Daily Features

Designing the Future: A 2020 Vision

New book from the cofounder of WIRED magazine offers 25 visions for designing our collective future

By Stephanie Salomon and Steve Kroeter January 14, 2020

Our New Year’s wish for all of you is for a happy, healthy, and truly visionary 2020 — a year filled with fresh thinking about the future.

To ring it all in, we’re excited to share publication news about a brand new book, Neo.Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species.

Co-edited by Jane Metcalfe, the co-founder of Wired magazine, which wrote the first draft of the history of the digital revolution, and Brian Bergstein, and beautifully designed by AIGA medalist Jennifer Morla, Neo.Life imagines our biological future — our health, our food, our sex lives, and more — as impacted by technological innovation.

Featuring 25 contributions from some of the biggest thinkers and most creative minds working today at the intersection of biology and technology, Neo.Life includes essays, interviews, fiction, and visual art that explore what the authors call the “neobiological frontier.” Think of it as a guide to your future self, viewed with 2020 vision.

In these pages, you will:

Explore filmmaker and artist Lynn Hershman Leeson’s ideas about identity in her antibody-as-art project that will change how you think about life science technologies.
Encounter the mesmerizing science fiction of Hannu Rajaniemi.
Get to know neuroscientist Steve Ramirez, whose work suggests that humans might someday be able to reactivate lost memories, dampen negative ones, or even plant new ones—which could pave the way for targeted treatments for anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, or even Alzheimer’s disease.
Hear from Oshiorenoya (Osh) Agabi, the Swiss Nigerian roboticist/neuroscientist who’s built a brain on a chip, literally blending silicon and neurons. He envisions using his technology to allow us to connect our consciousnesses together in a sort of giant empathy web.
Ponder the inevitable ethical implications of this new frontier with CRISPR scientist and film producer Samira Kiani, who outlines the safety checks she’s developing to control gene edits. Biosecurity policy expert Megan Palmer shares how her experiences led to social responsibility programs for synthetic biologists.

... and much more.

The full list of contributors includes: George Church, Ramez Naam, Nicola Patron, Seth Bannon, Steve Ramirez, Samira Kiani, Bowen Zhao, Changle Zhou, Kristen Fortney, Juan Enriquez, Oshiorenoya Agabi, David Eagleman, Zack Denfeld, Cathrine Kramer, Emma Conley, Robert Plomin, Siranush Babakhanova, Megan Palmer, Zoe Cormier, Lux Alptraum, Joel Garreau, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Danny Hillis, Christina Agapakis, Sissel Tolaas, Daisy Ginsberg, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Becky Lyon, and Hannu Rajaniemi.

From David Eagleman’s essay “The Children You Could Have Produced Instead,” In Neo.Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species. Image courtesy of Marla Aufmuth

Join the authors on their just-launched Kickstarter and reserve your copy of the book!

On January 14, 2020, until 3:00 PM EST, you can take advantage of an Early Bird Discount. The Kickstarter campaign ends on February 14, 2020.

Update, February 18, 2020: Following a successful Kickstarter, Neo.Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species is now avaialable on neo.life/visions.

15 Books on Health and Design

Morla : Design Jennifer Morla

15 Books on the Intersection of Psychology and Design

Jennifer Morla's Book List

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.