Institute For The Future

Artifact from the Future: Choice Reducer 5000

3:11 pm, your weakest time. You’ve already reached your calorie limit for the day, but the vending machine still calls. Time for a new defense—an app for your augmented reality glasses that blocks from view the foods that you shouldn’t eat. Instead, the app shows minutes of treadmill time to work them off. Your best friend Neela is your food coach, and she even removes your worst weakness altogether.

Mounting evidence shows that the plethora of choices we face when finding food are bad for our peace of mind and self-control, but store formats are slow to change. Manufacturers are in a bind between simplifying and catering to fragmenting desires. But in this future, an individual reclaims choice through voluntary simplicity: using augmented reality to mask temptations and stick to health goals.

This Artifact from the Future is a snapshot of what might emerge if forecasts about the future materialize. It was developed as part of our 2010 Science and Technology Map which explores where emerging technical abilities and scientific perspectives converge to fight illness and build well-being over the next decade.

Like all IFTF’s Artifacts from the Future, this image offers insights into future everyday lives and is intended to give you an immersive look at a possible future change.