Something I’ve been thinking about lately…
The future isn’t something we predict.
It’s something we prototype.
It’s something that is rehearsed over and over in the conversations we have, the films we make (or watch), the explorations we do routinely, in the wanderings of our imaginations, and in the artifacts we create to help us sense into the possibilities of of a multitude of moments, experiences, worlds we ponder inhabiting.
This is why the kind of futuring I call Design Fiction matters in a material way. It lets us test ideas before committing resources. It lets us rehearse the future in a way that is more than just talk, but also more than just prototyping. It lets us create artifacts that we can argue with, laugh at, or get uncomfortable alongside. It lets us explore the possibilities of the future in a way that is grounded in the present, but also open to the unexpected and unanticipated.
This is why Design Fiction matters — it is the materialization of possibilities.
But call it what you will. Lately I’ve been doing lots of hands-on prototyping of what I guess one would call ‘Agentic Futures.‘
Why?
Because its the kind of future that is already here, but not quite. The kind of future that is already happening, but not yet fully realized. The kind of future that is already shaping our present, but not yet fully understood. The kind of future that is already influencing our decisions, but not yet fully appreciated.
We’re in a super weird super familiar moment right now where the fictional is collapsed in on the lived experience of the present. Tomorrow, breakfast may become something entirely different when our cereal boxes start a conversation with us.
Take this site..it’s a gigantic repository of the agentic “skills” that are already built:
(or for you Git folks go here: https://github.com/openclaw/skills)
You are now looking at the catalog of things that it seems the folks living just at the other side of the future have already built — representing in some fashion the hopes, fears, dreams, desires and dreads of the present.
This might look like a terse, very nerdy Git repository.
But, in fact it is a cultural artifact. A wellspring of insight and implication. You can love it, hate it, be inspired by it but there’s no ignoring it. It is a mirror held up to the present, reflecting back the agentic logic of late capitalism in all its glory and antagonizing contradictions.
This is the “archeology of the future” thing that I go on and on about.
Finding evidence of the future in the present is a practice that I find endlessly fascinating and rewarding. It is a way to connect the dots between the present and possible futures, to see how the seeds of the future are already being sown in the present, and to understand how the future is already shaping our present.
Why do I blog this?This form of evidence — I'm talking about this OpenClaw Hug of extant skills — of a possible future serves two purpose in my mind:
1/ on the one hand, it provides a way to comprehend the ambitions and aspirations of those who are building these agentic futures. And:
2/ also or on the other hand, perhaps more importantly, it serves as a reminder that the future is made, not delivered from elsewhere. Unless you — literally you — participate in fashioning that future in a material way, you are likely to find yourself on the receiving end of a future that is not of your making, and that may not be in your best interest
.The future is not something that happens to us, but something that we create together through our actions, our choices, and our imaginations. By finding evidence of the future in the present, we can better understand how the future is being shaped and how we can shape it in a way that is more aligned with our values and aspirations.
Now, I should state clearly that I am a technologist. I build things of this sort, but I do so with a keen awareness that the things I build are not just technical artifacts, but also cultural artifacts that reflect and shape the world we live in. I am deeply interested in the implications of these agentic futures, and I am committed to exploring them in a way that is thoughtful, critical, and responsible.