Bret Victor’s perspective on the future of interaction design struck a chord with my own reflections on technological progress. Looking back at the portrayal of the future in movies, it’s clear that the evolution of technology often takes unexpected turns. The idea that inventors revolutionize existing technologies, rather than just refining them, makes sense. It’s a call to break free from envisioning the future as a mere extension of the present.
Consider the shift from fiction to reality in accessing information instantly. While the end goal remains the same, the path we took diverged significantly from those cinematic depictions. The emergence of the Internet and smartphones reshaped how we interact with information, emphasizing the need to actively shape the future rather than predict it.
I agree with Bret’s perspective, that he rehashes in his responses to “A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design”, that we shouldn’t accept stagnation and minor improvements, and should still strive to achieve better design. Although touchscreens are a vision of the past come true, it would be staying in the past if we constrained the vision for future technology to what we have and know today. Touchscreens brought our vision and haptic senses together, and the user experience we can achieve through them is miles better than technology that we used to have. However, what if we were able to embed more senses into our technology? It’s hard to imagine, but that’s exactly the point. It’s easy to think about what we know already, but revolutionary ideas require exploring the unknown.