Futures

Can we as designers design the future? It might sound very easy to answer, because we cannot design for the past, the time and technology goes so fast that we are unable to design for the present. So, my answer is simple, we can design for the future, and we do so, but we cannot design ‘the future’.
In everything we do, we think of the future. We are studying, than working to save some money for holidays or to buy a house etc. and all those things we are planning to happen in the future.

From a designer point of view, future is like a final exhibition for the artist. We are looking back to the past to get some inspiration, and than we are working on the developing idea in the present to see the results in the future. Everything would be nice and simple if we wouldn’t have to live in the world that is going to the end.
For some reason I feel like the society is trying to blame us, designers for all this mess. Most of my, not related with design environment, friends suggested that in around 70 percent we, designers, are responsible for the future. Apparently, in most cases it depends on us for example, which material to use to build the house, or how much energy this object would have to use to meet the clients expectations etc. Of course, in this profession we do have to have a sense of reality and strong opinion on things that we do design. But it is also public or clients demand to posses certain goods, which most of the time are not ecologically friendly. Perfect looking fruits and vegetables, nicely packaged (usually in plastic or paper) goods, free newspapers (every day), flayers, bank statements and so on. Public should realise that somebody (like a designer) by the pressure of consumerism designed all those things. By saying all this, I’m not trying to defend other designers, to be more specific, myself, because we should all be ethical in everything we do. But, as we can see in many examples being moral is sometimes impossible to achieve.

For some people it might sounds a bit funny but right now technology is on such a high level of development, that soon humanlike machines could replace us. So, from this point of view I am not so sure if we should have so much ‘power’ in designing the future.
There is another side of the coin. Technology is helping many people with communication and exchange of information. In many situations, Internet and high technology, such us CAD software or modelling computer systems, can help with communication with certain communities near and faraway. At the same time, we are able to design and produce a safer, more disaster-resistant buildings using those advance computer software.
In my opinion every single person on this planet is equally important and responsible for designing the future. Everybody should be moral and use it as a guide to live, create and help others.