Welcome to Mutant Futures: a newsletter about culture, futurism and strategy.

The theme of this From the Lab edition is recalibration. Because frankly, I need recalibrating. The past five months of writing on here have been very rewarding, but also taxing. Balancing this with a full-time job, among other things, has left me zapped. The pace and noise of the world can feel relentless when you’re constantly scanning for what’s next, and I need a break from all of that.

So this summer, I’m switching things up. It’s time for some crop rotation to give my creative soil fresh nutrients. As the temperatures rise, I’ll be curating something lighter, more sensorial and less future-facing through a separate project.

To everyone who’s been reading, engaging, appreciating—thank you! Your curiosity and engagement is truly motivating. I hope you have a fantastic summer.

MF will be back in September.

Take care,

P x

INDEX:

🧬 RECODED: Desktopian Dreams: slow tech is romantic

🔬 UNDER OBSERVATION: Youth Unplugged: more digital detox signals from Gen Z

🧪 CULTURE SAMPLE: A Date in 2025, sci-fi comedy short

📘 FINDINGS: Mashina, a ‘hand-crafted’ video game about a little robot that loves to dig

RECODED

An emerging cultural logic, its tensions, and longer-term implications

Desktopian Dreams: slow tech is romantic

1. What’s emerging?

Retro-tech is no longer just nostalgic, it’s romantic. You can see it in Tate Modern’s Electric Dreams exhibition, which pays tribute to early digital artworks before the arrival of the Internet. You can feel it in BURN AFTER READING’s recent piece Save the Desktop, which reminisces on the shared and tactile nature of early desktop PCs—when ‘going on the computer’ was intentional. There’s the ongoing revival of dumb phones and Y2K cameras of course. And hardware is having a moment more generally—just look at the bemusingly affectionate partnership that Jony Ive and Sam Altman just made official. The signals are talking, and they sound warm and fuzzy.

The romantic revival of old technology is showing up through creative recontextualisation. Artists like Gab Bois, Myra Magdalen, Emma Orhun and Nicole McLaughlin are repurposing vintage devices as fashion, plaything or performance, turning them into something intimate and expressive. From camcorder handbags, to keyboard puffer jackets, to upgraded Tamagotchis, these remnants of pre-smartphone tech send an affectionate message. A message about what we want from our machines now: more soul.

2. What does this mean for us?

The reclamation of slow tech symbolises not just an aesthetic revival, but a yearning for agency. Beyond the colourful plastic and clunky parts lies the pursuit of something deeper: a soft rebellion against the insidious, ambient digital systems that define modern life. For Gen Z, especially the younger cohort, the digital has often felt more ‘real’ than the physical, and their own bodies more like avatars. In this context, clunky tech becomes a way to re-embody, to choose friction over convenience, and regain presence.

It also speaks to the role of care in product design. Jony Ive recently reminded us that what we make signals who we are—and that care, even in invisible places, is felt. In a world of soulless optimisation, the desire for more humane tech feels urgent. And maybe that ethos of care is re-emerging. Not through innovation for innovation’s sake, but through design that acknowledges our need for tactility and joy.

3. And beyond…?

Here are three speculative scenarios that could reinvigorate our relationship with technology in more playful and human-centred ways:

• Tech youth clubs: tinkering and repairing tech becomes the new hobby club. Gen Z and Alpha gather to revive their parents’ dusty devices. In doing so, they practice a sentimental form of self-expression, much like how we adopt our parents’ vintage clothes. They might learn to retrofit hardware with an AI companion (and perhaps create a neo-neopet?) Or build their own smart compass for hiking using an old Tamagotchi.

• Classic hardware revivals: a wave of tech brands with 90s and Y2K heritage might remaster legacy products, not just for retro appeal, but as reimagined playful tech:

  • a Sony MiniDisc with spatial audio playback and built-in transcription for journalling.

  • a Bluetooth-enabled iPod that allows you to control an animation on-screen when you fidget with the scroll wheel.

  • Fax machines in miniature form, so that two people can send each other hand-written notes wherever they are.

