This TED Talk features designer and artist Annie Lou,

recorded live at TEDx Beacon Street, 2016.

What if our plants could sense the toxicity levels in the soil

and express that toxicity through the color of its leaves?

What if those plants could also remove those toxins from the soil?

Instead, what if those plants grew their own packaging?

Or were designed to only be harvested by their owner's own patented machines.

What happens when biological design is driven by the motivations of mass-produced commodities?

What kind of world would that be?

My name is Annie, and I'm a designer and researcher at MIT Media Lab, where I'm part of a relatively new and unique group

called Design Fiction, where we're wedged somewhere between science fiction and science fact.

And at MIT, I'm lucky enough to rub shoulders with scientists studying all kinds of cutting-edge fields,

like synthetic neurobiology, artificial intelligence, artificial life,

and everything in between.

And across campus, there's truly brilliant scientists

asking questions like,

how can I make the world a better place?

And part of what my group likes to ask is,

what is better? What is better for you, for me?

For a white woman, a gay man, a veteran, a child with a prosthetic?

Technology is never neutral. It frames a reality and reflects the context. Can you imagine what it would say about the work-life balance at your office of these were standard issue on the first day?

I believe it's the role of artists and designers to raise critical questions.

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