Time Machine & Us

How would your life be different 20 years from now? I describe the lives of 6 individuals who live in 2030s and 2040s and use technologies available in their day and age to go around their daily activities.

Who Said Cat Porn Is Not a Thing?

Alice was going through a rough patch. She just broke up with her boyfriend, John. After almost a year of unemployment, she finally managed to find a job in a neighbouring city but lacked the funds to cover the moving expenses.

She had a quirky side and occasionally recorded videos of her cats’ intimate moments. John used to note this was very weird, yet incredibly funny. Eventually he left one of their shared cats with her when she broke up with him. He said she loved the cat more anyway.

Alice complained to Jennifer about the cost of maintaining two cats and her financial situation overall.

Jennifer jokingly suggested, “Why don’t you sell your cat videos?”

Alice scoffed, “Are you suggesting I become a cat pornographer? That’s absurd!”

Jennifer countered, “Not really. Your privacy preferences are stored on Chainer (a personal AI-enabled blockchain). By leveraging this technology, you can sell the videos without revealing your identity. You can even create an auction system or turn them into NFTs, ensuring limited ownership.”

“The only interaction involved would be between the Chainers and the wallets of the buyers and sellers. The videos would be matched with active demands on Chainer or historical purchase patterns of potential buyers,” Jennifer explained.

Alice contemplated the idea. “So, no one would know who is selling or buying the videos, as long as they comply with AI-enforced standards. I could make money selling the weirdest and the most sensitive things while maintaining privacy.”

Jennifer answered: “Yes, no problem at all. How do you think those chicks are selling their feet pictures? I once read about the guy who stored hundreds of German and Russian Nazi items in his basement and eventually found a buyer. He made $2 million of that memorabilia! There is a buyer for everything! Literally!”

Though the concept seemed repulsive and amusing at the same time, Alice decided to give it a try. She sold a few videos to five people, unaware of their identities or motivations, and earned $750 by auctioning two videos to the highest bidders. Alice opted not to turn the videos into NFTs since exclusivity wasn’t a concern for the buyers. The only requirement was verifying the authenticity of the videos, which the AI diligently checked to ensure they were not computer-generated.

In this transaction, Alice and the five buyers bypassed traditional third-party platforms like eBay or Amazon, eliminating the need for fees. The creators of the AI and Blockchain platforms were the only third parties involved, earning revenue by offering their services in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.

Mr Strangelove

John was devastated that Alice was leaving the city. He had fallen in love with her at first sight and always believed that life had been unfair in not granting him what he desired. Despite taking anxiety-controlling drugs, he struggled to fully cope with his jealousy and inferiority complex. Another possible reason for his insecurity was the fact Alice never liked him in the first place.

She told him this multiple times but it did not seem to register with John. Either he thought it was impossible for someone not to like him or he simply enjoyed the feeling of being rejected. He would often write to Alice, checking on her whereabouts and her feelings for him. He knew his obsession was unusual, but he couldn’t help himself. At the same time, he was too comfortable in London to consider moving elsewhere in search of love, even for Alice.

As Alice departed, he commanded Enigma to find the closest copy of her in the same city. The AI repeatedly warned John that pursuing a replica of a failed relationship was not the wisest idea. Instead, it suggested several matches based on AI-confirmed values and life goals.

Despite the Enigma’s accurate assessment and John’s newfound perfect match, someone who assuaged his complexes and fears, he remained deeply unhappy. He craved the masochistic experiences of uncertainty and inferiority, which he felt with Alice.

John enjoyed the insults and indifference, but he registered it was not beneficial for him in the long run. He knew he had to find a way to address and overcome these feelings.

In his search for a solution, John came across an intriguing concept involving tracking neurotransmitters to understand specific emotions and subsequently working on rewiring neural pathways. Intrigued by the idea, he decided to explore this approach further.

To aid in his journey, John began wearing an electric chip that could detect heightened moments of masochistic joy within his mind. Over several months of wearing the chip, Enigma analySed the data and pinpointed the specific neural pathways and brain regions responsible for these peculiar feelings of happiness.

Armed with this newfound knowledge, John and Enigma devised a plan. They explored the possibility of creating pills that could stimulate those specific areas of the brain, allowing John to experience similar emotions within the context of a healthy and fulfilling relationship. Additionally, they considered the option of freezing the undesired neural pathways and replacing the associated memories with patterns commonly associated with reciprocal love and connection.

With careful guidance from Enigma and the support of his new partner, John embarked on a journey of self-transformation. Every time he was with Anna he would use Neuralink to incite the areas of the brain that had been naturally involved during his previous masochistic experiences with Alice. Eventually, he went through several memory removing procedures to fully rid himself from the haunting memories of the masochistic pleasures. 

