The Future of Our Toolkit

A utopian and dystopian critique of our Park Toolkit

Utopian.

If our toolkit was employed in all parks, we imagine a utopian world where parks and people live harmoniously alongside each other. People learn squirrel calls without needing to use headphones.

The toolkit encourages so many people to go to parks, leading to Governments spending more money on the spaces. More space is dedicated to green spaces in cities, towns and villages. This, in turn, means more trees are planted, producing more phytoncide and contributing to easing climate change.

More parks and trees lead to people becoming physically and mentally healthier. Governments then save money from less demand in health services, So they dedicate time through public holidays to visit parks.

Dystopian.

But what if our speculative future took a dystopian turn?

From a user point of view, our toolkit could help people communicate negatively with parks, which in turns parks against humans. Then when people visit parks, trees attack us by aiming leaves at us and wrapping their roots around our ankles to scare us.

Squirrels could also realise they’re being spied on and start throwing their acorns at people wearing our earphones. Also, they may start to recognise scientists who research squirrel calls, and they change their conversations and bias the data.