The Challenge

Should we turn the world's population into environmentally responsible couch potatoes that can look back on a rich and fruitful existence when they die young? Or will the world solve its own problems?

SuperBug

Earth will solve its own problems. It's a self-organising system that can be trusted. However, earth is not necessarily nice to humanity. In the light of the recent population explosion, our limited resources are not the only constraint to progress, `The Coming Plague' could be another one. Imagine, for instance, a new strain of Ebola, spreading on the wind like the flu.

Plague relates to population growth through the `Species Area Effect'. The bigger the (habitat) island, the more potentially plague-causing species (viruses, etc) it will host. Human population is an island (area) too. Its exponential growth created a niche for new potentially plague-causing species. That niche is still growing. The new equilibrium involves the development and migration of an enormous number of new species. A few of our new guests are causing plagues.

The temporary solution the Health & Inefficiency group proposes, is to design (genetically engineered) benign bacterial and viral species, comparable to e-coli and Yakult: the SuperBug. By infecting humanity with SuperBug, the niche can be filled. In this way we'll artificially create a temporary equilibrium. There will be no room for plague-causing species anymore.

To explain these ideas, the group developed three scenario's:

1. CURRENT COURSE - Earth will solve its own problems.

Around the year 2000, the human population's growth curve (which is exponentially going up) will crash as a result of The New Plague.

2. POSTPONE CRASH - Earth will solve its own problems later.

By introducing SuperBug in time, humanity can keep on growing, only to be stopped by another plague or disaster in the future.

3. POSTPONE CRASH AND REDUCE POPULATION - Earth will change its mind. In this scenario, SuperBug buys us the time we need to implement solutions that decrease the size of the human population.

This is Design Challenge number 1: Educate Humanity about Overpopulation!

The Participants

• Michiel Holleman, Student, Academy for Visual Arts, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
• Norbert van Haaster, User Interface Designer/Developer, Viduce B.V., the Netherlands
• Peter Hennessey, Artist, Lecturer, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Melbourne, Australia
• Rein Jansma, Zwarts en Jansma Architecten, the Netherlands
• Andrew Mauricides, Director, Identity S.A., Switzerland
• Claire Neesham, Journalist, New Scientist, UK
• William Owen, Journalist, The Guardian, UK
• Roc Parés i Burgues, Galeria Virtual, Spain
• Elizabeth Pick, Student, Jan van Eyck Academy, the Netherlands
• Alfred Rademakers, Designer, Alice Interaction Design, the Netherlands
• Tom Ray, Researcher in Digital Evolution, Tierra Working Group, USA
• Peter de Rooden, Project coordinator, BRS Premsela Vonk, The Netherlands
• Michael Samyn, WWW designer, Belgium
• Willem Velthoven, Publisher, Mediamatic, the Netherlands

  HEALTH AND INEFFICIENCY