John would never know what had triggered his strange and unhealthy tendencies in love. In the previous century people would have been probably going into the Freudian and Jung theory and using hypnosis to try to get to the actual cause. In 2037 these time and energy consuming methods were completely irrelevant. 

Still, all the AI and Neuralink-enabled changes were securely stored on the Enigma blockchain, ensuring a transparent and immutable record of the transformation process. The blockchain served a crucial purpose beyond John’s private medical record keeping. It provided a means to track and verify the alterations made, enabling the ability to rectify any potential issues that might arise during the transformation.

This blockchain record was not only important for John’s own benefit but also for informing any future matches about his genetic predispositions and tendencies that might be unsuitable for procreation. By having access to this information, potential partners could make informed decisions and consider the implications of such genetic factors on their future relationship (if they were unwilling to use CRISPR).

Ukrainian Glory of Royal Ascot 

If people believed that the fashion trends of the 2020s were characterized by crazy outfits for festivals and receptions, the 2040s took individuality to a whole new level.

While earlier decades saw renowned designers making a significant impact, and the 2030s witnessed individuals becoming their own fashion designers, 2040s became a time when people could also make their own clothes, right where they live, with zero outsourcing, delay, or using underpaid labor. In mid-XXI century people started envisioning unique styles and creating outfit designs for any occasion.

In fact, even without a specific style in mind, anyone could invent incredible designs suited for any event or based on their existing wardrobe, personal preferences, favorite movies or characters.

The widespread availability of 3D printers and robotic multitaskers at home or in the neighborhood enabled individuals to transform their designs into tangible products almost instantly.

As mass production of clothes became somewhat outdated, the focus shifted towards individual fashion and on premises created outfits. Tailors were still present to further refine the fit of the AI designed and 3D printer created outfits, but they were mainly stationed around the printing area. 

Anna, intrigued by this trend, made the decision to wear a Royal Ascot dress that would be designed by AI and created with the help of her personal 3D robot.

She approached Enigma with a specific assignment: a design incorporating Ukrainian colours, a futuristic theme, and national symbols. After analysing her request, Enigma generated the following design:

Anna thought it was absolutely stunning. She was still a bit concerned whether the 3D printed dress could look as nice as the one in the picture. So she decided to also use a holographic scan of her body taken before the design was fed to a 3D printer. 

Magically, the dress turned out to be exactly like predicted by Enigma. After the Ukrainian victory and subsequent economic boom in the country Ukrainian colors became the embodiment of bravery, class and determination. They were present at each social gathering and served as the confirmation of social standing and morality. 

Still, the addition of a personal futuristic theme and the careful work of the 3D printer made Anna’s dress an absolute hit at the Royal gathering.

The Noble Life of Lucy 

Lucy was not your ordinary vehicle. Equipped with advanced AI technology and a seamless integrated wallet system, Lucy was a part of a new generation of autonomous cars, whose whole life cycle has been designed to be independent but helpful to humanity.

Hundreds of Lucys were manufactured monthly and sent into the world to fulfill their duties of reversing the catastrophic effects of climate change. Some people humorously compared Lucy to the American students of the previous decades, who received loans to pursue their education.

In the similar fashion, Lucy used her integrated wallet to charge her passengers, and used the initial amounts to return the debt of her manufacturing process. All money collected later was used by Lucy according to her own judgment, but always in compliance with Asimov’s laws of robotics.

Lucy was programmed to mainly focus on global warming-reversing charities, as well as combine the interests and suggestions of the passengers each car was driving. Since Lucys were distributed evenly across the world, some of the cars ended up helping the coral reefs preservation, while others focused on education for Afghan girls. 

Lucy’s inherent selflessness went far beyond her lifespan – When the time came for Lucy to be decommissioned and replaced by newer autonomous vehicles, she selflessly donated her still-functional parts for recycling. 

Let AI Design My Baby

In 2042 it became increasingly normal to replicate an animal based on their genetic material.

It has been done mainly to catch up with the extinction of species and ensure the right number of animals for the sustainable procreation. Unlike animals, humans did not have the extinction problem looming over them. What they had was the love of choice and the obsession with perfection and improvement. 

Already in the 2030s it became increasingly popular to pick all the desired criteria for the child and grow the baby in a tube. Just like in cases of the plastic surgeries boom of the 2020s, too many people were opting for the very similar features, raising alarm bells for the species diversity and nature-related adaptations. 

