Altered Parenthood

New familial contracts and new forms of parenthood.

Advances in medicine could result in increased life expectancy and the extension of sociological or biological phases of life, such as reproductivity. New ways of creating children and alternative types of familial structure may remodel important concepts of identity relating to families, in particular, what it means to be a ‘parent’

How the scenario could unfold

Due to an increased pace of change, people may generally be required to continue developing new skills and knowledge to survive in the workplace. Compounded by an increased lifespan and a strain on state pension schemes in some countries, people may need to work until they are older, requiring more adaptability not just in skills and knowledge but in career choice.

If we consider that having children can put strain on careers that already require constant adaptation and that within this context people have an increased biological freedom on when to have children — it is possible that people may rather delay parenthood for a period when they are financially able to step away from work for longer in order to reduce its financial risk. Alternatively, this potential need for security may conflate with other emerging shifts in relationship and community structures to mean that people form new familial contracts and new forms of parenthood.

We can explore the significance of this context from the perspective of a future character who we created based on our research with real people.

Find out how we ‘Learned from extreme users’.

What might that mean for Amma?

For someone like Amma, whose identity is closely tied to concepts of parenthood, we can explore how services may evolve, which may support or challenge her needs in the future.

“Being a mum is what I’ve always wanted. Who I am now is important because it will make me a better mum. I will finally step into who I know I am meant to be”.

Identity could grow more fluid as people gain more freedom to pursue the lifestyles of their choosing outside normative assumptions of race, nationality, sexuality, gender, age and more. More nuanced characteristics are supported by social media niches alongside AI that may raise self awareness to help you define what works for you.

Dimensions of change

Spirituality

Values and beliefs could be strained by a mixture of people’s environment and self-discovery.

Over the last two decades Amma has taken great fulfilment from evolving and curating her career as a coach. Now, with her friends surrounding her, she is starting to shape her life toward having a child in 20 years time. Nothing seems as important as leaving a positive legacy on the world by bringing a new person into it to impart everything she has learnt and to nurture her child in a loving, dependable community. She made the decision to freeze eggs a long time ago and loves that she consequently has the capacity to phase her life, rather than do everything at once.

Her goal:

Her goal is to be as prepared as possible to be a parent. To prepare her body, to have the right resources, knowledge and network and to generally create the space to have a child in her career break.

Amma’s happiness is directly connected to her dream of being a mother.

Explorations in ‘Altered parenthood’

We explore the future by looking for potential points of friction (in concepts of identity) between this scenario of parenthood and the needs of someone like Amma. These explorations are outlines of services that act as emerging spaces for solutions or as spaces to explore the problems and provocations elicited by the services.

What beneficial elements of these services could be fostered?
What is already happening in some way?
What harm may these services do? What might prevent services such as these proliferating?
What cultures may develop around a landscape of services such as this?

Find out how we ‘Conducted lab explorations’.

Genesis

Genesis offers soon to be parents more choice than ever.
Choose when and how to grow your child – No need for eggs, sperm or a womb. Genesis forms your child however you’d like while also using gene curation to balance characteristics and avoid health issues.

Team: The Lab

An all inclusive support and preparation service offering savings plans based on the age you are planning to retire and number of children you are planning to have with oocyte cryopreservation linked to your savings plans. Alongside financial support are classes to prepare your body, tuition on how to raise and empathise with your child and ‘family preparation’ – the set up and adaptation of relationships to build complimentary surrogates, parents, siblings and friends for your child.

Team: The Lab

Find out how we ‘Crafted future service concepts’.

Service Visions

Colo

Colo is a personal assistant for self employed people who work at home by helping them find someone to work with who shares similar interests and lives nearby and by helping you build a working routine.

Emerging topics

In this set of explorations, we were asked to consider scenarios where huge advancements in reproductive science and general health improvements may impact the way people organise and structure their lives around child-rearing and we extrapolate services that respond to those scenarios.

We can envisage a slow emergence of human capacity to genetically adapt or design traits and characteristic elements in one’s children and the vastly complex implications that may have on society. Questions emerge around ‘parenthood’ and ‘responsibility’ if a parent’s role spreads beyond ‘nurture’ and hereditary ‘nature’, toward being the ‘designer’. We can ask who should have the right to engineer and how? How will our understanding of identity alter should people’s character be genetically styled by another?

As we look at the convergence of less provocative trends such as the ageing of populations, the fluidity of relationships and an increased reproductive freedom; we can propose outcomes where child rearing becomes an even more orchestrated activity, perhaps planned over decades in order to meet new perceptions of optimum parenting conditions. These circumstances may lead to new familial networks where distinct roles are established around what value can be brought to the family unit. In addition, this may, more simply, lead to increased age gaps between parent and child, altering their relationships, the children’s learned behaviour and the ways they may depend on each other at different stages of their lives.

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AI could advance to levels that would allow sophisticated understanding of people’s emotions. If that information is coupled with financial behaviours or organisational objectives it could transform how value is assigned to our services and our experiences.

Altered Parenthood

New familial contracts and new forms of parenthood.

How the scenario could unfold

What might that mean for Amma?

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Scenarios