Children in 2077: Designing Children's Technologies in the Age of Transhumanism

Abstract

What for and how will we design children's technologies in the transhumanism age, and what stance will we take as designers? This paper aims to answer this question with 13 fictional abstracts from sixteen authors of different countries, institutions and disciplines. Transhumanist thinking envisions enhancing human body and mind by blending human biology with technological augmentations. Fundamentally, it seeks to improve the human species, yet the impacts of such movement are unknown and the implications on children's lives and technologies were not explored deeply. In an age, where technologies can clearly be defined as transhumanist, such as under-skin chips or brain-machine interfaces, our aim is to reveal probable pitfalls and benefits of those technologies on children's' lives by using the power of design fiction.

Augmented future: tracing the trajectory of location-based augmented reality gaming for the next ten years

“…Thus, in this section we ideate and present three possible future designs following the speculative design approach. 73 – 75 These designs illustrate the mechanisms and dynamics in practice and offers a lens to a possible future of the LBG genre. We base two of these designs on the Pokémon franchise 76 since Pokémon GO is a major reference point in the LBG genre 1 and the Pokémon franchise is well-known and documented.…”

In Pursuit of Inclusive and Diverse Digital Futures: Exploring the Potential of Design Fiction in Education of Children

“…In addition to using design fiction directly with children and the youth, researchers have employed design futuring with adult experts to reimagine the design of technologies concerning children. Buruk et al [13] discuss the age of transhumanism in 2077 as a space where technology provides enhanced augmented sensory and cognitive capabilities to humans. Through their fictional scenarios, the authors raise crucial questions on the ethical, socio-political, and economic conditions that could arise in this context, considering the problems it creates (ibid).…”

“…Through their fictional scenarios, the authors raise crucial questions on the ethical, socio-political, and economic conditions that could arise in this context, considering the problems it creates (ibid). Even if Buruk et al [13] look towards 2077, the issues they raise regarding the ethics of technology use, design, and access, are critical even in the present. Menendez-Blanco et al [50] challenge the present narratives regarding students with dyslexia and explore the design of critical artefacts foregrounding dyslexia as a learning difference instead of a disorder.…”