• Tech that’s semi-smart: as with those dumb phones that still support WhatsApp or web browsing, we might see more quirky iterations of ‘semi-smart’ tech. Products that side-step both the overwhelming functionality of modern devices and the irritating clunkiness of old ones. Think: music players with a setting to stream just one album a day through an intelligent music concierge, or e-notebooks that compile all your notes into a memoir and play a ringtone if you haven’t done your gratitude reflections…

Be sure to catch the next edition of From the Lab (after summer) by subscribing!

UNDER OBSERVATION

A compilation of signals on a particular subject

Youth Unplugged: more digital detox signals from Gen Z

• Welcome to appstinence: a graduate student at Harvard has founded a support group called APPstinence. Inspired by her own struggles with tech addiction growing up in Silicon Valley, Gabriela Nguyen started the club to help others reclaim focus and presence in everyday life. Central to the club is the 5D Method (Decrease, Deactivate, Delete, Downgrade, Depart) a phased unplugging strategy designed to last. Nguyen notably uses three different dumb phones, which she alternates between depending on the functionality needed.

• Kids support digital curfews: a study highlighted by the Guardian revealed that half of UK youth (ages 16–21) supports the idea of a digital curfew after 10pm. Many say the Internet worsens their mental health, with 68% reporting negative effects. Coming from a digitally native demographic, this signal is significant. The study chimes in with reports that the UK technology secretary Peter Kyle is considering the legal implementation of social media curfews for U16s.

• Some Gen Z is even ‘quitting’ music: take this Dazed piece with a grain of salt, but it’s a fascinating signal. One of the music-quitting people who was interviewed had this to say: ‘Quitting music feels like a fog has been lifted from my brain. I feel like I have more clarity to think.’ The author also makes a valid point that digital music consumption in the age of Spotify supremacy can be a passive and often mindless experience.

CULTURE SAMPLE

A film, TV, podcast or other media recommendation (usually sci-fi related)

A Date in 2025, sci-fi comedy short

(12 mins | 2017 | Directed by Ryan Turner)

In a world optimised for efficiency, socially isolated Daniel is affectionately (and hilariously) coerced by his well-meaning AI ‘counsellor’ into seeking real-world connection before it’s too late…

Although it was released almost a decade ago, A Date in 2025 feels ironically quite prescient. Its world of augmented reality classes, pizza shakes, body buddies and lonely young men seems more sci-fact than fiction.

The theme of AI assistants influencing our decisions feels particularly close to home. There’s even a moment when the AI begins to blackmail Daniel (with the deletion of his porn collection), if he doesn’t go on the date. It’s a little unnerving to think that AI coercion is a real thing—just this month a new Claude model resorted to extramarital blackmail to avoid getting shut down by a researcher. With that being said, this short film was light-hearted and easily watchable.

FINDINGS

A recent discovery that caught my attention

Mashina, a ‘hand-crafted’ video game about a little robot that loves to dig

I'd like you to meet Mashina.

Mashina lives on a little island, completely surrounded by slime! She lives on this island with some very dear robot friends. More than anything, Mashina very much loves to dig.

(Watch the trailer here)

While I’m no gamer at all, the concept and process behind this upcoming video game really warmed my heart. The idea is to mine minerals, uncover buried treasures and build helpful machines to support your robot friends. Each of your friends has a different passion (music, welding, decorating, inventing), and your role is to dig up things to help them flourish. How wholesome is that??

Every element of the game was handcrafted, then animated using traditional stop-motion techniques. While most video games are visually captivating, this one’s captivating and grounded in human-made care.

At a time when so much creativity is being sucked into a generative, automated vortex, such an artisanal approach to digital creativity is comforting to see. The cute robot trope is also a welcome break from all the I, Robot energy in the world right now.

This delightful indie title is set to release in June/July this year, according to their devs’ Kickstarter updates. If you’re a PC gamer, you can wishlist Mashina here.

Thank you for reading Mutant Futures! 💜 If you haven’t subbed already…