A few months ago, I was invited to support the Masters of Design program at the University of Sydney. Fully aware that designers, especially today, are at the frontlines of shaping choice architectures. They’re crafting the stories that define tomorrow, influencing the very form of our future possibilities.
My mission? To make sure this power and responsibility becomes a conscious and intentional force for better.
Morning Tutorial: Reflecting with the Tethix Mirrors
In a recent session in this program, students got to play with the Taxonomy of Tethix Mirrors in a morning tutorial session before my lecture. They use the mirrors as tools to critically reflect on their design projects. And these were not your run-of-the-mill projects. They tackled real-world challenges like:
- Aged care and elderly isolation
- Community engagement around emerging technologies for the Premier’s Cabinet
- Managing stray cats near a kindergarten (yes, really!)
- Combating misinformation and disinformation online
- Reproductive health and stigma around menstrual cycles in rural China
- Delivery of healthcare services in rural New South Wales
Each project carried layers of values, beliefs, hopes, dreams, and fears—some of which the students hadn’t fully realised. The mirrors provided a way to confront the deeper, often invisible, forces at play in their design spaces.
Students working with the dark mirror encountered a challenge with the prompting question: What about the non-human living systems in our environment, where do they fit?
This sparked discussions that pushed the students to think beyond their usual boundaries. And that’s the point. Genuine ethical reflection often leads us into uncomfortable but necessary territories, where we expand our moral imagination to see what was previously invisible.
Lecture: Broadening Perspectives
After the morning’s tutorial session I kicked off the lecture. Beginning with an Acknowledgement of Country, an honouring of the Gadigal people and the deep storytelling traditions that have been part of this land for millennia. We then delved into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Shalom Schwartz’s model of values, not as perfect frameworks, but as starting points for deeper thinking.
We then fast-tracked through a history of technology, from fire to generative AI. But not without a critical disclaimer: this was a Western-centric, biased timeline, leaving out the voices of women, Indigenous peoples, and non-Western cultures. Technology, we discussed, doesn’t just fulfil needs or reflect values. It’s a mirror—one that reveals the dominant power structures and the narratives that shape our world. Technology is not neutral. It’s deeply reflective of the political and historical context of it’s creation.
Then came the crux: the relationship between moral imagination and ethics. How do we use serious play—not as a diversion or simply a novel method, but as the very way to unlock the moral imagination we so desperately need? We dove into thrutopia and the rainbow mirror frame, one that helps us see a way through the chaotic present and toward preferable futures. We wrapped it all in a community jury case study, showing how diverse voices can shape value-sensitive design—a dimension baked into the rainbow mirror frame and also Thrutopian thinking.
The Call to Moral Imagination
And here’s the truth: today, we’re facing a deficit in social and moral imagination. The stories we tell ourselves about technology are too often bleak. They are also too often lacking of diverse perspectives and the voices of the unheard. But they don’t have to be.
We can—and should—acknowledge the very real risks of unchecked tech controlled by billionaire power. However, those dark futures that seem inevitable are not set in stone. We have the power to change the narrative and find paths toward something better.
Adjacent possibilities exist, and more hopeful futures are within reach. But to get there, we must actively engage our moral imagination, and do so together.
You can now view and download the lecture slides. And if you’re ready to take this conversation further—whether through a virtual or in-person workshop on moral imagination, ethics, and technology—reach out. Let’s shape the future together.
