Portals to the future, to information, and to each other
This week’s six signals center on doorways, both literal and metaphorical. We look forward, exploring how the current moment might be a threshold for much needed change, in everything from design practice to economic structure. And we examine the creativity of the present, where our distance from one another is inspiring people to create new kinds of interfaces for human connection.
— Alexis & Matt
1: The unintended consequences of user-centered design
Our first read this week is one of our own; Alexis’s recent essay on “Designing for systems, not users”. One of the effects of the current global moment is that it has made it clear that society is bound together by interdependent, interconnected systems. Yet user-centered design — the dominant approach to creating software and product experiences — focuses on the user in isolation, ignoring that connective tissue as well as the experience and influence of other actors in the system. “It posits the consumer at the center, catering to their needs and privileging their purchasing power. And it obscures the labor and systems that are necessary to create that ‘delightful user experience’ for them.” The essay discusses methods that can better engage with whole, interdependent systems, and proposes changes to design practice that can create better, more ethical outcomes for society.
The unintended consequences of user-centered design.
2: Imagining what comes next
As we all make our way through the challenges and horrors that make up the current situation, it seems as though the conversation about what the After Times look like vacillate between a desire to return to normalcy and a desire for this to be a catalyst for positive change. This pandemic has starkly revealed so much underlying brokenness, in everything from our healthcare systems to income inequality and drastic imbalances of privilege.
We’ve read a couple of pieces recently that speak to the possibility of change inherent in a disaster of this scale. Ted Chiang gives a thoughtful interview in Electric Lit in which he speaks to the current moment from the perspective of science fiction writing. He describes the distinction between conservative sci-fi (a disaster threatens order, the threat is vanquished, and order returns) and progressive sci-fi (a disaster disrupts the status quo, it’s resolved, but nothing is the same). We’re all wondering what kind of story this will turn out to be.
In a related essay in the FT, Arundhati Roy writes about this pandemic as a “portal” for change:
“We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
Ted Chiang Explains the Disaster Novel We All Suddenly Live In
The esteemed science fiction author on how we may never go “back to normal"—and why that might be a good thing
electricliterature.com • Share
3: The Uncensored Library
Reporters Without Borders has built a refuge for the work of censored journalists in an unlikely place. The Uncensored Library is a building that exists in Minecraft, and it was created to house the works of censored journalists from Russia, Mexico, Egypt, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia. While more common communication channels, like news websites, blogs, and social platforms, are heavily controlled in these countries, Minecraft is still open and accessible because it is not perceived as a publishing platform. The Uncensored Library takes advantage of this loophole, using a virtual building as a space where visitors can browse and read virtual books containing the banned articles.
This Minecraft Library Provides a Platform for Censored Journalists
Perhaps now is more important than ever to fight against government censorship—and one of the ways to do that is with Minecraft.
4: The language of a failed healthcare system
Get Well Soon! is a poignant digital archive project that collects and categorizes the comments left on GoFundMe medical fundraisers. The comments are organized by their phrasing, revealing the common language of illness, of care, and of struggle. “These messages express care, well wishes, sympathy and generosity in the face of personal adversity and systemic failure. This is an archive of mutual aid in response to a ruthless for-profit health system. It is an archive that should not exist.”
The comments posted on gofundme.com’s medical fundraisers form a revealing archive.
5: Xenobots and miniature organs
The blurry line between cells and bits has come up a couple of times in the last few weeks, and we are geeking out anew over these two new developments.
First, scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have developed a way to test drugs on human organs that doesn’t require any humans involved. Researchers built a series of organoids that mimicked the behavior of their much larger counterparts. These tiny organs were then connected through a series of micro- and pico-fluidic channels, simulating the flow of oxygen and other nutrients throughout the body, and embedded on a computer chip so that changes in organ behavior could be closely monitored. Researchers used these organs-on-a-chip to test drugs that had been previously recalled, successfully recreating the side effects that caused the recalls. This new capability could result in medications that are both safer and less costly, potentially eliminating the risk of human testing.
Second, The New York Times has a beautifully-illustrated story on the development of “xenobots”: mechanical machines built from the cells of frogs. These simple machines can perform tasks like cleaning particles out of a petri dish, pairing up with each other, and swimming or walking. They’re developed by a scientist-mediated genetic model of randomization and optimization, and may lead to structures humans may have never considered. While these initial experiments create fairly simple machines, they could lead to bots that clean out arteries, deliver therapies directly to tumors, and many other applications we haven’t even considered.
Meet the Xenobots, Virtual Creatures Brought to Life
Computer scientists and biologists have teamed up to make a new class of living robotics that challenge the boundary between digital and biological.
6: College in the age of social distancing
Matt’s class that he was teaching this quarter at Stanford was disrupted, as were classes all over the country, when colleges began suspending classes and sending students home. The impacts of these changes are dramatic, especially for students who are now on the cusp of graduating. Yet both institutions and students have started to get creative about how to re-establish a sense of both place and community amidst the pandemic.
Students at Oberlin, University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, and several other schools have created virtual campuses in Minecraft to host their virtual graduations. In the case of Penn, one of the builders reviewed actual building measurements and campus maps to ensure a perfect 1:1 match so that a traditional walk down Locust Street would look and feel as close to the real thing as possible.
At Business Breakthrough University in Tokyo, students dialed into remote presence robots with iPad faces to attend their ceremony. The robots in the room were moved up to accept a diploma from the university president as remote names were called, so that each student could experience that moment individually.
Campus is closed, so college students are rebuilding their schools
With the coronavirus pandemic forcing schools to close down, many college students are recreating their campuses in Minecraft.
iPads attached to robots stand in for graduating students at a ceremony in Tokyo, Japan. More photos of schools in the time of coronavirus: https://t.co/9Cs9gj4aWu 📷 BBT University https://t.co/IRF1ifr5NX
One pareidolia thing
Faces are hilarious and computer-vision models are great at pattern-matching. Definitely watch the video on this one, and turn the sound on.
here's a little experiment with neural networks and pareidolia (aka 'faces in places')
sound on
[i think i like the house best, but the choccy bar is pretty good too...] https://t.co/67Fon5jToE
Six Signals: Emerging futures, 6 links at a time.
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