My guest contributor for the Black Panther reviews is Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks.

Dr. Brooks is an Associate Professor in the department of communication at California State University, East Bay, where he has piloted the integration of futures thinking into the communication curriculum for the last fifteen years. Emerging in recent years as a leading voice of Afrofuturism 2.0, Brooks contributes prolifically to journals, conferences and anthologies on the subject, as well as serving as executive producer and co-creator, with Ahmed Best, of The Afrofuturist Podcast. e is the lead co-editor for a special issue of the Journal of Futures Studies: “When is Wakanda? Afrofuturism and Dark Speculative Futurity.”

He is lead organizer in Oakland and advisory board member for the Black Speculative Arts Movement (BSAM), co-founded by Reynaldo Anderson, a national and global movement dedicated to celebrating the Black imagination and design. Dr. Brooks serves as Creative Director for BSAM Futures, which aims to promote, publish, and teach forecasting with Afrocentric perspectives in mind, using gaming and facilitation for imaginative, action-oriented thinking.

He also volunteers as a core member for outreach at Dynamicland.org, a pioneering non-profit dedicated to creating a more collaborative and dynamic computational medium for the long term. He has a passion for creating games to envision social justice futures including black and queer liberation from Afro-Rithms From The Future to United Queerdom, and Futurescope, he and his co-game designer Eli Kosminsky are committed to articulating emerging new future visions for traditionally underrepresented voices.

He is currently writing Imagining Queer Futures with  Afrofuturism@Futureland: Circulating Afro-Queer futuretypes of Work, Culture and Racial Identity.

“As a forecaster and Afrofuturist who imagines alternative futures from a Black Diaspora perspective, I think about long-term signals that will shape the next 10 to 100 years.”

Dr. Lonny J Avi Brooks

Welcome, Dr. Brooks!

Hi there. Tell us a bit about yourself. What’s your name, where are you from, how do you spend your time?

I’m Hugh Fisher (or Hugo if you’re French, Spanish, or Italian and rightly appalled by English spelling and pronunciation). I’ve lived most of my life in Canberra, Australia. I’ve been playing around with computer graphics for one purpose or another since the days of the Apple 2, and occasionally manage to get paid for doing so. Outside of that I draw, read a lot, and play tabletop roleplaying games. When I want to be a bit more active, I’m doing casual jogging, archery, or ultimate frisbee.

What are some of your favorite sci-fi interfaces (Other than in Johnny Mnemonic)? (And why?)

I’m a sucker for old school monochrome text and wireframes, so Alien and Aliens, Star Wars: A New Hope, and classic Battlestar Galactica. And not just the graphics, but also the physical keys, sliders, and joysticks—none of your shiny smooth glass. For color and animation, the BBC Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Strangely, I’m also fond of the very modern full body gestural interfaces seen in Iron Man and Ender’s Game.

Why did you decide to review Johnny Mnemonic in particular?

Because I’m a William Gibson fan and interested in virtual reality. It’s a terrible film, but I’ve always liked the presentation of a futuristic VR Internet. More about this when we get into the film…

What was your biggest surprise when doing the review?

The number of different interfaces and devices was one—I had no idea how much work I’d inadvertently signed up for. I was also surprised to realise that an awful lot of the film makes no sense at all if you haven’t read everything by William Gibson.

What else are you working on?

I’m building up a toolkit of Python code for 3D graphics and the Microsoft Kinect for a couple of artistic/fun interactive projects. I’m also drawing science fictional sheep, and learning about the new edition of the Paranoia RPG.

Hi there. Tell us a bit about yourself. What’s your name, where are you from, how do you spend your time?

Hi. I’m Aleatha Singleton, hailing from Houston, Texas. I’ve been a UX Designer for over 15 years. I enjoy solving problems and making things that are easy and fun to use whether they’re digital or analog.

When I’m not at work, I like to read, study the Japanese culture, and teach myself new things such as designing and building furniture or making udon noodles from scratch.

I’ve always been a big fan of sci-fi interfaces and technology, especially when the concepts become reality. It’s always fun and exciting to see how ideas that seemed so impossible only a couple of decades ago are being prototyped and developed in labs around the world, such as holodecks, 3D volumetric interfaces, neural scanners, etc., etc.

In the future, I would like to be a part of cutting edge innovation and ideation—thinking about how technology could improve lives—and then build it and make it real.

What are some of your favorite sci-fi interfaces (Other than in Oblivion)? (And, of course, why?)

Psycho-Pass: This futuristic, high-tech society is dictated by the Sybil system, which is a fully integrated system of technology including wearables, cameras and sensors that are placed throughout the country.

Sybil analyzes a person’s psychological state and dictates career and other choices in life. The lower rankings result in blue collar work while higher rankings provide better opportunities and choices. People with mental states that are considered by the system to be unstable are institutionalized and are locked away from society for the rest of their lives.

Most people blindly follow Sybil, resulting in a society that accepts things without question in the fear that thinking differently will result in the system considering them to be at risk.

“What needs to be done is done by those capable of doing it. Such is the grace bestowed upon mankind by Sybil”

This system shows that there are a lot of social ramifications and ethical questions that designers and society should consider when creating and utilizing technology. It can be terrifying if used improperly, but can make society a better place if used conscientiously and ethically.

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet: Ledo is shipwrecked and stranded on a “primitive” planet when his AI automated mobile suit gets sucked into a wormhole during an intense battle. While he is still learning the language, he uses a floating translation display with accompanying audio that helps him communicate with the people on the planet. It’s a great implementation since he can take the time to read body language and expressions instead of having to keep his head down, staring at a screen.

I’m fascinated with the interfaces and technology from the Iron Man and Avengers universe, especially how Tony Stark works across multiple channels—both physical and digital—that flow seamlessly together. For example, he can easily switch a file from a phone to a monitor, to a computer, to a table with 3D volumetric projection for instant prototyping and virtual testing.

Why did you decide to participate in the group review of Oblivion for your first scifiinterfaces review?

I’ve been doing personal observations of sci-fi interfaces and technology in movies, TV shows, books and Japanese anime for a few years now in order to study how they influence society for better or worse. I was considering starting my own blog when I saw the call for nerdsourcing volunteers and decided to take the leap.

What was your biggest surprise when doing the review?

It is really easy to get into the nitty gritty details of the designs. I like building things and seeing ideas come to life, so I catch myself trying to figure out details of the interactions so I can make it real.

A one finger swipe from here to here does this…a two finger swipe from here to here does that…if this, then this, otherwise that…like I was getting ready to write design annotations.

It took longer to write the articles, so I had to stop myself and step back to look at the overall experience.

What else are you working on? (Alternately: What other awesomeness should we know about you?)

I take Japanese language classes at the local Japan America Society. A lot of my time is spent immersing myself in the language through textbooks, reading Japanese language manga and light novels and watching anime in Japanese with and without the subtitles.

My next project for scifiinterfaces.com will be an anime interface. Please look forward to it.
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