In my book ‘It's time to imagine harder’, my hypothesis was that bringing the creative consciousness back to work is a clear path to unlocking the unexpected and unanticipated, the unseen. The creative consciousness - which has a proclivity or impulse to operate comfortably even enthusiastically with the unknown — can breath in the warm oceans of ambiguity.
The creative consciouness ambles around in the new territories and terrains for which the old ways of knowing and being do not fit — they are not big enough to make sense of the territory. They are old. The new is new.
The creative consciousness is the thing that fosters the accidental discoveries, and that fosters unintended breakthroughs that challenge conventional boundaries. The creative consciousness is a catalyst for organic evolution within any effort for which uncertainty looms large.
When we embrace uncertainty, we open that new terrain, providing avenues for originality that rigid idation frameworks often obscure.
This episode of the podcast gets into...

Wow. That felt really alive.
Elysia, Emily, Rahmin and I hosted a workshop last Friday.
It was one of several workshops at San Francisco Design Week.
The context was to consider the obvious but easily repressed fact: we are all aging.
Every day.
Is longevity about living longer? About finding the way to extend biological life?
Suppose it is not about length of life so much as fullness of purpose?
What happens if we make aging about longevity rather than life extension?
How does the semantic shift adjust the way we design for more purposeful lives?
Can we find the way to think of aging as a continuing path towards a sense of purpose and value?

The languages and apparatuses for sense-making we have today are insufficient for the territory we are entering with AI.

When those who conjured AI into existence willingly express their bewilderment at the ‘how’ of the machinic contrivances they created, we are truly at the edges of a new territory; a new land where ways of being and ways of knowing feel different.

Our existing notions of self, purpose, value, ways of knowing and ways of being are insufficient for the task of making sense of this new terrain.

AI stands not as a tool, but as the entry point to this new territory. Those who probe the boundaries and edges of this new territory are the vanguard of sense-making. We need to explore, experiment and prototype our way in order to make it make sense.

The Artificial Intelligence Designed Fictions Research Studio is a sense-making lab, configured to help introduce new idioms, patterns, rituals, language and embodiments that help us...

Ghostwriter TUI is a speculative prototype for a collaborative writing experience that uses AI to suggest next sentences or paragraphs. This is an test of the UX mechanic in a terminal-based interface. This post explores the mechanics of this TUI interface and its potential for low-friction writing experiences.

Vibewriter and Ghostwriter are part of my Artificial Intelligence & Designed Fictions Research Studio. This research program is open to discuss commercial support, corporate or organizational sponsors, and incubation opportunities.

Our thesis is that speculative prototyping in an expansive and experimental fashion is the way to discover new opportunities for this next phase of human consciousness. We will explore new kinds of interactions, services, artifacts, and objects as if we are entering a new territory for which the old modalities and assumptions are like ancient epistemologies and ontologies ill-suited for this new land.

First things first: this is a ‘less yammering, more hammering’ post where I emphasize the value of speculative prototyping to augment the thinking. You know..theory + practice. I say that because it contains a study in using AI in a creative writing context. I do this because, well — I can't help wonder about the possibilities of what could be and I'm convinced that the best way to explore the possibilities is to prototype and experiment with the tools at hand. And that also may mean doing some tool making, too. That is part of the prototyping. You build new tools to understand the newness of the what-could-be. Or, you know — what could become. Now, I deliver this caveat to you because some people are going to read this and think that I am advocating for AI to write stories. I am not. I am not saying that AI should write...

​Futurespaces and Near Future Laboratory bring you SideShow on June 12th, 2025 at 6:00 PM at the Proper Hotel in Santa Monica, CA.

​One night. A room full of artists, designers, filmmakers, and creative people sharing the work they’re making outside the brief. Sound experiments. Illegible interfaces. Broken narratives. Tools bent into new shapes. Ideas with no client, no deadline, no plan—just the need to try something no one asked for. A rare glimpse into experimental ventures headed straight into unknown territory.

​Sideshow is a space for work that’s personal, unruly, and unfinished—kept alive in spite of economic pressure and the pull of everything more urgent. It’s a chance to share what’s taking shape, spark something new, and help each other keep going. Not by scaling up. Just by showing up. To keep alive the side that keeps us going.

Stop using ChatGPT. I made a better tool for writers. It's speculative, and futuristic — but it's here now and it works!

It’s called Vibewriter.

It's like trading fours with your muse to get your writers brain 🧠 in flow.

It’s a functional software prototype that anticipates new modes of interaction, interface, and engagement with AI. It’s not just about asking questions and getting answers. It’s about creating a communal and collaborative interaction and engagement that is more like call and response, or a dance with your collaborative writing partner — which just happens to be AI 🤖.

The artist who plays with the future, for whom the future is a medium and material, and casts a dark pall over what could be, is playing into the hands of the very forces that are at work to make the world a less habitable place. It is antagonistic. It is like taking the bait of the bully who is trying to pick a fight because they only know how to fight.

The trouble with staying with the trouble when the future is in trouble is that those responsible or who can possibly take responsibility for imagining a more habitable future are doing less of it or, even worse, are imagining a future that is antagonistic to the very forces that are at work to make the world a less habitable place. It is like taking the bait of the bully who is trying to pick a fight because they only know how to fight.

We are in the midst of a longevity revolution. This isn’t just about longer lifespans; it’s about living those years more fully. The number of people over 80 globally is projected to triple between 2020 and 2050. As this population expands, so does the diversity of their preferences, interests, passions, and ambitions. They are not a monolithic group defined solely by age, but a vibrant tapestry of individuals.

A workshop at SF Design Week 2025 in collaboration with my good friends at AGE OF_.