The Future of Tech, Design, & Humanity For Tom Klinkowstein - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Future of Tech, Design, & Humanity

For Tom Klinkowstein

Hope in the Dark

– Rebecca Solnit

Rebecca Solnit on Hope, Lies, and Making Change

The future is dark, inscrutable, but not terrible.

Not only the future but the present is dark We must not retreat, keep fighting what is right and sane by being courageous, live your life fighting the fight

How do we feel? What do we do?

Possibilities only exist if we act.

There is always scope for action: 1. Optimism = fine, no matter what 2. Pessimism = everything is going to hell, off the hook 3. Hope = deeply tied to we don’t know what will happen, gives us action

Despair is self-indulgence.

There is mutual wailing about how bad everything is. We can mourn the terrible things happening while still being engaged.

Have the power to believe that you are storytellers, not just listeners.

The future has not yet been written.

Role of the media

They make us feel that no matter what we do, it doesn’t matter.

but millions of people have transformed

• ur society over decades.

we define what reasonable is, what reality is, what’s true, and what we choose to believe.

Institute for the Future

– http://www.iftf.org/future-now/ https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-11-18/we-trust

Trust, Faith, & Trump

The erosion of trust comes from being lied to.

Started as far back as WWII and atomic bomb when secrecy in the government deepened.

American Trust

Pew Research Center in 2015 found that 19% of respondents trust the government most or all of the time.

How do we get a divided nation to start rebuilding trust?

“And the main thing we have to do is reach out to each other and encourage each other.”

Radical Future of Branding

– Co. Design https://www.fastcodesign.com/3066981/the-radical-future-of-branding

Brands will radicalize

Originally, brands did not talk politics.

They were afraid that they’d alienate existing and potential customers.

“With the rise of political authoritarianism, brands will face fundamental choices.”

1. Evolve from “mission-driven” to “activist” & alienate some consumers but will strengthen relationships with agreeing consumers OR 2. Stay quiet to avoid “rocking the boat” & make them seem complicit

After Trump’s muslim ban, some brands took action

– Lyft donated $1 million to ACLU – Starbucks will hire 10,000 refugees – Airbnb offer free housing to refugees

Is this exploitation?

Are companies taking “action on matters that reflect a company’s values”or exploiting “a fragile electorate to garner attention”?

Honesty will reign

So will brands start telling the truth?

There is a huge feeling of distrust coming from consumers. They are tired

• f being lied to and are now more

armed than ever with information and research skills to call companies out on their lies.

Summary | 02/05/17

1. The future is dark, inscrutable, but not terrible. 2. There is always scope for action. 3. We can mourn the terrible things happening while still being engaged. 4. Have the power to believe that you are storytellers, not just listeners. 5. We define what reasonable is, what reality is, what’s true, and what we choose to believe. 6. The erosion of trust comes from being lied to. 7. Brands will radicalize - evolve from “mission-driven” to “activist” 8. Consumers are tired of being lied to and are now more armed than ever with information.

Hope in the Dark

– Rebecca Solnit Prologue, Chapters 1–10

The Branches Are Hope; the Roots Are Memory

Though hope is about the future, grounds for hope lie in the records and recollections of the past.

A complicated history

“We can tell of a past that was nothing but defeats and cruelties and injustices,

• r of a past that was some lovely golden age now irretrievably lost, or we can

tell a more complicated and accurate story, one that has room for the best and worst, for atrocities and liberations, for grief and jubilation.”

Make America Great Again

This concept directly unhinges Trump’s entire campaign. ‘Make America Great Again’ is precisely the recalling of a golden age that never was.

Make America Great Again

“This is nostalgia for a time that may have never have existed or may have been terrible for some…”

Trump’s campaign was “more about bolstering identity than achieving results.”

Solnit has 3 goals:

1. Count the overlooked victories 2. Assess the world 3. Encourage people to use their voice

• 1. Count the overlooked victories.

End of Slavery

“Part of it is about a change of heart whereby enough people came to believe that slavery was an intolerable cruelty to bring its day to an end, despite the profitability of the institution to the powerful who defended it.”

The Berlin Wall

“East German authorities had given permission for orderly traffic across the wall, not for its eradication as a boundary altogether. It was because so many people showed up on both sides that the guards surrendered control

• altogether. People armed with nothing

more than desire or hope brought down the wall.”

The War on Terror

“Organized via the Internet without leaders or a single ideology, this unprecedented global wave of protest demonstrated the decentralizing political power of that medium, and like Seattle it countered the Internet’s disembodied placelessness with bodies come together in thousands of cities and in places that weren’t urban at all.”

