Tomorrow’s Technocultures: A Study in Experiential Futures

With the nearing Intelligence Revolution, AI will be a

transformative technology and a potential existential

threat. As the AI community is attempting to thoughtfully

approach development, the public needs more positive

and informed cultural narratives to meaningfully engage

with AI. Those that currently dominate the story landscape

depict mythical futures that play into humanity’s greatest fears. These dominant negative images are significant as they may affect the public's ability to shape the future of a technology that may only increase in influence.

Using the Ethnographic Experiential Futures methodology,

this thesis seeks to contribute to pluralizing the narrow

AI narrative landscape by bringing more positive, hopeful

images to life. This study seeks to surface alternative

images of the future from AI and ML experts. Inspired by a

collective imagination, this project ends with the creation

of CTRL+Z(ine), an artifact from the future that hints at a

possible, more hopeful future world. Engagement with this

artifact is meant to encourage insights that might foster

more positive, informed relationships with a potentially

transformative technology.