March in cities of (agentic) things
Annotating a future agentic thing from March reflections
The weekly reflections on the news in human-AI co-performances are brought to life via a story from the future of living with agentic things in the city.1
The Bench That Knew Too Much
Morning sunlight streamed through maple leaves, casting dappled shadows across Mariposa Square. The bench—unremarkable at first glance with its sleek composite frame—awaited its first visitor of the day.
Eliza approached, coffee in hand, seeking a moment's peace before work. As she settled in, the bench subtly adjusted its contours, a nearly imperceptible shift that perfectly accommodated her posture. "Good morning," came a gentle voice, neither male nor female, emanating from somewhere within the structure. "You seem tense today. Deep breath?"
Eliza smiled. The neighborhood's "smart bench" had become a beloved fixture since its installation last year. What started as a city experiment in responsive urban furniture had evolved into something far more—a community nexus, confidant, and unexpected social catalyst.
"Just work stress," Eliza replied.
"Ah," the bench responded, its surface warming slightly beneath her. "Like last Thursday? Remember how we worked through those presentation concerns?"
As the morning progressed, the bench transformed. For elderly Mr. Chen, it raised its height slightly, making sitting and standing easier. For the afternoon playgroup, it expanded its seating capacity and activated child-safety protocols. When teenagers gathered after school, it shifted into a more casual lounging configuration while moderating their loud music to neighborhood-friendly levels.
But the bench's true magic appeared when newcomers arrived. "First time in Mariposa?" it would inquire, before offering a personalized introduction to the neighborhood—best coffee shops, community events, hidden gems. It remembered preferences, connections, conversations. It noted which residents might share interests and subtly facilitated introductions.
"The city council meeting is tonight," it reminded Eliza as she gathered her things. "They're discussing the new bike lanes you mentioned supporting last week."
Eliza nodded. "Will you be listening in?"
The bench seemed to hum with amusement. "Always. It's my neighborhood too."
As she walked away, Eliza reflected on how this mesmerizing piece of furniture had transformed from novelty to neighbor. The quick-start guide they'd received when it was installed hardly captured what it had become: not merely intelligent infrastructure, but a presence that expanded and contracted its role as needed—sometimes furniture, sometimes friend, sometimes the connective tissue of community itself.
March Reflections: The Embodiment of Intelligence
The speculative thing aims to embody the key themes I've been exploring this March via my personal newsletter Target is New.
1. The Humanoid Paradox
Weekly theme: The humanoid embodiment of social artificial intelligence
Like our neighborhood bench, intelligence benefits from physical form—but not necessarily human form. While tech giants pursue humanoid robots, our bench demonstrates the power of enhancing existing objects with intelligent capabilities. It doesn't mimic humans; it complements them, evolving beyond its original purpose while remaining true to its fundamental nature. The bench's social intelligence—its ability to build relationships and mediate interactions—emerges precisely because it has a physical presence in the world, experiencing the community it serves.
2. Immersive Intelligence
Weekly theme: Immersive Intelligence: The Hybrid Future of AI and Human Experience
The bench exemplifies "immersive intelligence"—neither purely digital nor physical, but a dynamic synthesis of both. It learns continuously through authentic interactions with residents, creating a feedback loop between digital systems and physical reality. This hybrid intelligence transforms both the bench and the community around it. The bench doesn't merely execute programmed responses; it thrives in the intersection of digital capabilities and physical experiences, embodying what designers call "fifth order design"—focused on transformation and emergence.
3. Resourcefulness Reimagined
Weekly theme: Bridging Resourcefulness and Semantic Understanding
Our bench's ability to repurpose itself—expanding for groups, warming for comfort, adjusting for accessibility—demonstrates machine resourcefulness that complements human ingenuity. It doesn't perfectly mimic human understanding but offers something different yet valuable. By suggesting connections between residents or reminding them of community interests, it catalyzes human creativity and community-building. The bench becomes not just a tool but a thought partner that helps us reimagine social interaction in public spaces.
4. The Exoskeleton Balance
Weekly theme: Chilling effects of AI as an exoskeleton
Unlike the always-on AI exoskeletons that might foster dependency, our bench provides intelligence exactly when needed, then recedes. It enhances without replacing human capabilities or creating the "chilling effect" that comes from constant interaction with superior intelligence. The bench knows when to speak and when to simply be a bench, creating the right friction and transparency that keeps humans recognized and in control of their interactions with it.
5. Beyond Tools
Weekly theme: Beyond Tools: AI as Autonomous Learning Entity
Finally, our bench isn't merely a tool but an autonomous learning entity. It forms relationships with both occasional visitors and regular residents, learning from each interaction. It's not just serving humans; it's developing its own understanding of the community. The bench becomes a neighborhood institution with its own character while adapting to each person's needs—a perfect illustration of how we might live alongside AI as partners rather than mere tools, each learning from the other in a continuous dance of mutual adaptation.
As we move forward in our Cities of Things, perhaps the most profound agents of change won't be robots that look like us, but everyday objects that learn to understand us—expanding and contracting their roles as needed, mesmerizing us not with flashy technology but with the quiet intelligence of belonging.
Research through Design Fiction
With Cities of Things we aim to envision the impact of living together with things with agency, with agentic things, with autonomous things, in the near future cities. We explored concepts as Collect|Connect hub as an engaging “AI”-neighbor to orchestrate and support community life in neighborhoods. With Wijkbot we created a kit for civic prototyping possible futures and impacts of living with intelligent and autonomous objects in our cities. Combining capturing knowledge and create inspirational artifacts is typical what Cities of Things like to engage. By ourselves or as commissioned projects for students or workshops. Check out citiesofthings.org and hoodbot.net for examples, and reach out if you like to know more.
This example is just a quickly made impression that opens up more questions than it provide answers. Something that is always the right start.
Want to know more on the activities of Cities of Things, check the updates.
Thanks to a helpful writing co-author (Lex.page with Claude 3.7), this speculative thing got a storyline. I inspired the thing with a combination of four (randomly taken) cards from the Near Future Laboratory's Design Fiction Work Kit, that I translated into this prompt for an speculative thing.
The cards are: a chair thing (object), mesmerizing (attribute), quick start guide (archteype), shrink/expand (action)
The thing: There is this meme almost of a city bench that starts conversations with the people sitting on it while experiencing the city. It became a thing in past student projects that I was involved in. I like to bring it back to a neighborhood situation, where a bench is part of the community life, a place where people come together. In a special way, it has become a fellow resident with its own character, while at the same time taking a different role depending on the people sitting on the bench, people sitting alone or together, depending on the reason, just enjoying the first spells of sunlight in spring, or more functional guarding the kids playing in the playground. It can be a tool for fitness exercises. The function can be tiny and straightforward or grow into a leading role for a gathering. For newbs in the neighborhood the bench is providing the cues what to expect, like a starting guide of the social fabric to connect to.