A toolbox for social change

“A phenomenon like the civil rights movement creates a vocabulary and a toolbox for social change used around the globe, so that its effects far

• utstrips its goals and specific

achievements—and failures.”

• 2. Assess the world

The Conversation

The mutual wailing about how bad everything is. “Stories trap us, stories free us, we live and die by stories, but hearing people have the Conversation is hearing them tell themselves a story they believe is being told to them.”

Disrupting the status quo.

Passionate people using nonviolent action have the power to change the status quo. If that’s the case, then one must acknowledge that the power of the state is not the pinnacle.

Tally our victories

The government and the media routinely discount the effect of activists, but there’s no reason we should believe them or let them tally

• ur victories for us.

A life before victimhood.

“There are those who see despair as solidarity with the oppressed, though the oppressed may not particularly desire that version of themselves, since they may have had a life before being the victims and might hope to have one

• after. And gloom is not much of a gift.”

“And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated, and isolated, joy is a fine initial act of insurrection.”

Effects are not proportionate to causes.

Cause & Effect

“[A lot of activists] operate on the premise

that for every action there is an equal

and opposite and punctual reaction and regard the lack of one as failure.”

More complex than just cause & effect.

This concept creates an attitude of defeatism. If a person doesn’t see an immediate effect for an action they do, they feel that they have failed.

The Angel of History vs. The Angel of Alternate History

The two Angels

“[The Angel of History] tells us history is what happens, but the Angel of Alternate History tells that our acts count, that we are making history all the time, because of what doesn’t happen as well as what does.”

The two Angels are the difference between “Terrible” and “Could be worse. “They’re both right, but the latter angel gives us grounds to act.”

This is Earth, not Heaven.

We will never be completely rid of the world’s hardships and evils, but we can push forward and reduce it to create a better world. “A better world, yes; a perfect world, never.”

Crisis brings out the best in us.

If we all lived in paradise, we would never need to be courageous, selfless,

• r creative.

• 3. Encourage people to use their

voice

Designers as Activists

Simple Demands

“To be effective, activists have to make strong, simple, urgent demands, at least some of the time – the kind of demands that fit on stickers and placards, the kind that can be shouted in the street by a thousand people.”

Simple Signage

“Each of the signs was simple in itself but by the thousand they constituted a sophisticated marshaling of all the arguments against a war against Iraq.”

Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.

Violence is the power of the state; imagination and nonviolence the power of civil society.

Power is granted not guaranteed.

People holding office or heads of in

• fficial institutions seem to think that

they have all the power that matters, but this power is granted to them by us as citizens. This power can be taken back.

War Profiteering

During the protests against the war in Iraq, activists attacked large conglomerate companies like Bechtel, Halliburton, Chevron-Texaco, and Lockheed Martin and accused them of being war profiteers. This led to “making their operations a public question.”

“Every line we succeed in publishing today—no matter how uncertain the future to which we entrust it—is a victory wrenched from the powers of darkness.”

– Walter Benjamin A German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist.

Change something problematic Build something better

“The way you win people over to your side is try to present the information from some perspective they’re familiar with.”

– Baldemar Velasquez An American labor union activist

Summary | 02/20/17

1. There’s no such thing as a golden age 2. Solnit’s 3 goals: count the overlooked victories, assess the world, encourage people to use their voice 3. Disrupt the status quo 4. Always remember the victories, it fuels hope, which fuels action 5. Victims don’t want to be treated like victims 6. Depression is all-consuming 7. Activist signage works because of its simplicity 8. The state uses violence, activists use imagination 9. Power is guaranteed to no one

Summary | 02/27/17

1. Every movement creates a toolbox for future social change 2. Life is more complex than just cause & effect 3. Our voice is our legacy 4. The Angel of Alternate History gives us grounds to act 5. Earth will never be heaven 6. Crisis brings out the best in us 7. Activism is a two-sided coin 8. You can win people over by finding common ground

Walk away from power and find freedom

The Third Wave

“While the third wave has begun serious new political thinking about global alternatives, it is basically anti-doctrinal, in contrast to both the first and second waves.”

“To be anti-doctrinal is to open yourself up to new and unexpected alliances, to new networks of power.”

An ideology against ideologies

Anti-doctrination is concerned with preventing authority from rising. “In fact our strategies must be more like water itself, undermining everything that is fixed, hard and rigid with fluidity, constant movement and evolution.”

“Resisting a ‘party line’ has kept the movement together.”

“We are trying to build a politics of process, where the only certainty is doing what feels right at the right time and in the right place”

– John Jordan An American vintner, philanthropist, technology entrepreneur

“We really have to free the notion of liberation and revolution from the idea of permanently setting up some

• ther kind of society.”

