This week we did another version of the Zeitgeist group project, this time we had to design a product/service/system for a cultural problem in 2050. We were told that we could do the same topic that we chose for the first project and redesign it for the future.
We should have a storyboard or some concept designs of this product, context of the problem, moral and ethical issues with product and what devices it could use. We were given around 4 hours for this task.
My group consisted of Beth, Lauren, Jess and I. We decided against designing for the same topic as before, Homelessness, as we thought that there was some more interesting topics in predicting future issues.
Firstly, we used post-it notes to brainstorm any problems or cultural issues that we predicted would be happening in 2050.
We then combined some of these issues to think more in-depth about what healthcare might look like in 2050. We focused mainly on
Overpopulation
Age Reversal
Health Decline/Obesity
Recording Dreams
AI Integration
Eldercare
We decided we should create a service which covered or connected a few of those issues. This is where the idea of ‘Gene’ was born. Gene would be an AI assistant (to match the integration of AI into most things in the future). We thought Gene would be available on a microchip that would be inserted under a person's skin. This would allow Gene to pull biometric data straight from our bodies. This data could be used to give us information about our DNA, genetic illnesses, interesting facts, and ancestry. Gene could even analyse our bodies and predict our cause of death. It could give us some predictors about what may become serious issues for our health so that we can be a step ahead and prevent them. Gene could see our dreams and give us an analysis of the dream and insights into what aspects of our brain and mental health caused this dream. This could be useful for people with psychological issues or people who are just interested in their dreams.
We sketched out some ideas of how Gene could be branded. We thought of creating a logo from the diagram of DNA.
We then started to think of the moral and ethical issues a system like Gene could cause.