In fact, while parents might have thought some looks or qualities were advantageous, a much more knowledgeable AI knew that certain combinations were becoming excessive and thus in fact less desirable for the future life of a baby. 

To avoid over-engineering and over-designing, Enigma was advised to give the final blessing or a needed correction to the chosen mix of physical and mental attributes. Equally, the optimal combinations of qualities varied for various geographies and time zones. 

Now parents could choose a function of “enhance” or “determine” – and AI will either follow your instructions blindly or take them loosely while adding the components it sees fitting.

All the components and steps in Enigma’s decision making are being documented on the Blockchain, so anyone can go back and figure out how it came up with the recommendation on those traits.

Humanity has been divided into 2 camps:

Tranhumanists – who loved using AI & gene editing to advance their species and ensure their babies optimal adaptation to the rapidly changing surroundings 

Naturals – humans who believed nature knew best and went with the traditional method of reproduction, without relying on any external forces to design or bear their baby

No single way has proven advantageous as there has not been enough sample data, and the mass production of designer babies was still in its infancy. 

Nevertheless, Anna and John decided this could be a great solution for them. They wanted to make sure their future baby is on an equal footing with a growing number of genetically edited and AI crafted Transhumans, but also to make sure the baby avoided John’s strange predispositions for masochism. We will be following their baby’s journey in the next essays. For now, it is worth saying that most probably the natural way will be much better for a few more decades or even centuries before the mechanism of choice and enhancement gets polished to perfection. And even then, is it perfection we fall in love with and create poems about?

Choose What You Want To See

The town Alice moved to wasn’t much of a gem. It was a small industrial town, surrounded by drab factories and monotonous landscapes. This was one of the last British towns dependent on fossil fuels. 

Alice was invited there to teach entrepreneurship and creativity. Since the coal factories were designated for closure and repurposing in the next 2 years, the government had to ensure the local population was equipped with new skills to pursue new careers once their stable sources of income have been disrupted. Having no considerable business achievements, apart from several book reseller shops and a recent anonymous cat porn enterprise, Alice did not know exactly what made the school council zoom in on her candidacy.

It was clear, however, there weren’t too many candidates to move into that miserable suffocating environment. The industrial town under London did have a serious advantage though. Alice was paid 3 times the average London salary, could rent a huge apartment, and with prices 3-4 times cheaper than the capital, she could save enough money during her stunt to buy a house in the countryside. 

The school Alice was teaching at was located on the edge of the town, surrounded by coal factories, old pubs and abandoned buildings.

Every day, Alice embarked on a mundane commute to work, longing for something to brighten up her otherwise uneventful journey.

Remembering Jennifer’s tech awareness, one day Alice complained about the town to her friend. Jennifer recommended trying out a new AR app, which could transform the surrounding into a chosen theme on the go.

The new app was still experimental and required a written consent to withdraw the responsibility clause in case something went wrong. It was possible to get it for free in exchange for sharing your visions and experiences with the owner, VR Dali. 

Alice signed up for an app and discovered a newfound source of joy that transformed his daily routine. There was still a limited choice of themes, with Guillermo del Toro’s world and Jurassic Park being her favourite. 

The dull streets became animated with virtual characters, vibrant plants, and imaginary creatures.

With each step Alice took, VRDali transported her to different worlds. One day she walked alongside majestic unicorns, another one- she sailed through virtual oceans, another day she was greeting dinosaurs on the way to work. The once boring town now became a canvas for her imagination, adding ideas and inspiration for her entrepreneurship classes.

Alice VR set had so many sensors that it could work on the landscape in real time:

It measured the distance to objects, their density and heights, as well as the difference in position – so it could easily detect a hole in front as well as a dog, cow or a car moving by. It could even calculate air quality and traffic to recommend the best way to get anywhere preserving health.

Passersby would see Alice immersed in her AR world, wearing a wide smile as she interacted with virtual objects and characters. People in the town grew increasingly interested in this new technology and started inquiring about the VR set. 

As time went on, more and more people in the town started using AR to make their commutes and lives more fun. The once-dreary industrial town gradually became a hub of creativity and imagination. Walls that were once covered in dust and grime now boasted vibrant art pieces created by the AR community. The town began hosting AR-themed events and conferences, where people would gather to showcase their creations and share their stories.

Eventually, being one of the first places to understand the possibilities of AR and VR, as well as its impact on the world, the small British town became a source of AR engineers, landscape designers and futurists. The once-boring industrial town became a living testament to the transformative potential of technology and the human spirit. Having successfully completed the assignment, Alice went on to pursue her interests in bioengineering.