WORLD OF TOMORROW

DIGITIZATION IN THE PAST YEARS

50 years ago, in 1973, Alan Kay invented one of the first laptop with the principle of being friendly, simple and intuitive to use. Nearly six years later, music became portable with Sony - introducing the first Walkman. In 1984, emails arrived in Germany, becoming a global phenomenon by 1990. Eight years after that, an algorithm named PageRank was conceived by two students, leading to the founding of Google. The turn of the millennium marked the digital revolution, where over half of the world's information networking occurred through the internet. In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg invented the social network Facebook, driven by a networking algorithm. Just a year later, YouTube was established, and Google expanded its reach with Google Maps. By 2007, 97 percent of the worldwide information networking was assumed by the internet. Simultaneously, AirBnB took its first steps, and the first iPhone was unveiled. In the year 2009 the start of WhatsApp and Uber, alongside the launch of Instagram, took place. User data emerged as a critical resource, with first protocolled scandals of data abuse in 2012. Two years later, Facebook took over WhatsApp for $20 billion and Instagram for $1 billion. In 2015, smart home technology gained prominence in modern society, Alexa lives from now on in our homes like a family member. By 2017, 39 percent of internet users reported incidents of bullying, hate and intimidation online. Three years ago, from now, the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 accelerated digitization - home office, homeschooling with notebooks, online shopping and gaming and numerous other facets in our lives became more digital and social distanced.1

DIGITIZATION NOW

We are now living in a world in which we can control our home with apps on our smartphone – our portable “meta-media-machine”2 and life-organizer. The IOT, the Internet of Things, networks all things together in an “invisible, smart, miniaturist, distributed spatially and omnipresent way”3. “Smart is now becoming the new normal”4. Wherever we go, we leave data footprints, whether with GPS or googling, we give away information about our needs and hobbies with our Amazon account. Companies are collecting data unobtrusive, and the magic is about connecting and comparing this information to gain an advantage, often increasing profit from the customers.5 “Big Data”6 is already the future’s oil. On top of that we ask machines like ChatGPT about our inner intime questions, about interpersonal, social topics that move us all. What´s next? Are we going to listen to music and read novels created by AI, would it be more satisfying than the ones made by human beings? Well, Instagram AI models already exist, just like the profile of Miquela (@lilmiquela on instagram)7.

DIGITIZATION IN THE FUTURE

When asking ChatGPT now, how is the future going to look like in 50 years, it answers: “Predicting the world in 50 years is a fascinating but incredibly complex task. Technological advancements will likely continue at a rapid pace, potentially leading to breakthroughs in various fields such as medicine, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and space exploration. Here are some speculative possibilities:” It lists the key words AI integration, biotechnology and renewable energy in the field of technology - climate change and environmental change in a different section – and the topic of society will be even more about demographics, urbanization and globalization. We must face the challenge of the ethical dilemma, all decisions about AI ethics, genetic engineering and data privacy. One limit will be the resource scarcity, the population will grow and strains resources which can lead to a more intense focus on sustainability topics and issues.

What´s your idea of the world in 50 years? Are you a supporter of the non-smartphone-world of the Generation Boomer (born from 1946-1964), the Generation X (1965 - 1980) and Y (1981-1996) or would you rather choose being born in the Generation Z (1997-2010) or later in the Generation Alpha (from 2010 on) with the whole range of digital possibilities already accessible in childhood?8

“We add more smart systems and products to our daily life which transform our living both for good and for bad.”9 Online shopping is user friendly from wherever you are but has the results of security risk being tricked from sellers and the environmental impact the delivery of million packages has, not to mention packaging waste and return orders. Also, the invention of smartphones makes the people available all the time, questioning whether it´s a good thing, being able to work anytime and having the pressure to answer all messages you receive? Well, in emergency cases this constant availability is a good thing.

I am not sure if I rather wish that digitization never happened or that we’d be living all in a connected “perfect” world. The question I want to focus on is „can the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution offer new tools for better stewardship of our planet?”10. Can we really make an effort out of all advantages we gained in digitization to safe or organize the planet to a safe space for all the living beings? Are we able to stop the environmental change and undo the destroying process? Or do the bad events dominate, and we are trapped in the digital world where nobody knows how to escape from data tracking? Does the world crises grow this big, that we can´t solve them anymore with our technology? How can we face the future challenges and lead the world to a better version of what it is now? Is ignoring the digitization a way because “all was better in the past” or do we need to work with the artificial intelligence?

