2050

- augmented reality

- data visualization | community forum

- weather data for AR stream - acquired

- active funding search

above photograph by Jessica Kirsh/Adobe Stock

2050 is an evolution of a previous project as many of my designs are.

Initially this was called Supercell and was a concept where we were trying to contract or speed up time to make a strong point about climate change. It was an experiment in seeing the effects we have on climate change, speeding up time for the user to view how the choices we collectively make today will affect the planet in the far off future. After sketching out plans for this device, I could not help but be drawn back to the project’s original purpose – to stir an urgency in the user. An urgency about how quickly we need to begin to seriously move as a nation and as an international community to take on our worst problem: climate change.

As the election of 2020 unfolded in the United States, I could not, like many, look away from what was happening. My phone kept buzzing with headline after headline, keeping me and most of America on edge for days and weeks. This phenomenon made absolutely clear to me that if we want to show how dire the climate change issue is, we could create an app that pushes notifications of news headlines from the year 2050 just as we got them for the 2020 election. According to all the experts, 2050 will see dramatic climate activity to the point where nobody can deny it. 2050 is the year that gives us the first look at what life will be like going forward.

Using a simple app, artificial intelligence will draw from data sources around the world and compose potential headlines based on models of what might be likely to happen geologically and environmentally in the year 2050. Further artificial intelligence could estimate society’s reaction to what will be happening with the climate; giving poignant and relatively accurate news headlines from the future by creating an emotional exhaustion similar to what we felt from our push notifications of this election season.

I am expecting this reaction to this bombardment of alerts will be so strong that people won’t run the app longer than a week or two. To stir up engagement we could challenge users to run the app for a month. What comes next is still to be determined; do we keep users on the app longer or do we direct them somewhere else after their experience? Perhaps the app itself can stir users to action with resources on how to help.