– Alphonso Lingus An American philosopher, writer and translator

What if we thought of revolution as a means to give each participant the

• pportunity to reinvent the world.

“Think locally, act globally.”

Bioregionalism

“an attempt to live within the potential meanings, communities, limitations, and long-term prospects of a region, to live

• n local terms, eat local foods, to know

exactly where you were and how to take care of it. It was about belonging to a place not as a birthright but as an act

• f conscious engagement.”

Human Scale

“The local can mean human scale, a scale on which people can be heard, make a difference, understand the dynamics of power and hold it accountable—a democratizing impulse.”

“Some plants die from the center and grow outward; the official United States seems like the rotten center of a flourishing world, for elsewhere, particularly around the edges, and even in the margins of this country, beautiful insurrections are flowering.”

“What looks perfectly ordinary after the fact would often have seemed like a miracle before it.”

– Chris Bright, author

Summary | 03/19/17

1. Anti-doctrination is concerned with preventing authority from rising. 2. Walk away from power and find freedom. 3. Build a politics of process 4. Use revolution to reinvent the world 5. “Think locally, act globally.” 6. Even if the center of something is rotting, that doesn’t mean one should give up on the edges. 7. Don’t take current freedoms and victories for granted.

Liminal Thinking

– Dave Gray Introduction, Part 1 (Principles 1-3)

“Once you see the boundaries of your environment, they are no longer the boundaries of your environment.”

– Marshall McLuhan

Liminal Thinking

A way of thinking that allows you to “create new doorways to possibilities, doorways that are invisible to others.” The art of creating change by understanding, shaping, and reframing beliefs.

“The idea behind liminal thinking is that there are thresholds, doors of

• pportunity, around you, all the time.”

Define: Liminal

Comes from the Latin root limen which means “threshold”

Liminal People

In life, people can take on liminal roles. Coach = part of the team and not part of the team. Consultant = part of the company and not part of the company. Teacher = part of the class and not part of the class.

“Boundaries give life structure, which makes us comfortable.” Boundaries should also, however, be challenged and moved and there, at those boundaries, is where change happens.

Part 1

Beliefs are Models

We are all blind.

Because we cannot separate our experiences from reality.

Beliefs are Created

The obvious is not obvious.

“Beliefs are not reality. They are not

• facts. They are constructions. You

construct your beliefs, even though for most people this is an unconscious process.”

“Beliefs are constructed hierarchically, using theories and judgments, which are based on selected facts and personal, subjective experiences.”

“Beliefs are constructed hierarchically, using theories and judgments, which are based on selected facts and personal, subjective experiences.”

“...But we actually constructed this reality. Your “obvious” is one of many versions, and other people have different

• nes.”

Liminal space

Beliefs Create a Shared World

A belief is a story

A belief is a story in your head, a cause-and-effect chain, like a recipe or rule for action.

Learning Loop

A continuous feedback cycle of needs, thinking, and action. It’s the way we learn how to act, to give us the best chance to get what we want out of any situation.

Learning loops start when you feel a need. That happens at the base of the

• pyramid. You have

experiences, and you pay attention to the things most likely to meet your needs.

Doom Loop: a vicious cycle Delight Loop: a self-reinforcing pattern

• f positive belief and behavior.

Beliefs Create Blind Spots

Beliefs can be limiting.

Beliefs are tools for thinking and provide rules for action, but they can also create artificial constraints that blind you to valid possibilities.

They blind you to real possibilities

Dave Gray’s friend insisted that he needed a Master’s degree to find work as a professor.

“Liminal thinking is a way to identify limiting beliefs and open yourself to hitherto unseen possibilities that can

• pen new doors.”

Beliefs Defend Themselves

We all live in a bubble.

Beliefs are unconsciously defended by a bubble of self-sealing logic, which maintains them even when they are invalid, to protect personal identity and self-worth.

Bubble of Belief

We create a kind of bubble of belief that reinforces and protects our existing beliefs by denying that alternative beliefs are within the realm

• f possibility.

New information from outside the bubble

• f belief is discounted, or distorted,

because it conflicts with the version of reality that exists inside the bubble.

Self-Sealing Logic: New information from outside the bubble of belief is discounted, or distorted, because it conflicts with the version of reality that exists inside the bubble.

There are two ways that people make sense of new ideas.

1. Internally coherent: does it make sense, given what i already know, and can it be integrated with all of my other beliefs? 2. Externally valid: can i test it? If i try it, does it work?

People rarely test ideas for external validity when they don’t have internal coherence.

“Liminal thinking requires a willingness to test and validate new ideas, even when they seem absurd, crazy, or wrong.”