DESIGNER SHAPE THE NEW WORLD

“The future of everyday things lays in products with knowledge, intelligence and products that know where they are located, who their owners are and that can communicate with other products in their environment.”11 This “evolution is entirely up to the designer who analyzes existing systems and makes modifications.”12, which could help us all.  

A designer is someone who fights problems and challenges, he usually stands between the present and the future. With their ideas, they are one group of people who can shape the future, especially the upcoming times of digitization. Their work is about finding solutions and improvements in several tasks and creating an optimum usage. Their work changes all the time, and the technology allows more and more opportunities to put these ideas into practice. Tools like 3D modelling programs, photoshop, layout and animation programs already helped simplifying the origin product developing process focused on working in the universities workshops and building the product out of wood based on a little sketch on the paper. The newest tool added to the collection of computer programs is the implemented function of help by the artificial intelligence. Could we designer be replaced by the AI in the future? Are the future products designed by machines? Should we ignore the implementation of these artificial features and continue with our tools we are used to today as machines shouldn´t be able to create ideas themselves?

The “artificial intelligence” has its origin in the 1950s when the English mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing asked the initial question “Can machines think?” 13. In the late 1990s and 2000s, the work around this topic came to the focus and now impacts the world a lot. The AI programs are getting smarter today by training with available data provided by developers. It seems that the machine has an awareness and keeps learning to make its own conclusions. On top of that, ChatGPT communicates so authentic that we get the impression of chatting with a wise human being. But all the “machine running algorithms (…) will only be truly creative when they have evolved emotions and consciousness”14 even though sometimes it´s hard to believe.

Smart machines can make our lives a lot easier, more comfortable and they can perform some tasks more efficiently and precisely than we ever could. They are working perfectly most of the time when there’s a fixed field of activity without unexpected events. Artificial intelligence can change the environment we are living in, smart technologies design city networks efficiently and are collecting data about air, crime and other aspects of daily life to improve urban life. The U.I. “urban intelligence”15 is born. “A.I. can make cities more sustainable, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to the well-being of the planet at large.”16 Furthermore, intelligent systems can support the medical field as passive advisors with a background of statistics of big data, helping the medicals to analyze the correct diagnostic and choose the best treatment for the patient. And these are only two of many fields, the AI can help us in a way a person never could. 

In case the digital machines run defective for any reason or we don´t understand them in their complexity, it gives rise to discomfort, frustration, dejection or even aggression. Furthermore, the fear of the unknown and the feel of control loss can boost which is the worst case of interaction between human and machines. Losing trust in digital systems can also be caused by issues about data privacy. Systems, apps, accounts, other devices like AirTags and everything else that´s connected to the internet are collecting data and we just simply accept new data privacy conditions in several apps. Every little step of our living including personal facts are tracked - our very personal human data is open for strangers. Imagine being hacked and having your whole life opened for a stranger, able to do what ever he wants to do with your accounts, personal data or even your business. In addition to that, the digitization has more negative effects just like making some jobs superfluous because the machines are able to work more efficiently and faster. That could be also an advantage as these people could focus on other jobs and work that’s less monotonous. In my opinion, these risks of digitization “doesn´t mean we should reject the assistance of intelligent machines”17. It is mandatory that the designer have the risks and the worst-case scenarios in mind to prevent them from becoming true. What we would really need is a “symbiotic relationship”18 of humans and machines and focusing on “not turning humans into passive objects of rapid economic and social changes driven by digitisation.”19 This relationship must be capable of improving our lives. If the user is well skilled and the device or application is well designed, then the interaction can be described as effective, comfortable and positive. To increase the number of people having a benefit from a human-machine-interaction, it is necessary that the usage is designed intuitive and designers and developers need to work together very closely from the beginning of a project. Creating a practical functionality and a safe space for all parties is the big goal. Machines “need to be sozialised; they need to improve the way they communicate and interact and to recognize their limitations.”20

The new role of design “is not only about product design anymore, but about the creation of complete business ecosystems.”21 “The designer is now becoming a key figure in the digital innovation process. His new role is being a mediator between technology and the living environment.” This turns the role of a designer into an “agent of trust for customers”22. Making digital technology accessible and understandable for humans and finding the right “balance of user control and autonomous system action”23 is the key. With this intention of creating a whole symbiosis in which the AI is the supporting system, I think there´s hope and we humans could become friends with the machines, knowing they will do their best gaining a benefit for every single human, the society and the whole planet. So yes, I would say if we implemented some basic rules that are limiting the machines intelligence and use them in fields to make a desirable advantage that doesn´t hurt anybody but support the human values and needs - then we could solve the problems of the future we don´t know we will have to face with yet.