---
date: '2011-11-10'
layout: page
old_url: http://hans.gerwitz.com/library/records/sic-2011.html
slug: sic-2011
title: 'SIC 2011: Post-Opulence Design'
---

I had the opportunity to speak at the inaugural [Seattle Interactive Conference][1] and, looking for inspiration, I settled on an [old tweet][2] as a seed.  The result was a talk entitled "Post-Opulence Design".  There have been many requests for slides and notes, so I [posted them on SlideShare][3], where the speaker notes are visible (including image attributions) but I cannot otherwise annotate.  So here's the deck, a video, and a few links I've been asked about.  

<iframe src="https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/10092347?rel=0" width="425" height="355" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/32941158" width="425" height="320" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

3: I got the word "opulence" from [Umair Hague][4].  
4: Douglas Rushkoff came to my attention because of an interest in procedural literacy, but his [consideration of social change][5] has been thought-provoking.  
7: My [job at frog][6] makes me an applied futurist, which has led me to my personal model of economic (business), technological (physical), and cultural (human) forces.  
14: The singularity optimists come in many forms, but most of them rely on acceleration of human capability.  Paul Allen argues that human understanding will be limited by [complexity brakes][7].  
15: The best intro to collapse pessimism is probably [Jared Diamond's TED talk][8] on the subject.  
16: Michael Eysenck's [hedonic treadmill][9] suggests we will always be acting to pursue happiness.  
18: Conspicuous consumption was proposed by [Thorstein Veblen in 1899][10].  Yet it's only recently the ridiculous model of the rational agent is falling out of favor.  
21: If you didn't recognize the little pig farmers, please watch [this commercial from Chipotle][11].  
26: A good place to learn more about both environmental and economic influences that threaten to drag our economy down is the [Post Carbon Institute][12].  
29: For evidence that thought leaders are beginning to plan for continued wealth disparity, look up Citigroup's [consumer hourglass theory][13].  
34: The "rise of the maker" is worth a talk of its own.  I'm fortunate to live near one of the nexuses of  maker culture in [Metrix Create:Space][14], go check it out.  My use of a steampunk image was inspired by a viewing of [Vintage Tomorrows][15] last month.  And if you're not using [Etsy][16], shame on you.  
39: I'm surprised more of the SIC audience didn't admit to knowing their rough [Klout score][17].  
40: [Eudemonia][18] is the concept that started this conversation.  
42: One of the key concepts behind dematerialization is [embedded energy][19].  But as one audience member's question indicated, even "virtual" business has energy costs, so it won't save the future from the material forces described earlier.  
43: …likewise with [ephemeralization][20].  
44: Bonus points to anyone who recognized [Dieter][21].  
45: The deck I stole this slide from isn't available publicly, but Hartmut's thoughts are also expressed in the [Journal of Product Innovation Management][22].  
47: I got this image and the idea of affordable not having to be austere from the wonderful [Atlantic Cities online journal][23].  
49: Sometimes the obvious statements are the sticky ones.  "Gamification at its best is a form of eudemonia" got re-quoted quite a bit on Twitter, amusingly [looping back to Umair Haque][24].  
50: Don't forget to check out [this local project][25].  
51: I hear that the reference to experience boasting led to some great side conversations about whether literacy and education are just proxies for financial wealth, making [Goodreads][26] just a proxy for opulence.


   [1]: http://www.seattleinteractive.com/
   [2]: https://twitter.com/gerwitz/status/30502103218651136
   [3]: http://www.slideshare.net/gerwitz/sic2011-postopulence-design
   [4]: http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/05/is_a_well_lived_live_worth_anything.html
   [5]: http://www.rushkoff.com/blog/2011/10/26/cnn-occupy-wall-street-is-not-a-protest-but-a-prototype.html
   [6]: http://www.frogdesign.com/services/capabilities/innovation-strategy.html
   [7]: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/guest/27206/
   [8]: http://www.ted.com/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse.html
   [9]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill
   [10]: http://books.google.com/books?id=YULEAAAAIAAJ&q=isbn:9780395140086&dq=isbn:9780395140086&hl=en&ei=uNe6TqPtNcTItAbSg9SfBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA
   [11]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfSGt6rHos
   [12]: http://www.postcarbon.org/
   [13]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/13/american-middle-class-poverty
   [14]: http://metrixcreatespace.com/
   [15]: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/10/vintage-tomorrows-review-nycc
   [16]: http://www.etsy.com/
   [17]: http://klout.com/gerwitz
   [18]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia
   [19]: http://phe.rockefeller.edu/dematerialization/
   [20]: http://www.paulgraham.com/tablets.html
   [21]: http://www.vitsoe.com/en/gb/about/dieterrams
   [22]: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2011.00811.x/full
   [23]: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2011/10/affordable-housing-doesnt-scream-affordable/326/
   [24]: https://twitter.com/umairh/status/132306595320307712
   [25]: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peterseid/romo-the-smartphone-robot
   [26]: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/325280-hans-gerwitz
