ULTRAWILD

An industrial designer brainstorms strategies for sustainably transforming our cities and our world.

Mushin argues that pondering “ridiculous ideas can actually be INCREDIBLY SENSIBLE,” noting that doing so encourages thinking outside the box. Accordingly, he takes a current theory that prehistoric megafauna actually had a direct, major influence on their habitats and runs with it. Among other examples, he proposes an urban “Megafauna Emulator” that creates and poops out “compost cannonballs” (with aerodynamic toffee coatings), rooftop gardens guarded by chickens that recycle food scraps to create nutrient-rich poo collected by robotic dung beetles, and flying bicycles lifted by “biogas booster pants.” “Everything in this book,” Mushin writes, “is THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE” and if implemented would not only save vanishing species, but would “CRUSH CLIMATE CHANGE like a Matchbox car in a vise.” Readers may find some of his proposals hard to absorb, since he insists on cramming every oversize page with Rube Goldberg–style diagrams or cutaway views of zany factories and devices, and the work is rife with dense bursts of hand-lettered narrative. Still, the urgency of his message that we are teetering on the brink of catastrophe comes through loud and clear—as does his fundamental optimism that we can still pull off a save. Urging readers to work on “ludicrously brilliant new ideas” of their own, he closes with a flurry of “Invention Starter” prompts. The small line-drawn cartoon figures in his illustrations have skin the color of the page.

Silly fun with a serious purpose.