When is the future: speculative knowledge in the digital age

Micah Lockman-Fine

doi:10.17918/00011588

In classrooms, offices, and museums alike, designers have long leveraged speculative methods to imagine and agitate "the future." A growing interest in these methods, combined with critical investigation of the link between design and economy (Becker, 2025; Fisher, 2014; Steyerl, 2019) facilitated the founding of formal Speculative Design and Speculative Futuring fields (Raby & Dunne, 2013). Yet recent scholarship notes that despite the explosion of speculative practice across contexts, speculative interventions frequently fail to incite critical thinking or support pathways towards action (Hu, 2026; Martins, 2014). In this thesis, I explore the gap between speculative practice and speculative knowledge. I position speculation in its historical context, studying its philosophic, scientific, and economic roots as each influence design practice today. I assess Ackoff's (1989) DIKW pyramid as a normative information sciences paradigm, applying his distinctions between data, information, and knowledge to identify progressive (non-frictional) tendencies within speculative and digital practice.I further question how the relationship between speculation and information shapes futures-oriented work, positioning the future as both a public imaginary and a collection of distinct temporal units. To do so, I analyze perceptual trends, cultural valuation systems, temporal experiences, and technological mediation strategies. Building on this foundation, I extend speculative analysis outside of traditional educational and exhibition settings, into the digital sphere where design shapes everyday action (Aliyu et al., 2024; Eglash, 2019; Pierce, 2021; Plant, 1997; Steyerl, 2019). I then propose three speculative strategies towards "ways of knowing" that are simultaneously critical and action-oriented. I present these as hybrid epistemological approaches and pragmatic design opportunities. These strategies, termed "Holonize," "Contaminate," and "Frictionize," map onto but also disrupt normative data, information, and knowledge practices. I argue for the value of subjective and relational "knowing" to support speculative design, especially through digital interactions. I also argue that diverse "ways of knowing" might support critical thought and action unanticipated by formal design systems.

When is the future: speculative knowledge in the digital age

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When is the future: speculative knowledge in the digital age

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