Here are some top-line takeaways from the recent General Seminar S07/E01 session where we explored the future imagined by the AI 2027 Summary report through a “janky time machine archeology” exercise using the trusty old TrendPacks. The goal was to create tangible artifacts that embody the everyday realities of a world where AI is ambient and integrated into all aspects of organizational life. (We found prompt packs there!)

1) We treated the AI 2027 Summary (scenario takeaways + PDF + forecast tabs) as a creative constraint, not a prophecy, and asked: “what would make these claims feel normal, ordinary and everyday in the future imagined by the report (and by implication — it’s authors..because it was authored..)?

2) So, now it’s time for “janky time machine archeology”. Let’s go into that possible future but — Rules: you can’t interview the future, you can only come back with evidence (labels, receipts, notices, quick-start guides, stickers, junk mail…fragments like this) that implies a world.

3) We used the Trend Pack Workbook (workbook frame for turning trend claims into personas/places + artifacts) as the structure so the imagination stayed grounded instead of drifting into macro hot-takes.

SOME ARTIFACTS WE FOUND AND BROUGHT BACK

4) One breakout group found two refrigerators: a neighborhood food-network fridge for “public virtue” (waste reduction + mutual aid) and a second “private guilty pleasures” fridge that stayed off the network when visibility felt invasive.

5) The tiny design move that said everything: an opt-in/opt-out button (or sticker) inside the fridge that signals how you want to participate in a food network. Cooperative care infrastructure where your neighbors can be alerted to food you have that they can use before it spoils? Or are you into the surveillance-capital data hoovering so Whole Foods knows what you eat? (Perhaps in exchange for free beer..)

6) Another breakout group landed in “Token Town,” a sweaty, stymie, yet earnest little corner store selling prompt starter packs where people buy stakes in policy-prompts before they’re submitted to a voting hub — ways to comprehend and engage with policy that you may or may not want enacted without just listening to bad political ads. See the related editorial.

7) We pushed “prompts as durable civic infrastructure”: community organizers offload the tedious admin and policy wordsmithing to a reusable prompt kit so they can focus on community organizing and the things they are good at — which aren’t typically administrative crap.

8) The “expert section” twist: validated starter packs that let regular people level up fast (e.g., tenant/lease negotiation packs) so expertise becomes something you can pick up at the bodega and use immediately.

9) Another group came back with a bit of a darker artifact: a paper flyer with a microphone embedded that “listens” to public arguments about something provocative (like automating school lunch systems), forcing the question “heard vs listened to” and whether this is public-service mailbox vibes or omnipresent surveillance.

11) The paper flyer started out with this slightly ominous artifact with surveillance vibes. Part of the challenge of doing futures work in this algotocratic moment is that we slide quickly into this mode of tech=darkness. So I wanted to try the exercise of pushing back on that tendency and seeing if there was a bright line between being listened to and being heard. So, rather than covert extraction, I had the image of a typical public artifact: the humble mailbox..a kind of civic “inbox” where people intentionally leave a voice note, with clear consent and visibility into how it’s used. (Reminds me of 2005 and my VXML-based Tellbush.org project).

12) We wrapped on the point that the artifact isn’t the point: it’s evidence of a world, and the discussion around it is where strategy actually happens; next iteration includes exploring community-submitted trend packs (with some curation) and getting the workbook off-screen and into physical form.

Be sure to subscribe to the Luma nozzle where I let folks know about upcoming events like this: https://luma.com/nearfuturelaboratory

In fact, I’ll be hosting the next General Seminar session on February 4, 2026 where we’ll look at how Strategy is actually a kind of science-fiction — and how that can be used to advantage, particularly in this kinetic chaotic moment.

Hope to see you there!