‘Silicon-based information technology, in contrast, is far from having become part of the environment… The arcane aura that surrounds personal computers is not just a "user interface" problem... Such machines cannot truly make computing an integral, invisible part of the way people live their lives. Therefore we are trying to conceive a new way of thinking about computers in the world, one that takes into account the natural human environment and allows the computers themselves to vanish into the background.’Add “smartphones and smart devices” after “personal computers”, and we still face, nearly 30 years later, the same problem: A call for computers to become more pervasive, more intrusive, but certainly not invisible - and tech-utopian futurists goading them along on this path. Middle Futurism, by contrast, revives the PARC vision, describing a technological path “that takes into account the natural human environment.”We must remember that technology, is only good when it works, and that elegance is how things work when they fail. Our current timeframe is littered with inelegant technologies. We don't need less technology, we just need better-designed technology. Technology that assumes things will fail, like batteries, network or human attention, and works with that as a first principle. Five Ethics for Principles of Middle Futurism Rather than blindly assume technology will somehow alter human nature for the better, middle futurism combines the best of tech as it exists now with the best of what humans offer:
- A middle future is maintainable - not just by the company that built it, but by the individuals that use it. There should be a sense of pride in being able to fix a system and a long term job associated with it.
- A middle future is transparent - when the processes going on behind the scenes are invisible, we experience a Kafka-esque reality. If we know the computer is thinking incorrectly, we can help fix it.
- A middle future allows for both Chronos (structured) and Kairos (in the moment) time, with a focus on optimizing for human time, not machine time.
- A middle future uses the best of tech and the best of humans.
- A middle future works long term - when an airport adopts a new system, it should be robust enough to last decades.
- Japan is full of middle future products, such as sliding shōji doors - instead of replacing them with western, hinged doors, they kept the idea of sliding doors as they modernized, and turned them into automatic ones
- Light rails lines connecting cities without sprawl. Roads are expensive to maintain, and self-driving electric cars may require more cobalt than we can affordably mine
- Square: another favourite example, enables point of sale purchases that not only maintains the human contact we enjoy but enhances it with a new routine -rotating the tablet between salesperson and customer
- Bikes and bike highways, public transportation and walkable city zones: Instead of focusing on self-driving cars, cities that focus on smaller scale transportation save on road maintenance costs
- Smartphone-enabled electric scooter: Joyous, childlike, and (yes!) a bit dangerous
- Sound design can calm nerves and improve experiences. For instance, the noises associated with hospitals are jarring and upsetting (piercing alarms and beeps, grinding MRI scanners, and so on), but sound design can diminish these signals with white noise, masking, and music. Acknowledging the discomfort, boredom, and stress of flying, Virgin Airlines uses sound design during the check-in and board experience to bring some life back to them to minimize external noises with a calming ambience