BITES // 11.07.19 // AUGMENTED SOCIETY
Every month we collect six of the best pieces of content published on the web and share them with you, because we believe that the most extraordinary thinking is inspired by looking to unexpected places. BITES is a reading list for those who want to bring a little of the outside, in.
1. GAME NIGHTS OF THE (NEAR) FUTURE
What if you took the best elements of board games and combined them with the best attributes of video games? When Tilt Five’s Kickstarter campaign for a holographic tabletop gaming device exceeded their goal by over 500k, it became clear that game nights might never be the same. With Tilt Five’s augmented reality (AR) glasses and holographic game board, your old board games will transform into highly immersive experiences that let you pause, save your progress, stream your games, and even play with others all around the world. While millennials are driving the board game revival, a new holographic format might just be what Gen Z is waiting for.
2. SMART PARKS
If everything from books to boardgames can be digitized, where will we find reprieve from our constantly connected lives? Some might say “nature, trees, public parks”; while others will rebuttal, “no, actually those can be digital too.” A new park in Miami has become a “testing ground for civic technology” with a project that aims to take inputs from residents on how tech should best be integrated “by, of, and for the public.” Though skeptics might still ask, “does a park really need to have an app?”
3. ARCHITECTURAL WELLNESS
If our public spaces are being reimagined for the future of humanity, it’s no surprise that our living environments are transforming to optimize the human and tech relationship as well. Future-forward architects recognize the rise of health-conscious humans and are starting to think of indoor designs that use tech to put human well-being at the core. We already spend most of our time at home; with amenities like “anti-microbial surfaces, Vitamin C-filtered showers, in-duct aromatherapy and individually-calibrated circadian lighting systems,” we might never leave…
4. DIGITAL WELLBEING
As our homes are designed to adapt to our demand for wellness, so will the smart products around us. Panasonic teamed up with Layer to invent a suite of smart devices that are geared towards boosting our health and creating products that “close the gap between technology and our lifestyles.” But does tech zap the warmth and humanity out of certain experiences and activities, or will efficiency reign supreme and make everything cold and “characterless”?
5. THE END OF ANONYMITY
Indoors, outdoors, everything around us is becoming “smarter.” While most of these advances might be welcome, some fear that a connected society means that our data will never be secure again. If you think facial recognition surveillance is intrusive, wait until your walk, your heartbeat, and even your microbiome are being monitored.
6. SPACE HOMES
As it becomes more difficult to escape the tether of technology, some might find a more peaceful life going off-grid. AI Spacefactory originally designed the perfect human habitat for life on Mars; but now they realize their space homes might be even better suited for life on Earth. Check out the video and imagine if you could find yourself living in a Tera Home.
TAKEAWAY:
Whether it’s holographic boardgames or smart homes, it seems that digital layers can be added to every part of the human experience. Though, it’s fair to question whether or not they should be. Do we really need tech-infused parks? Or should we continue to empower totalitarian data collection? We can only hope to find an ideal balance between our tactile and digital worlds. But maybe we have already passed the point of no return with our dependency on technology.
