Flying cars, human robots, DNA chips. We all have preconceptions about the objects that will mark the future of humanity. Inside the 15th century Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Giancarlo Cinini, professor, discusses with Adrian Hon, writer and game designer, about his book History of the future in 100 objects. The book tells the story of a curator living in 2082 who is commissioned to write a catalogue containing the 100 most representative objects of the 21st century. For each item, the Scottish author identified the year of release and wrote a tale describing its function and use. By 2024, for example, Hon predicted the delivery of an operating system called The Guide that could handle people’s psychological and pragmatic lives, suggesting ways of living day by day. By 2025, an OGM plant called algae bloom will be used instead of the traditional fossil fuels.

In the second edition of the book, published in 2020, the Scottish writer substituted some of the previous objects with new ones. Seeing increasing public and scientific interest on climate change, Hon added to the list a plane able to lower earth’s temperature. It may sound utopian, but several researchers are already working on it. If Hon believed automatic-pilot cars would have been everywhere by now, he did not think AI technologies like ChatGPT would become so efficient, not until 2030 at least. The tales contained in the book are coherent with one another and with the world imagined by the author. Not a goal easy to achieve when writing one hundred different stories about future objects!

As Hon says, the inspiration for his book did not only came from present issues, but also from the past. When walking in the magnificent Giants’ Chamber of Palazzo Te, the writer imagined the Gonzagas planned it to have the feel of diving into a painting. If one thinks about it, it is not so different from the modern immersive VR exhibition!