This time last year, we were talking about going to California, to promote How To Future. We were supposed to hit LA and SF. We were supposed to eat a daily avocado and drink mezcal and smell star jasmine and orange blossoms. I planned to re-visit the Mystic Museum and Dark Delicacies and Gepetto’s. I …
It may feel like the world is slowing to a stop, but publishing grinds on. Did I mention I have two books coming out this summer? Well, I do. They both come out this July, within (I believe) a week of each other. One is How To Future: Leading and Sensemaking in an Age of …
Did I mention I have two books coming out this summer? Read More »
This summer, the nice folks at Gizmodo asked if they could stop by my place to film me talking about smart glasses. I explained (at length) that my office is too small to accomodate a film crew, and that our home itself is naturally very dark, but they were undaunted and agreed to film me …
This is very sound. If I had one piece of 2018 advice for literally everyone, it would be to talk, loudly and frequently and in detail, about the future you want. You can’t manifest what you don’t share. https://t.co/SeDwRqErnv — Madeline Ashby (@MadelineAshby) December 31, 2017
Yeah, I said it.
The other day, after watching Crimson Peak for the first time, I woke up with a fully-fleshed idea for a Gothic horror story about experience design. And while the story would take place in the past, it would really be about the future. Why? Because the future itself is Gothic.
Due to a quirk of deadlines and contracts, I have four new pieces of fiction out this month. Here they are: “A Stopped Clock” in The Atlantic Council’s War Stories from the Future. This is about smart cities and the future of urban warfare, as narrated by a middle-aged street vendor in Korea with an …
A note: I wrote these remarks after having watched the reception to my interview in The Atlantic about the need for women in futurism. A relevant snippet: Ashby says that any time she speaks in front of a crowd, and offers a grim view of the future, someone (almost always a man) invariably asks why …
The Privilege of the Future (SweCon 2015 GoH Speech) Read More »
A while ago, I tweeted something based on this piece in VICE UK, called “Things You Only Know When You’ve Worked in Retail.” I don’t really care for the clickbaity title, but the content of the piece isn’t wrong. Here’s what I said: People ask me how I do gritty, lived-in SF and futures work …
This review of Disney’s Tomorrowland (and others like it that I have read) got me thinking about something I was asked at the Design In Action summit last week in Edinburgh. I was there participating in the “Once Upon a Future” event, where I read a story called “The Dreams in the Bitch House.” It’s …
No one cares about your jetpack: on optimism in futurism Read More »