Sustainable Technological Futures
Michael Stead, Paul Coulton
Abstract
In this critique, we problematize the framing of technological futures in design and computing discourse through rhetorical devices such as the Futures Cone which we contend promotes a one-world-world perspective, in that it assumes a collective (western) acceptance of a particular historicity and notions of time and progress. This perspective currently dominates the practical design and implementation of many new technological devices and systems. To counter such orthodoxies, we instead adopt an alternate perspective which primarily draws from the work of Brazilian philosopher Alvaro Vieira Pinto who considered the past and the future as shaped by the present – a present that is open and creative due to constant change. Our perspective also draws upon Object-Oriented Ontology, Alien Phenomenology and Defuturing to reconsider the privileging of ‘human’ as part of complex assemblages of human and non-human actants which have interdependent relationships but operate within independent perspectives. Our novel framing enables us to develop and promote design practices for More-than-Human sustainable technological futures that go beyond purely human considerations and begin to accommodate futures for non-human entities, both technological and ecological (flora, fauna and climate). To concretise our argument, we present a series of Internet of Things related examples that apply Speculative Design techniques to illustrate how More-than-Human sustainable technological futures may be put into actionable design practice.