The Power of Dream: 2050

If you were to be optimistic about the future in the year 2050, what would it look like, especially with the rapid advancement of new technology? At 99P Labs, our goal this summer has been to envision what a harmonious hybrid future could be like in 2050.  We are doing so by inviting people from a wide range of disciplines for a collective dreaming workshop, where we collaboratively visualize that future. Based on the data, we’ve created future scenario videos using generative AI tools.
If the video doesn't load, you can watch them on Bilibili instead: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1vKx2e1E17/
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This video is one of the deliverables from the project, created using generative AI tools, including Midjourney for images, Runway for animation, and ElevenLabs for audio. Explore more about the project details below!

What is Co-Design?

Co-Design is an approach that involves actively involving people in the design process of a product, service, or system. It emphasizes the idea that those who will use or be affected by the design should have a voice in shaping it. In co-design, the emphasis is not on designing for people but rather on designing with people.

What is collective dreaming?

Collective dreaming is a creative collaborative experience with a focus on optimistic and harmonious futures. It involves engaging participants in envisioning and expressing their ideal futures, considering the integration of advanced technologies and their impact on society.

Project Objectives

The primary objective of "The Power of Dreams: 2050" was to bring together scientists and engineers from a leading automotive company, alongside faculty members from Ohio State University (OSU), to explore, visualize, and express their visions for the year 2050 using a co-design approach. This project builds upon previous initiatives aimed at understanding how we might live in 2050.

In Summer 2023, the focus was on co-designing with everyday people, creating future scenarios based on their dreams and fears for 2050. By Spring 2024, the approach shifted to generating and visualizing optimistic visions, informed by interviews with scientists and engineers. The project culminated in Summer 2024 with a collaborative effort between OSU faculty and experts from the automotive research institute.
Team Photo

We are six graduate students from the Design Research and Development track at OSU, working under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Sanders. This project is a collaboration with 99P Labs, an innovation lab within a leading automotive company.

Research & Design Process

1
Conduct secondary research and plan the workshops
2
Conduct Co-Design Workshop #1 with OSU faculty and researchers from a leading automotive company
3
Conduct Online Workshop #2 with participants from the company’s research institute in the EU
4
Analyze the data and then create two videos to communicate the results

Secondary Research

We began the process with secondary research. We explored different sources of information including academic publications, blog posts, social media accounts and YouTube videos. Because the design and development of new information technologies is rapidly changing, itis necessary to learn from a diverse range of sources.

Glossary

We developed an online glossary containing short definitions and video explanations of the key topics that we encountered during the secondary research. (https://shorturl.at/GfJTM)

Co-design Workshop #1

This event took place on June 27,2024 at 99P Labs in Columbus, OH.
It was informed by a pilot test that took place a week ahead.

Participates

● 20 participants took part in the workshop, chosen for their diversity in expertise, gender, and age.
● Half were from 99p Labs and a leading automotive company's development and manufacturing division.
● The other half were from Ohio State University (OSU), representing a wide range of disciplines, including English, Communications, History, Geography, Landscape Architecture, Design, History of Art, Comparative Studies, TDAI (Translational Data Analytics Institute), and Diversity and Inclusion.

Workshop Agenda

1. Homework (Short Survey + Glossary)
2. Name Tags and Introductions
3. AI Involvement Spectrum Activity
4. Clustering AIs and Robots Activity
5. Future of AI Activity
6. Lunch Break
7. Levels of Harmonious Society Activity
8. Collective Dreaming Activity
9. Post-workshop Survey Card: Collaborative Research Ideas
10. Name Tag Spectrum Activity

Materials

Key Activities

Name Tag: Participants created name tags with a robot company and an emoji to express their feelings about the year 2050.
AI Involvement Spectrum: Teams discussed their preferred level of AI assistance across various activities by placing post-it notes on a spectrum.AI Involvement Spectrum
Clustering AIs & Robots: Teams categorized images of AI embodiments and robots into clusters, naming each group.
Future of AI: Teams created a news story about AI in 2050, guided by a secret mission that focused on either a social or ethical perspective.
Levels of Harmonious Society: Teams discussed and visualized their thoughts on four levels of social organization using provided materials.
Collective Dreaming: Teams used a toolkit to visualize a Harmonious Hybrid Society, supported by provocation cards and visual frameworks.

