Society and everything in it was designed by us. If you want to think about the future and what is possible, just remember it was people who designed the cities we live in. Before we created automobiles, we had to first create the concept that walking simply wasn't fast enough. We work 8 hour days, because us humans decided that 8 was a nice round number. Most likely an invention today is simply a solution to a human made problem. Capitalism, Socialism, Communism are human inventions and the rules to govern how the systems work are manmade. Even the idea of property is a human invention (Economist Robert Reich brilliantly explains these human made rules in his book Saving Capitalism).
Behind everything, someone or some group designed it - consciously or unconsciously.
Most people I encounter take the world generally as it is. To start thinking “outside the box”, you need to ask seemingly absurd questions or at the very least questions worthy of an annoying 5 year old:
Q. Why are we taking a taxi?
A. Because we don't have a car.
Q. Why do we need cars?
A. To get from point A to point B.
Q. Why do we need to get from point A to point B? Is there some other way to get to point A to point B?
By the time this last question is asked, you’d be at your wit’s end with the interrogator. However, questioning everything and anything always can sometimes lead to clever ideas. Maybe it would have led to the idea of the Uber (lots of other people have idle cars in this city), Hyperloop (something faster than cars?), flying cars (those seem cool!), or video chat (do we need to even physically travel from A to B?). When the line of questioning does not result in an epiphany, hopefully it will at least give you a deeper appreciation for the designed world around you. One of my favorite podcasts is 99% invisible, which dives into all the unnoticed architecture and design that shapes our world.
“What is the point of this sidewalk I’m walking on? Why is it built in concrete? Is it built in concrete? What is it built in? Why are buildings built upwards and not downwards? Why am I still writing this blog post?”