Vitalik's New Work: A Dual Perspective on Technology and Humanities, Dubai and Tokyo Future Museums

Original Title: 《Review: museums of the future, Dubai and Tokyo》

Author: Vitalik Buterin

Translation: Mars Finance, Eason

Over the past year, I had the privilege of visiting the Museum of the Future in Dubai, and recently, I visited the Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Tokyo. Both museums were highly recommended by my close friends and collaborators, and I believe they are both attempting to address a critically important question: how to have a concrete and positive imagination of a technologically advanced future, rather than just the 3478th "Black Mirror"-style Hollywood dystopia.

What shocked me most during my visits to these two museums was how different the visions were. They are certainly not contradictory: there is no logical impossibility between the specific technologies and structures envisioned by futurists in Dubai and Tokyo, nor is there such a strong contradiction. Yet, at the same time, they feel very different, and the priorities are also quite distinct. This raises a natural question: what can we learn from and appreciate in each, and is there a synthesis between the two?

Left: Exterior of the Museum of the Future in Dubai. Right: The giant sphere inside the Miraikan in Tokyo, displaying major world languages.

What I Liked About the Museum of the Future in Dubai

When you first enter the Museum of the Future, you are greeted by a simulation of a space elevator that takes you from the surface of Earth in 2064 to a space station in geostationary orbit. You can see information screens and panels that show you all the space stations around the solar system, on planets, around planets, and at Lagrange points.

After that, you will see various exhibits in other fields of science and technology. One of the main themes is meditation and health and wellness, showcasing infrastructure that makes it easier for people to enter alternative mental states. What impressed me most was the biotechnology section, which presented a vision of using genetic engineering to enhance the resilience of the biosphere, enabling plants and animals to survive in more diverse environments.

It's worth, uh… pondering this scenario. It is vastly different from the traditional Western way of thinking about environmental issues. In the West, nature is an Eden, once beautiful and pristine, now corroded by industrial technology. The main moral imperative is to protect and reduce the harm we would otherwise cause. In Dubai, the situation is quite the opposite. The default state of nature, at least as they are accustomed to it, is a desolate wasteland. Human ingenuity and skill can not only mitigate the harm caused by other human ingenuity and skill, but it can actually go further, improving the environment to be better than it was when we started.

Miraikan does not have anything like this. There is an exhibit addressing significant environmental issues facing the Earth, but its tone is much more traditional: these problems are humanity's fault, and we need to be mindful and find ways to reduce our footprint. Several exhibits focus on improving the lives of people with poor (or completely absent) vision or hearing. But the solutions they propose are mostly adjustments aimed at making the world more gentle and friendly to those with these conditions: robots that can help guide people, writing in Braille on business cards, etc. These are genuinely valuable things that can improve the lives of many. But they are not what I expect to see in a future museum in 2024: solutions that truly allow people to see and hear again, such as optic nerve regeneration and brain-computer interfaces.

The way Dubai addresses these issues deeply resonates with me, while Tokyo's approach does not. I do not want the future to be 1.2 times better than the present; the comfortable life I enjoy is not 70 years but 84 years. I want the future to be 10,000 times better than the present. I believe in the Nietzscheanism described by Scott Alexander in his recent blog post, where he warns against making the main goals of life things like "I don't want to upset anyone" and "I want to take up less space," goals that are better off dead than alive. If I become frail due to medical reasons, then living in an environment that, despite these disadvantages, still allows me to feel comfortable would certainly be an improvement. But what I truly want is technology to fix me and make me strong again.

Nevertheless, the Museum of the Future in Dubai also has some elements that feel lacking and limiting, and the Miraikan does a great job of filling those gaps. So now it's time to shift focus and talk about what I believe makes the Miraikan great.

What I Liked About the Miraikan in Tokyo

Upon entering the Miraikan for the first time, the first exhibit is about the Earth's crises: global warming and various environmental issues related to excessive pollutants or insufficient basic resources. Following that, you will see exhibits in various art forms that heavily utilize artificial intelligence, mimicking various patterns we see in nature. Then, a giant sphere repeatedly plays a short informational film titled "Entering a Diverse World," showcasing various statistics about different regions of the world and how people live in those regions. After that, there is a hands-on exhibit demonstrating the inner workings of basic low-level internet protocols.

Left: A chart showing the contributions of different countries to global carbon dioxide emissions. Right: Replicas of natural butterflies and robotic butterfly replicas.

What particularly impressed me about these exhibits was the way they invite people to actively learn and engage. All informational exhibits strive to present information in a practical manner, making it easier for people to understand the important details and consequences of each issue. The section on overfishing raises a complaint: "I love sushi… but we might not be able to eat sushi casually in the future, right?" At least two exhibits end with interactive sections that pose questions related to the content and invite people to provide their own answers. An exhibit on solving Earth's resource issues takes the form of a game.

Left: A billboard inviting museum visitors to submit answers to "How can we avoid pollution?" and "What can we do to continue living on this Earth?" and displaying recent visitors' answers. Right: A game themed around avoiding ecological challenges to reach a bright future in 2100.

In this regard, the tone of the two museums is starkly different. The Dubai museum feels consumerist: this is the wonderful future we are about to have, you just need to sit back and enjoy the future we have created for you. The Tokyo museum feels like an invitation for you to participate: we won't tell you too much about the future, but we hope you think about these issues, understand what is happening behind the scenes, and become part of building a shared future.

The main type of technology I found lacking in the Museum of the Future in Dubai is social technology, especially governance. The only explicit description of governance structures I found in my imagined world of Dubai in 2064 was a throwaway line in the description of the main space station on Mars: "Operator: Global Space Management Agency, SpaceX." On the other hand, at the Miraikan, the structure of the museum itself emphasizes collaborative discussion, and you will see frequent mentions of language, culture, government, and freedom of the press.

Are These Two Visions Compatible?

At first glance, these two visions seem completely different, and they may even be heading in opposite thematic directions. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that they are actually very synergistic: one fills the gaps of the other. I do not want the world in 2100 to be the same as today, at most 20% better than now. Civilizations that do attempt to live with fewer resources will find themselves constantly pressured by external forces and by those within their own societies who want to break through our boundaries more forcefully. But at the same time, the more radically our society develops beyond historical norms, the more we need to ensure that everyone is involved, both in understanding what is happening and in the process of discussing and achieving that goal.

The posts I write trying to make advanced topics in cryptography more understandable are precisely in this spirit: we do need advanced tools, but we also need them to be understandable and usable, to ensure that more people can work together and that the future empowers people rather than becoming a series of iPhone interfaces built by a few, which the rest of us can only access in standardized ways.

Perhaps the ideal future museum I wish to see is one that combines the bold imagination of the Museum of the Future in Dubai with the spirit of hospitality that only the Miraikan can bring.

Left: "The universe belongs to everyone," Museum of the Future in Dubai. Right: Future robots, deliberately designed to be cute and friendly rather than threatening.