A good example of Design Fiction

I like to think about design fiction when I’m making film ideas because if you don’t your story will lack the depth science fiction fans thrive on. While I have some ideas for design fiction, this example will not be one of mine, but rather a really well done piece of narrative.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a video game set in 2027, and it’s design fiction is based around the technological surge of human augmentation. They did there research into the legitimacy of the technologies (there’s a good documentary they have made that show today’s futuristic human augmentation, including a functioning eye replacement) as well as a well thought out timeline as to when human augmentation rose
Into the consumer markets.

The game has divided the population as either for or against human augmentation. There are many religious group protesting against it, and the business heads who are making huge profits off it. They are making the profits from a drug which the consumer must take so the augmentation is not rejected by the human body. This leads to many people who used loans for the purchase unable to keep buying the drub, leading to a rise in poverty and illness.

Not only did they put thought into the technology they based there design fiction around, but also around the architecture and fashion of society. There are plenty of buildings that we would still see today, because in the future there will be no need to tear down every building to make way for the new stuff. A lot of science fiction makes that mistake that all buildings must be new, but in reality, only a portion if them will be.
In terms of fashion, they made a prediction that the clothing will be based of rennesance outfits, which leads to a mix of the old and the new in terms of what people are wearing.

The developers put a lot of effort into making their world believable by basing everything around the assumption that society will become obsessed with trying to improve themselves with technology.