Collective Dream Results:

ChatGPT summary for Group A:
Envisioned a 2050 transportation system integrating various travel modes, prioritizing safety, accessibility, sustainability, affordability, and equity. They proposed a "socialized transportation" concept for seamless travel, similar to Japan's Suica card, and emphasized the need for AI to manage overtravel while ensuring environmental balance.
ChatGPT summary for Group B:
Focused on the interdependence between humans, technology, and nature, envisioning a system of interconnected flows akin to a circular economy. They explored "teaming" between humanity, AI, and nature to create a hybrid harmonious ecosystem, emphasizing systems thinking and interconnectedness.
ChatGPT summary for Group C:
Presented a systems approach to the relationship between humans, technology, and nature, emphasizing the need for education and balance. Their model highlighted the ongoing learning process required to navigate future challenges while recognizing the natural limits and influences on technological advancements.
ChatGPT summary for Group D:
Developed the concept of a digital assistant, the "Guardian Angel" or "AI Scold," designed to align users' actions with their core values. This AI would promote empathy and better social interactions by helping individuals understand biases and perspectives while maintaining user autonomy.

Workshop #1 Analysis:

All the Workshop #1 materials (photos, transcripts, etc.) were organized and displayed on a Mural board. A systematic and rigorous analysis took place across the five activities and across the four teams. The preliminary analysis revealed key insights that we used to plan and prepare for the second workshop with HRI-EU.
Data Analysis on Mural Board
Six Big Ideas
● Insight #1:
‍Harmony with nature is needed in addition to harmony between people and technology.
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● Insight #2:
‍The levels of social organization are useful for making sure that our concepts cover the full range of human needs and dreams.
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● Insight #3:
‍The matrix that is created by crossing the levels of social organization with the geographic levels is a useful framework for making sure that our concepts cover the range of human needs and dreams over space and time.

● Insight #4:
‍Six big ideas.

Co-design Workshop #2

This event took place on Zoom and Mural on July 17, 2024. The activities were similar to those from Workshop 1 but were more focused based on the insights and big ideas from the previous analysis.

Participates

● Seven researchers from a research institute of a leading automotive company in Europe participated.
● Divided into two teams.

Workshop Agenda

1. AI Involvement Spectrum Activity
2. Current Framework:
Relationship among Human, Nature and Technology
3. Future Framework and Visualization
4. Company Story

Activity Materials

Collective Dream Results:

Here are the Levels of Harmonious Society together with their Collective Dream visualization for the two HRI-EU teams. Both teams, working independently, chose the same idea cards to work with:
Collective Learning, Hyper-Local Resources and Socialized Transportation System.

Scenario & Video Development

Scenario Development

We used the social levels x geographic levels matrix to organize the ideation of over 70 future scenarios. We generated ideas and stories for every cell in the matrix but ended up eliminating the interplanetary dimension.

99P's Voice

We invited 99P Labs's participants to review the top 18 scenarios (that had been further developed) for 2050 and add their thoughts on the roles that the company might or might not play in these scenarios. Their feedback was added to the emerging scenarios and the top scenarios were selected for inclusion in the videos.

Video Creation

The scenarios were then storyboarded in preparation for the creation of the videos. Many iterations of the storyboarding took place in order to select the most promising scenarios for the videos. The storyboard images are created by generative AI tools such as Midjourney.

Video Creation:

The Power of Dreams 2050 team created two videos based on the results and insights from the co-designworkshops.
The first is a 10-minute video that can be viewed publicly. It has the look and feel of scrolling through social media in the year 2050. (Watch the Video)
The second video is a five-minute perspective on the 2050 future for internal use.

Design Research

Work

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