The Augmented City: Seeing Through Disruption (webinar)

From Threatcasting.ai, this exciting conversation hosted by urbanist Greg Lindsay and featuring visionary filmmaker Keichii Matsuda and sci-fi author and futurist Madeline Ashby explored the intersection of storytelling, technology, and foresight. They talked about the role of science fiction prototyping in creating plausible futures and the implications of emerging technologies like XR. Both Madeline and Keichii shared insights about their creative processes and experiences working with clients, including the challenges of balancing corporate constraints with creative freedom and the importance of clear storytelling purposes. The conversation concluded with reflections on the evolving landscape of technology and human creativity, particularly regarding AI's impact on foresight and storytelling, while emphasizing the need for societal preparation for the responsibilities of creating and interacting with AI.

This event took place on August 14, 2025. For more information, visit threatcasting.ai.

NOTES

The Augmented City report⁠

HyperReality the film⁠

Liquid City⁠

Square Eyes⁠

About Agents⁠

GUESTS

Madeline Ashby graduated from the first cohort of the M.Des. in Strategic Foresight and Innovation programme at OCADU in 2011. It was her second Masters degree. (Her first, in Interdisciplinary Studies, focused on cyborg theory, fan culture, and Japanese animation!) Since 2011, she has been a freelance consulting futurist specializing in scenario development and science fiction prototypes. That same year, she sold her first novel, vN: The First Machine Dynasty, to Angry Robot Books. It is now a trilogy of novels about self-replicating humanoid robots (who eat each other alive). She is also the author of Company Town from Tor Books, a cyber-noir novel which was a finalist in the 2017 CBC Books Canada Reads competition, and a contributor to How To Future: Leading and Sense-making in an Age of Hyperchange, with Scott Smith. She is a member of the AI Policy Futures Group at the ASU Center for Science and the Imagination, and the XPRIZE Sci-Fi Advisory Council. Her work has appeared in BoingBoing, Slate, MIT Technology Review, Wired, The Atlantic, and elsewhere.

Keiichi Matsuda is a designer and filmmaker. His work explores the collision of physical and virtual, as technology transforms society, and new realities are born. Keiichi’s practice combines concept film-making and interaction design, to critically explore the future of everyday life. His work has been widely exhibited, from the MoMA to the V&A, as well as attaining viral success online. His short film HYPER-REALITY was awarded Vimeo’s “best drama of 2016,” amongst other accolades. Designer and director of design and prototyping studio Liquid City. Keiichi gained expertise in interaction as VP Design for the visionary AI startup Leap Motion, before becoming Senior Director of Experience Design (Mixed Reality) at Microsoft. His pioneering cautionary short films about XR and AI have become mainstay references in the industry, leading to Keiichi’s recognition in Augmented World Expo’s XR hall of fame in 2024.

HOST

Greg Lindsay is a non-resident senior fellow of MIT’s ⁠Future Urban Collectives Lab⁠ and the Atlan­tic Council’s ⁠Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security⁠. He was the foun­ding chief com­mu­nica­tions offi­cer of ⁠AlphaGeo,⁠ where he remains a senior advi­sor. Most re­cen­tly, he was a 2022-2023 urban tech fellow at Cor­nell Tech’s Jacobs Insti­tute, where he ex­plo­­red ⁠the impli­cations of AI and aug­men­ted rea­lity at urban scale⁠. Greg speaks frequently about the future of cities, real estate, tech­no­logy, and work, inclu­ding invitations to 10 Down­ing Street, the United States Mili­tary Aca­de­my, San­dia Natio­nal Labo­ra­to­ries, the Orga­ni­sa­tion for Eco­no­­mic Co-oper­a­tion and Deve­lop­ment, Har­vard Busi­ness School, MIT Media Lab, and Aspen Ideas Festival. He’s been cited as an expert by The New York Times, The Washing­ton Post, The Wall Street Jour­­­nal, The Guar­dian, USA Today, CNN, NPR, BBC, and CBC Radio. Pre­viously, he was urbanist-in-resi­den­ce at BMW MINI’s urban tech acce­le­ra­tor, ⁠URBAN-­X⁠, as well as direc­tor of applied re­search at ⁠New­Cities ⁠and foun­ding direc­tor of stra­te­gy at its mobi­lity-focused off­shoot, ⁠Co­Motion⁠.