As echos of Half-Life 2 from the other room force me into headphones mode, it made me think about the ways in which entertainment likes to make us see the future. Games, comics (hmm, sorry graphic novels) and movies show us a future where things have gone wrong, dystopian, weird and dark.
In design however, we usually design for a better future. Always making things better, more efficient, making people happier, better citizens, better parents, better neighbours…. better better better more more more.
So when it comes to sustainability, we have to be better better better and do more more more even if the future looks grim and apocalyptic. Like the 2 sides of a same coin, we’re asking people to live with 2 different concepts: hope and despair.
Or maybe we’re just better off planning for the worse.