‘15 Seconds of Future’ | Around the Web: What We’re Reading
What is striking to us this week is how people’s visions of the future from the past are starting to merge with today. Just take a look Andy Warhol’s prophetic words to the new creepy customer service chatbots responding to your every emotion. It’s only going to get weirder.
This is what we’ve been reading this week, a nice mix of high brow and low brow to get you through the week. P.S. – We’re dressed in pink for this one.
“Even if you haven’t heard of Millenial Pink, or didn’t know that it went by this name, you’ve seen it.” Cheeky, sincere and nostalgic all at once, the pink that keeps on selling has invaded our consciousness in a way the colours that come in and out of fashion haven’t.
“If Dior is about femininity, then it is about women. And not about what it was to be a woman 50 years ago, but to be a woman today.” The first female creative director in the 70-year history of Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri, sees herself as “a curator of the idea of Dior”. Here she talks on the challenge of interpreting the rich history of the iconic brand to create a Dior for the modern woman.
“In the 1950s Alan Turing wrote an essay titled Computing Machinery and Intelligence. He asked the question, ‘Can machines think?’ We ask, ‘If machines can think, will they be able to make art, or is art one of the fundamental things that makes us human?’” In this short film, London design group UVA explore the grey area between the natural and the technological.
“The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald’s. The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald’s. The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald’s. Peking and Moscow don’t have anything beautiful yet.” From social media to international consumer capitalism, Andy Warhol, quoted here in 1975, predicted many things that have become reality in today’s world.
“Can you ‘cure’ a terrorist?” This is the hope of a Minneapolis judge, who has enlisted the help of researcher Daniel Koehler to start the first deradicalisation laboratory in the US. Will counselling and empathy be enough to turn back the process of radicalisation?
“Would your banking experience be more satisfying if you could gaze into the eyes of the bank’s customer service chatbot and know it sees you frowning at your overdraft fees?” Mark Sagar, CEO of a startup called Soul Machines believes this to be true. Having already created responsive digital faces for chatbots on Australian government websites, this remarkable technology narrows the gap between human interaction and AI even further.
“To encourage the next generation of young minds to take on tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities, we should celebrate that our world was built not just by men, but by brilliant women of all backgrounds.” From the woman who discovered HIV to the first black woman to travel into space, a neuroscientist-turned-designer has created a series of posters to pay homage to 32 remarkable women in science, in honour of Women’s History Month.
