About this video

• Video Title: Cecilia Tham: How to Synthesize and Design Futures with Science
• Channel: Institute of Design (ID)
• Speakers: Cecilia Tham, Carlos Seer
• Duration: 01:12:27

Overview

This video features Cecilia Tham, a PhD candidate, presenting her work on synthesizing and designing futures using science and technology. She shares her personal journey into design and entrepreneurship, showcases various innovative projects and prototypes from her company, Futurity Systems, and discusses methodologies for future research and scenario planning. The presentation emphasizes bridging the gap between science, technology, business, and creativity to envision and build future possibilities.

Key takeaways

• Personal Journey: Cecilia Tham's path to futuring involved diverse experiences, from her upbringing in Hong Kong and Macau to studying architecture at Harvard and eventually founding a maker space and a tech school in Barcelona.
• Futurity Systems: Her company, Futurity Systems, operates on a "Futures as a Service" model, integrating engineering futures through prototyping, exploring human-computer interaction, and engaging with deep tech fields like AI and biotech.
• Prototyping Examples: The presentation highlights various prototypes, including electronic edibles, remote body control systems, structural coloration in chocolate, plantable meals, organ gardens, autonomous plants (Herby), transaction membranes for autonomous vehicles, and digital twins evolving into digital souls.
• Methodology for Futures: Tham outlines a data-driven methodology for mapping technological maturity and identifying future opportunities and threats, moving beyond current trends to explore the "next and beyond horizon."
• Intentional Design: A key aspect of her approach is "intentional design," which involves considering the positive and negative consequences of future scenarios to proactively develop solutions and avoid dystopian outcomes.
• Interspecies Economy: Tham explores the concept of an interspecies economy, giving non-humans (like plants) economic participation to prioritize their own needs, exemplified by Herby, the autonomous plant with a crypto wallet and NFT.
• AI and Inclusivity: The presentation touches upon the development of inclusive AI personas (like "Re") and the potential for AI in elder care, aiming to shift perceptions from burden to potential.
• Storytelling and World-Building: Tham emphasizes the critical role of storytelling and "world-building" techniques in communicating future visions and inspiring change within organizations and society.

Futurity Systems offers "Futures as a Service" (FaaS), a model that provides future-oriented services similar to how Software as a Service (SaaS) operates. This involves integrating four key aspects of their work:

• Engineering Futures: This focuses on creating tangible prototypes and artifacts that embody future concepts.
• Synthesizing Insights: This involves analyzing data and trends to understand the state-of-the-art and identify potential opportunities and threats for the future.
• Developing Methodologies: Creating structured approaches for future research, scenario planning, and intentional design.
• Storytelling and Communication: Using techniques like world-building to effectively communicate future visions to stakeholders.

Cecilia Tham's company, Futurity Systems, offers "Futures as a Service" (FaaS) by integrating several core components. They aim to provide clients with actionable insights and tangible visions of the future, much like a subscription-based software service.

The FaaS model encompasses:

• Engineering Futures: This involves hands-on prototyping and creating physical or digital artifacts that represent future possibilities. This stems from Tham's background in making and digital fabrication.
• Synthesizing and Analyzing Data: They use data-driven tools to track scientific papers, patents, startups, and funding to understand the current state of various technologies and identify emerging trends. This helps in mapping the "Horizon" of what's possible.
• Developing Methodologies: Futurity Systems employs specific methodologies, like "intentional design" and "world-building," to help clients explore future scenarios, consider consequences (both positive and negative), and map out potential pathways.
• Communicating Future Visions: A significant part of their service is translating complex research and potential futures into understandable narratives and visions that clients and their stakeholders can grasp and act upon.

Essentially, Futurity Systems acts as a partner that helps organizations navigate uncertainty, innovate for the long term, and proactively design their desired futures by combining scientific understanding, technological exploration, and strategic foresight.