ProlepSys
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My lab, ProlepSys (Prolepsis Systems), is guided by the idea of prolepsis - using possibilities for the future to shape what we do in the present. Simply put, prolepsis is imagining a future event or development as if it’s already happening, so we can start working toward it now (Cole, 2023).
A familiar example of prolepsis can be found in fiction, where future events are hinted at or suggested in advance through things like approaching storms, broken mirrors, prophecies, dreams, flashbacks, flash-forwards, or music scores, all building up to what’s coming next.
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Prolepsis in human development works much like foreshadowing in fiction. It’s the cultural driver of human development, coupled with the mediation which human-created symbolic systems enable (Vygotsky). Consider how parents and caregivers think ahead for their children and narrate about their future, planning things out so they can grow up ready for what's next. Parents use their knowledge from their cultural past to shape a child's environment, embodying an imagined future by constantly anticipating their needs, behaviors, and potentials. They guide their children’s growth and development, they prepare their children for their world on the horizon, helping them develop values, knowledge, and skills that will serve them throughout life.
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In the same way, at ProlepSys, we consider possible futures to inform how we design, research, and engage with emerging sociotechnical systems in the present, in ways that help shape partnerships between humans and machines that support our development goals.
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Lab members
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Cassandra Kelley [broader impacts project coordinator]
Ye Deng [incoming PhD student]
Eliza Callahan [underg. researcher]
Erick Makita [underg. researcher]
Thereza Vazapphilly [underg. researcher]
John Onubogu [underg. researcher]
Yifei Tian [underg. researcher]
​where children are partners in our infrastructuring activities
[where] technology isn't the solution to every problem
where we carefully consider what tasks should be delegated (Latour) to technologies and what should remain distinctly human.
where technology is allowed to join in the Human-Centered Loop
[where we go] “…back and forward between the possible and the actual…"(Bruner)
where technology brings people closer together
[where] learning is innovative and safe
where we worry about “lock-ins” and believe that more than one technological future is possible (Lanier)
[where] “use is design” (Pea)