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Perhaps the future will be represented by invisibles?
Perhaps the future will manifest itself as something quite ordinary?
When it gets here we might miss it…
‘2045
What does the future mean to us and how far ahead do we have to look to liberate our imaginations and envisage the fantastic?
In 1968 a ground breaking film and book was released that was set a mere 33 years into the future: 2001 A Space Odyssey. Its dramatic depiction of human evolution, technological advances, artificial intelligence and extra-terrestrial life placed that then-distant time excitingly out of reach... but we are now 11 years beyond that time.
I’ve taken the proximity of 33 years from now to provide the title for this work 2045, as well as drawing on some aspects of the 1972 film Silent Running for its content.
In Silent Running all plant life on Earth has become extinct as a result of man’s destructive propensities, with only a few specimens preserved and cultivated for a future time in enormous, greenhouse-like geodesic domes that are attached to a fleet of space freighters orbiting Saturn.
In 2045 I am not forecasting an apocalyptic coming but using the exaggerated nature of so much science fiction to expose the theatrical potential of the ordinary: the stuff that comforts us with its familiarity, but carries the potential to stir imaginations.
In 2045 the environment is likely to look and feel very similar to the one we currently know, but behind the scenes new technologies will quietly manage our environment; keeping us warm or cool, fed, watered and in touch with others globally in a manner that aesthetically satisfies.
So what of our realities? 33 years ago people worked for a living, built a home, made a family, kept clean, made bread, grew vegetables, went shopping in motorised transport and, with more effort than is currently required, were able to communicate between great distances; we are still doing the same things.
We travel through time, predisposed to take evolving technologies for granted. Some of us proclaim to have no time or interest in such matters, while others are duped into frequently updating to the most recent OS and interface as if their lives depend on it; either way it is almost impossible for us to avoid some interaction with them.
Soon computer power will reach a stage when it becomes equal to us, able to make decisions for us and eventually think for its self.
Before we get to that stage, we will need to decide whether to merge with our robotic kin, or permit technologies to evolve towards singularity and the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence. In a minor way our dependence on smart technology and intuitive interfaces is already leading us to merge; it could be too late to decide.
Present technological development is striving for increasingly intuitive ‘Higher Definition’ realities through 3D imaging that interacts with personal spatial awareness like Xbox Kinect for example, which is gob-smacking for us older folk but accepted as “normal” by the current generation.
What of future generations? How long before virtual reality loses the ‘virtual’ and at what stage will we lose sight of what is synthetic?
In Star Trek the starships have a “Holodeck” - a place where all objects and sensory matter are simulated by holographic images enhanced by projected sounds and smells, allowing you to be where you wish and in whatever period.
In Silent Running Freeman Lowell’s fellow astronauts ridicule him for eating ‘real food’, preferring a synthetic mash.
With computer games making rapid progress in their ability to represent real life perhaps it’s only a matter of time before we become lost in a virtual world as in Surrogates, where people live in idealised forms in the safety of their homes, while their surrogate cyborgs go about their daily tasks for them, feeling no pain when damaged. Ideal in our increasingly health and safety obsessed world. Alternatively, an implanted memory as in Total Recall could provide us with a virtual vacation, adventure, or any such life experience.
‘See you on the way back’. Dr Heywood R Floyd 2001 A Space Odyssey