Speed

July 18th, 2008

Speed is Good, Time is the Devil said Hitachi and John Thackera in his book In the Bubble writes that

Our designed world reinforces the value we place upon speed. But the signs are that speed is a cultural paradigm whose time is up. Economic growth and a constant acceleration in production have run against the limited carrying capacity of the planet.

Many of us want faster computers, but we also want more balanced lives – lives lived at speeds we determine, not at speeds dictated by the logic of systems beyond our control

Image published under a Creative Commons License by ?ole

AND

Questioning speed and acceleration raises interesting design and innovation questions. Should we continue to design only to make things faster? Is selective slowness consistent with growth and innovation?

How might faster information help us live more lightly on the planet?

From 1771 to 1971 – we have accelerated the pace of our economies and our lives and they have become as a consequence heavier as Thackera describes them.

Its thought provoking – and the book forces me to reflect on the process of design, system design, designing for outcomes vs. designing for a status quo. The Bill Bailey principle

Bill is asked how he comes up with his jokes – he says ” I start with a laugh and work backwards, what do I need to do to get that amount of laughter”.

As we evolve from the position of Installation to Deployment of a new social and economic model enabled by recent technological developments.

Design therefore should play an important role in helping organisations evolve over the next ten years and more. Because the decisions we make now will shape our futures.

And back to Speed as a concept – as we race through our lives, racing to work, racing to pick up the kids, racing to the shops, racing to the pub, racing to get the latest gadget, racing to go on holiday – I muse on this question – has the consumer society made us happier? Has material wealth brought with it greater value and meaning? And the answer to that question is very ambiguous.

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