What if valuable actions were considered as a job?
What if Artificial Intelligence could reward your good deeds? A Design Fiction project conducted by four HETIC students made it possible, it was named Purepose.
Statement
Imagine a perfect world. Great, now think about all the things that could go wrong in your utopia.
As actors of the digital world, designers are responsible for anticipating - not only the innovations which could exist in a few years - but also the consequences of our designs. As an example, nowadays, our energy lever — the value of power dependent on the current Zeitgeist — is shifting from money to data. The flow of data is an obscure market, unknown from the majority, and dangerous because so easily manipulated by powerful actors. The way we market digital products is changing and we witness ingenious methods to drain information from users. However, this is not a problem that we want to discuss here, moreover, I don’t feel legit enough to speak up about the political and economic use of data.
The story of Purepose, welcome in 2077
To introduce Purepose, we wrote a story-telling that justifies the creation of this technology.
After a severe ecological crisis in 2054, politics from the world created the Global Consensus Organization to save the Earth population by setting common goals and working hand-in-hand toward a better future.
Since then, a powerful Artificial Intelligence was developed. Called ITA, it is now implemented everywhere: in every production blockchains, delivery services, agriculture, transports, etc. ITA does its work so efficiently that lots of jobs were replaced by this AI and robots.
The main problem the Global Consensus Organization is facing now is the rise of unemployment that causes a financial crisis. Indeed, only the highest skilled jobs remain, not everyone can access it and the offer is way too low compared to the demand. Hence, the GCO initiated a project that was meant to change the whole economic system…
Purepose was born.
What does Purepose do?
An AI-powered bracelet, future of behavior assistant.
We’ve combined the knowledge of ITA and IoT technologies inside a wearable to create a new perception of our everyday actions. A bracelet connected to your implanted smartphone* which will give you every piece of information: which actions are reachable to you, group events, feedbacks of your previous acts…
*in the future, people would wear nano-chip on both their wrists they can control with eye-tracking or tactile holograms. These would replace today’s smartphones.
How can Purepose do it?
Through education and a united philosophy.
The Purepose bracelet will identify some actions of your everyday-life and, without any corruption or bias, evaluate their impacts on the society and environment after that ITA will process the right value of reward for what you accomplished.
ITA gathers data from everywhere in the world: it knows why your actions are right and/or wrong from a completely objective point of view. You have access to this “why”, the main challenge being this “why”…
Why is Purepose doing this?
To remedy the rise in unemployment. Eventually, allowing 9 billion individuals to live in perennial harmony and find their own ethical purpose.
What did we learn from Design Fiction?
1. Uncloud your eyes, be curious. It will open plenty of doors
There is so much to see, to understand, and to discover in order to be able to create a plausible vision for the future of humankind. We all had our personal inspirations and insights which helped us be very critical about our product eventually dreaming it the best we could hope for.
2. Acknowledge the tremendous impact AI will have.
I am personally concerned about the role AI will have on our morals. We imagined ITA from our project to understand every side of our society that its decision would be undeniable. In my opinion, the advent of a strong artificial intelligence which conducts our economy will need a long period of adjustments concerning morals and ethics matters.
3. Ethics for design should be incorporated in product and service conceptions
Too little we think about ethical design, too little we’ve been warned about the dangers of wrong-motive designs, and too often we encounter designers who are nothing else than executives. This subject is gripping and we could write so much more on it than just these few lines…
4. Nothing will ever be perfect
On the day of our assignment, we dedicated time to answer questions. We picked some of them throughout a Twitter account we made for the occasion @PUREPOSE_2077, here are some of the best interrogations that Purepose initiated. We are proud of the engagement of our classmates in pointing flaws that could appear with time.
A design must evolve with people using it, matching their problematics and always conserving their integrity.
Words from the Team
Nemo
Purepose was definitely a project that felt different to work on. Diving into the past to imagine the future, and thus questioning our present felt enriching and refreshing, as it nurtures critical thinking and strengthens the ability to take a step back, to see the big picture.
Warm thanks to our tutors, for opening our eyes to new ways of thinking about design and observing the world; but most of all, cheers to this team who made this project unique and very enjoyable to work on.
Julie
One of the most interesting projects I’ve ever worked on. So first of all, I would like to thank my teammates and the tutors who give us this subject and support us the whole time. With them, I was able to imagine a brand new world and question myself about the current world. I’m sure we can go way further so I hope you will enjoy our project as much as I enjoyed working on it because if we can improve Purepose, we will continue without any doubt.
Thibaut
This project is one of those that, more than being an opportunity to learn new skills and put those you already have to the test, gives you the chance to change your mindset, makes you think outside the box. Purepose has really changed my way of thinking, of seeing our world, of being a designer… I can only thanks my team & tutors for this wonderful future we gave birth to together. I really encourage you who read these lines to try at least once to follow the Design Fiction process and question the present by imagining the future. And don’t forget to give us a sight !
Loana
Team mates, tutors, HETIC students who supported our little piece of dream, thank you so much. I could feel your interest for the project and that was the secret ingredient which made it all so easy and exciting. Since I wrote most of the case study, you [reader] should have a little (very little) glimpse of what is my vision over design and future globally. Hope you enjoy reading and that it will tease your curiosity. Now, although write about my reflexion is nice, I would love to help build this “better” world somehow; so, if you have hints about it, call me right away okay?
« One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal. Soon we’ll need a new definition.»
Alvin Toffler — American Writer & Futurist 1928–2016