Beliefs are tied to Identity

“Governing beliefs are the most difficult to change, because they are tied to personal identity and feelings of self-worth. You can’t change your governing beliefs without changing yourself.”

Conspiracy Theories Origin

When you are doing everything you can to fulfill an unmet need, and you are not having success or feeling any traction, you look for reasons. Something must be blocking you. What could it be? The conspiracy theory arises to fill that gap.

Governing Belief

A belief that is deeply tied to identity and feelings of self-worth is called governing belief.

The more foundational the belief, the more it will be unconsciously defended by self-sealing logic.

Part 2

Practice 1 Assume You Are Not Objective

The Johari Window

The Johari window is a framework developed by two psychologists as an aid for understanding the self.

“It’s very easy to see problems and logical inconsistencies in other people. It’s very hard to see them in yourself.”

Find your blind spot.

You have to be open to honestly looking within yourself and seeing your experiences and actions objectively. Things aren’t always someone else’s fault, sometimes they’re your own. If you can’t do this, your beliefs will always be skewed from this factor.

Practice 2 Empty your cup.

Beginner’s Mind

“In order to learn anything truly new, you must empty your cup, so your existing knowledge, theories, assumptions, and preconceptions don’t get in the way. In Zen practice, this is called beginner’s mind.”

Suspend Disbelief

We do this all the time when we watch films so what would happen if we extended this to our daily lives? Well, we would come to situations with an open mind and permeable set of beliefs.

“Beginner’s mind means that you take on an attitude of openness, curiosity, and eagerness to learn, that you come to a new situation with a blank slate and an open mind, just as a beginner would, even if you are already an expert in a subject.”

Practice 3 Create safe space.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Create Safe Space

“...space for people to be vulnerable, space where people could safely reveal their anxieties, frustrations, and emotional, unmet needs. Sharing food and drink is a powerful way to create safe space.”

By creating a safe space, you allow people the opportunity to safely leave their self-sealing logic bubble.

Practice 4 Triangulate and Validate.

Triangulation

“...the practice of developing multiple viewpoints and theories that you can compare, contrast, combine, and validate, to get a better understanding

• f what’s going on.”

“For any one observation there may be a vast number of possible explanations.”

Practice 5 Ask questions, make connections.

“Because of his outside perspective, [Mitch] can sometimes notice things that insiders don’t, or see familiar things in new ways.”

Fish Market Story

“Try to understand people’s hopes, dreams, and frustrations. Explore the social system and make connections to create new

• pportunities.”

Practice 6 Disrupt routines.

Misbehavior Loop

Disrupted Loop

“Sometimes, when a problem seems intractable, there’s an invisible routine at work, and simply disrupting that routine, even in random ways, can shift the situation and allow you to see it in new ways.”

Practice 7 Act as-if in the here-and-now.

“In the case of double-loop learning, you don’t have to believe a hypothesis in order to test it. All you have to do is act as if it were true and see what happens. Ask yourself, ‘How would I act if I believed this were true?’”

“Act as if the world you want to create is already here.”

How to: Double-loop learning

1. First, recognize that, although you may not be able to see it, you are operating in a bubble of belief, a reality distortion field. 2. Don’t just observe behavior. Try to figure out the underlying needs and beliefs that are operating in any situation you want to change. 3. Are you seeing the results that you want? If so, great! 4. If not, explore and examine as many alternative beliefs as you can. Expose yourself–or your team–to more ideas and experiences. Search for a belief that looks interesting and act as if it were true for a period of time. 5. See what happens. Did you improve the situation? If so, great! If not, repeat as necessary.

Practice 8 Make sense with stories.

“How could you live and have no story to tell?” —Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Share a Story

“Stories are one of the primary ways we make sense of experiences. To share those experiences later, we tell a story. When people tell stories, they are not just sharing knowledge, but building relationships and expressing beliefs.”

Learning Lessons

When you ask someone to tell their story, you’re giving value to their experiences and respect to their beliefs. Also, you’re learning about their problem solving.

“In effect, a story translates facts into “rules for action.” A story is just about the most perfect way to package and share beliefs that you will ever find.”

Practice 9 Evolve yourself.

Shifting Perspective

“Disrupting routines starts to shift the patterns of behavior, but not always in ways that you can predict in advance.”

Keep Evolving

“But the world is not static or stable, and the structures of belief that help us navigate our world must evolve continually if we are to remain on top of things.”

“Liminal thinking is a way of navigating change by opening the door to ambiguity and uncertainty, recognizing that there can be no real creation without some destruction, a kind of urban renewal program for the mind.”

Fin.