That thing in the intro? Well, I mention that because it's important to consider that “the future” is less a single destination and more as a historical invention. It's something that had to be made possible by religion, politics, science, finance, and even the stories people told. Once the future became measurable and actionable, it got woven into daily life, so we now live in the constant act of planning and forecasting. Yet forecasting still comes down to guesswork, and the mood around what’s ahead keeps getting gloomier. That tension—between our confidence in shaping tomorrow and our inability to know it—feels like the real question.

Read Joshua Rothman’s essay / short book review(s) to get a better sense of how the future came to be the way it is, and to think about what it might become if we start to imagine it differently. He's got a couple of books in the article

(Illustration by the awesome Josie Norton)

1) Office Hours N°308 began with Aaron sharing an extraordinary series of hand-folded “beat books” — pocket-sized no-cut zines built from a single sheet of paper that unfold progressively like miniature cinematic experiences. What looked at first like a conversation about print design quickly became a much larger discussion about attention, storytelling, civic systems, transportation advocacy, and the politics of communication itself.

2) Aaron walked through his “Intuitive Intersections Initiative,” a transportation advocacy effort in San Francisco focused on simple but meaningful changes: painted crosswalks, daylighting intersections, bike parking, and safer pedestrian infrastructure. Rather than oppositional activism, the strategy centers on creating delight, accessibility, and shared imagination around what cities could become.

3) The folded zines themselves became the subject of fascination. Participants explored how the rhythm of unfolding creates pacing, suspense, and progressive disclosure — almost like editing in cinema — while the physicality of paper produces a kind of engagement that digital media increasingly fails to sustain.

4) The discussion drifted into typography, grid systems, CSS-for-print, InDesign automation, procedural publishing, responsive layout systems, and the strange possibility that printed matter may now feel more radical than screens. There was particular excitement around the idea of building simple systems that allow non-designers to generate and print their own folded “beat books.”

5) One of the strongest threads of the session revolved around the tension between professionalism and spontaneity. Rick, Aaron, and others reflected on how overly polished design can accidentally erase the urgency, joy, and humanity that made an idea worth communicating in the first place.

6) Punk culture, David Carson, Dieter Rams, amateurism, anarchic design, and “professional aesthetics” all entered the conversation as participants tried to articulate why handmade, slightly imperfect artifacts can often feel more trustworthy and alive than institutional communication.

7) The session repeatedly returned to the idea that infrastructure, urban planning, and civic systems are not neutral technical realities but socially constructed narratives maintained through layers of bureaucracy, process, and visual authority. The folded zines became a way to make those hidden systems legible without turning the work into combative propaganda.

8) There were also wonderful side conversations about tactical urbanism, transportation cultures in Paris and Portland, the hidden labor behind city maintenance, “micro-tour” guidebooks, skateboard clinics as educational spaces, and how physical artifacts can create communities of participation rather than simply broadcasting information.

9) More than anything, Office Hours N°308 felt like an extended meditation on how ideas move through culture: not simply through information density or technical sophistication, but through delight, rhythm, tactility, narrative pacing, and the subtle emotional textures that make people want to keep unfolding the next page.

Are you looking for a new opportunity in the Agentic Service trade? Join our team!

Agentic Alignment Field Technician

Dr. Cornelius' Agentic Alignment Service is the nationally recognized service, installation, realignment, disposal, and remediation operator for AI-based systems that live where people live and work. We're looking for field service technicians to join our network of owned-and-operated dispatch bureaus and franchise partners as we expand into the Midwest and Northern Europe.