Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
How bout that?
2050:
- a strong race of people,
- everyone who can afford human enhancements has, those people are the optimal beings - people have turned into oxymorons. though enhanced to be strong, they have become aware of all hazards, and are fiercely precautious.
- the outdoors are simulated in homes.
- school is for everyone, though teaching jobs have almost gone obsolete. learning is not difficult when information is everywhere.
- sports have remained, and the standards have been seriously raised.
- the enhanced kids are bigger, smarter, stronger, better-looking (such is incredibly important)
- there is a strong feeling of universal unification, but with an even more intense, yet subtle feeling of competition.
- most animals have been domesticated, and cloned for display. zoos are interactive, animals have been bred to be human-friendly.
- cars have been totally innovated, and though people don't go into the wilderness anymore, such are all eco-friendly.
- the minority of people who are not fortunate enough to receive the enhancements are slowly disappearing.
- governments are being replaced by major technological companies.
- anyone can access almost anything, answer most questions with their portable information systems.
- the older generation does not become wise and sought after since their knowledge, memories, experiences have been documented so elaborately and vividly.
all your memories are everybody else's.
- traveling is not a challenging feat, flights are constantly available from large city to large city. small towns are combined into small cities all over the world. people are physically unified.
- jobs are found at birth. based on the genetics and expected experiences, everyone becomes employed.
- everyone seems individually free, no one really makes their own life choices.
- there is a constant, heavy dependence on technology
- simulation is a popular source for entertainment (you can be that rockstar. that moviestar)
Science Fiction!?
The Heatheringtons are an established family.
Walter, who is going on fifty-three has created quite the life for his sweet family of four. He and his wife believe in a constant learning environment for their two young children in order for proper optimal development. The Heatherington family is victim to the governments plans to make a more efficient people. Since the Digital Party had been voted in to Parliament a few decades ago, they have taken complete control. Leading with a ‘Personal Freedom’ campaign, the party had no competition from any other political group.
The Digital Party promised protection and individual liberty for learning and discovery. It seemed no one noticed when real citizens started going missing.
Abigail, his wife of almost fifteen years, has faced copious amounts of physical challenges. At eight years old, Abigail was diagnosed with leukemia, and was expected to pass away before her tenth birthday. Fortunately, because of the immediate diagnosis and free, universal health care, Abigail underwent a long process of treatments. It was a whole daylong. We don't have that kind of time these days. At sixteen, a “car”, one of the old, traditional mobiles, hit her. Abigail was thrown several feet after the impact. She was once more saved because of the phenomenal aid. Abigail suffers from nightmares every so often, thinking that she has almost died from anything. The sad truth is that she has not lived up to her natural fate, and lives on depending on this technology of the upcoming twenty-second century. Abigail does not work, she does not leave the house, she helps her children use their LSs (Learning Systems).
Floyd is twelve, and learning guitar. With his full wall screen computer, he can interact with his international friends. Today, he has found an interest in finding songs nearly seventy years old. He has learned 'Smoke on the Water', and 'Iron Man'. Floyd thinks these are strange songs. Most of his chums think it is bizarre that Floyd chooses to learn something that cannot be learnt within an hour, at most. He suspects he is more patient.
His mother, Abigail taught him what he needed to know about the family's innovated technology, sleep encyclopedias. They are what teach the children. Why read when all the information can be absorbed in your brain without any effort at all?
Madeleine, she is seven, and knows nothing but her bedroom. Walter and Abigail believe that the best thing for a child’s development at that young age is a complete immersion into the information of the world. Everyday, Madeleine watches movies, listens to international children’s speakers, and learns constantly under the supervision of mother and father, of course.
Walter invested in wall screens that would be mobile all around the house for learning at any possible time. He is incredibly passionate about his children and wife learning, discovering, and inventing. He knows they have to be the best to win.
It seemed that the world’s population balanced out. Food rations became less of a problem when the third world countries of the past developed into first world countries. The technology became universal, and competition for the latest and greatest has only gotten more intense.
It is Monday, and in the future, such is still unfortunately a workday. He goes to his office in the Physical Transfer and Learning building. For the past three years, Walter and his crew have been working on physical person transfers over the Internet. This would benefit the medical sector, having a superiorly trained Medic be sent superbly fast to a family’s house, or have one on call for the more elderly citizens.
The number of employees required in the medical sector of the world was cut in half because of the vast spread of knowledge, and the decreasing amount of people who need medical attention. Anyone can learn anything all the time, especially with the Sleep Encyclopedia.
Also, people are becoming more efficient: stronger, fitter, healthier, and don’t need visits to Doctors.
Floyd and Madeleine were the first generation to receive protein shots as infants. These shots immediately strengthened their immune systems so that antigens couldn’t even stand a second’s chance.
These children, like all of their generation will grow a little taller than their parents, live a little longer, and possibly become better looking.
In their competitive society, Floyd and Madeleine, although may have the impression that life is sweet and simple, will be bombarded with the huge competition to even live.
Fortunately since the Digital Party’s secret idea to enhance the human race involved removing lesser beings (mentally, physically, economically unpleasing people) so that sharing information could be more attractive, people have lost a sense of self-conscience. With their freedom, people can romp around, recording themselves to teach others anywhere in the world what they have learnt, and those recordings won’t be cyber trash.
It is sad to learn that senior citizens have lost their golden titles. As youths, they displayed their memories so publicly, that those personal moments became part of the international web space. No one needs to ask an elder for guidance because his or her experiences have been documented in such an easy to learn from way.
However, since these people of the future, like the Heatherington family for instance, have learnt about all these memories, they have become intensely aware of the hazards in the world, taking safety to a new standard.
Fire is dangerous, and taboo. There is artificial heat now.
Sharp corners aren’t necessary in a household, it is much easier to look at, and feel a rounded corner.
Cars are no longer used. Fuel became obsolete with the outbreak of solar cars, but those too became useless when all the towns merged into cities that invested in phenomenal transit systems.
Airplanes are still a valid form of transportation, until Walter and the Physical Transfer crew will find a way to import and export people at anytime to anywhere. Only large cities of one million or more people exist, with planes leaving hourly to any destination.
The Heatheringtons plan to have a family vacation once Abigail’s digital emotional therapy has been completed, and she is able to leave her comfortable nook of a house.
It may be challenging to find a destination when each member of the family have digitally learnt about diverse areas of the world, but then again, there is always something to discover in this ever-changing and molding world.
