Is This The Matrix?
Many might be familiar with the phrase "The desert of the real" from the film the Matrix it derives from a philosophical concept from Jean Baudrillard in Simulacra and Simulation. He uses it to describe a state where simulations and copies have replaced authentic reality, leaving only the harsh, desolate "desert" of the real, or even a world, as in the Matrix, where our lived reality is in fact a simulation.
Whilst I am not suggesting we are currently living in a simulation, we are increasingly living in world in which conspiracy theories and deep fakes, amplified by AI and the internet, are part of peoples every day experiences that are impacting their lives turning the desert of the real into reality.
Thus the desert of the real provides a cautionary tale for considering how designers use the speculative, not real, and fictional as tools to create potential visions of the future and how they might ethically deploy such practices particularly in relation to emerging technologies.
Embracing responsibility alongside creativity!!
Cautious Prometheus
In a talk to the Design History in 2008 Bruno Latour discussed five advantages of design one of which was the notion of humility describing designers as a kind of Cautious Prometheus.
However, with the rapid rise of techno determinism and the increasing power of tech companies, led by individuals achieving cult leader like veneration, introducing new products and services at pace, we see little humility or caution. The introduction of new products and service increasingly uses the same practices as design futurists by deliberately creating an ambiguous potential reality where the real and fictional blur and particular futures seems inevitable.
Thus, it is more important than ever that designers acknowledge this in their work and adopt the role of the cautious Prometheus to better consider the real effects any futures they might create if they are not to simply add to the desertification of the real.
The challenge is not to abandon imagination, but to wield it carefully - to ensure that in envisioning the future, we do not lose sight of reality altogether.
