What If Sustainability Doesn\u27T Work Out?

The authors Bill Tomlinson, Donald J. Patterson, Yue Pan, Eli Blevis, and Bonnie Nardi share their views on how IT tools can support adaptation to global change. The research named \u27adaptation informatics\u27 entails the study, design, and development of sociotechnical systems for use in a future characterized by global change. Key opportunities exist for IT systems to support a high quality of life in these adaptation scenarios. IT systems may enable more effective utilization of resources via system-wide efficiencies, resource sharing, and acts of substitution and elimination. IT may also help people maintain and expand interpersonal relationships, rather than relationships with objects, thereby reducing material demands. IT systems could also help foster new kinds of communities. Educational IT systems can provide the scaffolding through which individuals and groups adopt new behavioral patterns. Technologies such as 3-D printing can enable these communities to create novel artifacts that work well with their changing needs