm ideas about repairing a record player uses energy resources, informs your understanding of record players, and reduces your need for a repair shop. And those are just a few consequences of Claude use.
My Futures Thinking research intertwines concepts from futures studies with design research and co-creation methods to decode how products, services, and systems facilitate peoples’ future conditions. The forefront of futures thinking today involves AI technologies. These tools are evolving so quickly and being implemented seemingly everywhere that the intended and unintended consequences they produce expand at exponential rates.
