RSD8 IIT Institute of Design, Chicago 2019

1. Experiencing the Future for
Systems Change
By: Leah Zaidi
@leah_zaidi

2. Russia's dystopian sci-fi
features non-linear wars.
@leah_zaidi

3. Science fiction depicts
socio-economic and
political prototypes of
the future.
@leah_zaidi

4. Good Sci-Fi
SystemsForesight
Design
@leah_zaidi

5. @leah_zaidi

6. Strategic Foresight looks at multiple, alternative
futures e.g. the many ways in which the world
might evolve.
Then, we consider what the implications are for us.
@leah_zaidi

7. How do we leverage stories about the
future for systemic design?
Experiential Futures:
"Situations and stuff from the future that
catalyze change."
-Stuart Candy
@leah_zaidi

8. WHY
EXPERIENCE THE
FUTURE?
T r i g g e r n e w t h i n k i n g
P r o t o t y p e w h a t ' s p o s s i b l e
G r o u n d p r o p o s e d s y s t e m i c
c h a n g e i n s o m e t h i n g v i s c e r a l
a n d t a n g i b l e
C o m m u n i c a t e c o n s e q u e n c e s o f
c o m p l a c e n c y
@leah_zaidi

9. EXAMPLE 1: UNESCO FUTURES
LITERACY LAB
Phase 1: Tacit to Explicit
Phase 2: Reframing
Phase 3: New Questions
Challenge Anticipatory Assumptions: Expectations shape our
sensing and sense-making about the future.
@leah_zaidi

10. @leah_zaidi

11. Starting point:
Building 4 new worlds
with Seven Foundations
EXAMPLE 2: VOTING
@leah_zaidi

12. @leah_zaidi

13. EXAMPLE 3: JOB ADS FROM THE FUTURE
@leah_zaidi

14. MIN SPEC FOR
FUTURE-PROOFING
@leah_zaidi
1) How does it support long-term environmental
sustainability?
2) How does it enable justice, equality, and democracy?
3) How is it helped or hindered by AI, and what are the
underlying ethics and assumptions?

15. WHAT ELSE?

16. FORESIGHT WITHOUT
SYSTEMS
=
SHALLOW VISIONS +
UNINTENDED
CONSEQUENCES

17. SYSTEMS WITHOUT
FORESIGHT LACKS HOPE

18. LANGUAGE IS
SOFT POWER

19. Good Sci-Fi
SystemsForesight
Design
@leah_zaidi

20. ARCHETYPES

21. MEET THE
ANTI-ARCHETYPES

22. SHIFTING THE
BURDEN
TAKING
RESPONSIBILITY

23. SUCCESS TO THE
SUCCESSFUL
POWER TO THE
MARGINALIZED

24. ESCALATION
DESCALATION

25. THANKS!
L E A H Z A I D I
@leah_zaidi