IDEO also spent time rethinking systems of production and came up with two provocative concepts. Rethinking the food of the future was a tasty challenge and the team started by reimagining the humble hamburger bun as a 3-D printed cage for lab-grown proteins. In this future world, ice cream isn’t churned and deposited into a vat, instead it will be grown on geometric cookie substrates suspended in mists of flavor crystals.

Noun, is a proposed platform that would make remixing physical objects as easy as it is with music. Any object, even an ugly Hawaiian shirt, would have a unique ID containing it’s design history—the material, cut pattern, a copy of the hideous design, and information regarding its manufacture. If someone wanted a mug to match their shirt, they’d simply scan the garment with their iPhone, assign key properties to the mug, and select a factory or maker to produce it on demand.

A Natural Version of 3-D Printing, Using Termites

Materials, and the way designers interact with them, was another key concern. 3-D printers and their subtractive CNC cutting counterparts have become wildly popular, yet there could be natural ways to achieve similar results. One concept suggested a future where a wood board could be coated with an oil that naturally repels termites and paired with a special pen that would remove the oil. Artists could draw on the board with this pen, take the wood to an area where termites gather, and allow the mites to make a meal of the areas of the wood that were sketched on while simultaneously revealing the artist’s drawing.

How Celine Dion Can Help Invent the Future

Most of these ideas are impossible to execute today and might even be a stretch a decade from now. The craziest ones will require massive breakthroughs in materials science and computer vision. Organizations will need to respond with entirely new user interface paradigms and business models to make these visions a reality. Still, it’s not like this kind of upheaval is without precedent.

“Think about where we were 10 years ago—we knew gadgets were going to be small, and have touch screens,” says Raney. Yet it would be impossible for most to fully understand how those innovations would upend industries and change our lives. “Flexible manufacturing and ubiquitous sensing could create much larger waves,” he continues.

Thankfully, IDEO’s designers are no stranger to crazy ideas. A popular lunchtime exercise in the company’s Boston studio is trying to visualize insane topics—like what Celine Dion’s dreams look like. These exercises might seem silly, but Raney is proud of the playful spirit projects like these cultivate. “There’s something really nice in being playful about design,” he says. “David Kelley wrote a book about creative confidence, having fun, and engaging people by having a little bit of levity. It’s a great book, but an even more important idea.”

That creative spirit is supercharged thanks to their proximity to MIT’s famed Media Lab which is just a subway stop away from the firm’s office. IDEO is a sponsor of the institution and Raney serves as a visiting scientist, and calls attention to important parallels in the way the two organizations work. “There’s a focus on undirected research, people who are working towards a direction, but not on a specific thing,” he says. “The technology has a point of view, but it’s unfinished. Not to say it’s not thought through, but there is more you could do with it.”

Some may dismiss these designs as mere concepts, but Raney believes the sense of play is essential and is wary of making too many proclamations. After all, instead of talking about the future, why not get busy building it? “Predicting the future is a fools task,” says Raney. “The great thing about design is that you’re creating the future and if you create something compelling enough, watch out, because people will try to make it real.”