Growth
GROWTH
Today, in 2022, data is collected in increasingly larger quantities, but with the same mentality as it was in 2012. A tacit understanding prevails: the public knows that their information is being collected constantly, but because they don?t see how it?s being used by national governments and international private corporations, they remain complacent. While sensors in cell phones, cars, refrigerators and even toilets are able to give companies powerful amounts of data, they haven’t quite figured out how to best make use of it.
The bottleneck on analysis means that statistically driven strategic planning is reserved for large corporations who aren’t confident enough in the numbers to take any real transformative action.
Just as UN scientists predicted in 2012, carbon emissions have grown substantially over the last decade and climate change is slowly taking its full effect. Individuals and small NGOs are attempting to spearhead efforts to “reduce, reuse and recycle,” but their actions have proven futile. Companies seek quarterly profits and governments obsess over the upcoming election cycle as they aggressively pursue the status quo, promoting collaboration and cooperation only when it supports their short-term interests.
HEALTH
Lisa's Home
Lisa is pregnant with her first child. She has maintained a BMI around 24. She wears a biometric patch that collects 5,000 data points every minute, tracking caloric intake, output, activity levels and sleep patterns. Even with a degree in dietetics, she often feels unsure of what to do with all of the data she has collected on herself.
Lisa's walk to work
As peak oil levels quickly approach, so too do peak fat levels. America’s combined weight gain means several billion more gallons of gasoline are used annually in personal vehicles. Lisa tries to walk to work everyday, but has trouble stomaching the scenery. The hospital where she runs her clinic is 11 blocks away. Along the walk, she passes 5 fast food restaurants and 4 corner stores, which, thanks to powerful lobbies in Washington all accept food stamps The only grocery store nearby recently relocated to the other side of the main strip, which means Lisa's patients who live in the neighborhood have few choices for fresh food.
Lisa's Clinic
Lisa is a nutritionist up against tough odds. As the OECD predicted in 2010, almost 75% of American adults are obese. Electronic medical records are widely adopted, but without clear industry standards, private companies are unable to share the data. Lisa normally sees patients on a yearly basis, upon referral from their primary care physician - so she has little time to learn a detailed health history. The most common request she hears is for a fix-all prescription weight loss pill. She is frustrated with the short-sighted reluctance to address the underlying causes of obesity.
Waste Removal
St. Gustav’s Hospital is an energy behemoth - annually producing more than 50 pounds of CO2 emissions per square foot. A disposable mindset and a narrow-minded approach to sanitation and sterilization means plastics are everywhere: Pill bottles, IV lines, exam gloves, and just about every other hospital accessory comes from a petroleum-intensive production process.
St. Gustav’s is generating more than 15 pounds of waste per patient per day. Every afternoon it is hauled out of sight and out of mind - but the landfill is already over capacity.
Plus-Sized Delivery Wards
Today, Lisa has a 6-month check-up with her obstetrician. As she looks around the waiting room, she is disheartened by the overweight women surrounding her. She knows that these women are more likely to deliver by C-section and are more likely to experience anesthesia complications, hemorrhaging and blood clotting.
Medical companies aren't addressing the underlying causes of these complications, obesity. Instead, St. Gustav's is adapting the environment for the "growing" population. The hospital is building a new plus-sized delivery ward because the old ward isn't able to handle the increased perils of obese childbearing. Exam tables are wider, surgical devices are longer, and the vending machines are still stocked with the true culprits.
FOOD
Henry’s Farm
After watching his stubborn neighbor and good friend lose his entire corn crop to a mutated Thielaviopsis fungal infection, Henry decided it was finally time to try Monsanto’s “Miracle-Organic” brand. This new brand of corn seeds is genetically designed to resist all of the current major blights and most of the ones deemed “potential threats” by the company. Because they won’t require any pesticides or herbicides, they can be sold to organic-label producers. They also have the benefit of retaining their basic chemical structure when frozen, so it can also be labeled “fresh” and “all-natural” in 47 states.
Henry’s Home
With so much of his farm work automated, Henry is able to live in the suburbs with his family and send his son to a good school. New technologies mean that the soil doesn’t need to be tilled, the rows don’t need to be weeded and most of the harvesting can be done by machine. With remote sensors placed throughout his field, he can monitor his fields from his office.
Henry just learned about new satellite monitoring technologyowned by Monsanto. The large agribusiness company offers online courses and night classes to help food producers learn how to use these emerging technologies to better monitor their fields and their resources.
Overdue Rain
Henry and the rest of the town welcome today's rain because a short drought was threatening to ruin his fields and hurt the whole country’s food production. Two weeks ago, the state assembly decided to fund WeatherDesign, Inc.’s latest project that promised to induce rain over agricultural lands. But the drought meant pollination is behind schedule and Henry will have to import bees from another region in the country. Hopefully, these bees will be engineered to survive in this region’s erratic climate.
Cutting Back on Wasteful Forests
Across national news outlets, experts are weighing in on the Congressional debate over the future of Yellowstone National Park. Henry supports the conservation of half a million acres in Yellowstone Park, if it means that that the rest of it can be developed into farmland. Similar compromises have created “bio-museums” in the Amazon and parts of Africa.
EDUCATION
Public School Budget Issues
With most of the children from upper class families now attending private school, the town's elite have ceased promoting public school funding as a pivotal issue.
Without inner circle evangelists promoting the public school systems interests, its budget has been slowly carved away and redistributed to more 'universal' causes- in other words, causes that effect the wellbeing of upper class families.
The Field's House
Greg and Scarlett, 14 and 11 respectively, live within easy walking distance of the public school system. Riverside High School is just a couple blocks away, but the public school budget is cut every year and Riverside's test scores are the worst in the state. The Field family would never send their the children to a school like that, so Greg and Scarlett attend Point Park Preparatory Academy, a 5th through 12th grade private school, across town and on the other side of the river.
Geoff's Tuition
The State University system is struggling to keep tuition costs from rising but they refuse to end professor tenure, increase the number of classes professors teach, or alter the administrative structure in any way. Instead, the system is expanding its work study program by laying off janitorial and grounds crews and giving the jobs to student workers.
The State University advertises that it's 'community driven' and on the 'cutting edge of education.'
In addition, many of the university classes are now taught entirely online. In 2015, the State University asked its junior professors to create a complete library of 100-level online courseware and then laid them off because their role was 'redundant.' "We can't afford to be wasting money on unknowns," said Mr. Stephano, Vice Provost for Classroom Technology.
DEVELOPMENT
Scraps of Work
Late at night, Anya helps scientists in Europe map human genomes. Early in the morning, she writes closed captions for live news programs in other time zones. She feels fulfilled and connected to other people when she does this work, but it only provides enough income to cover her family’s healthcare bills.
The Public Library is a godsend. Open 24 hours a day, it enables paying members to work closer to home. For residents of the nearby housing development, $3 a day for membership is a great deal and it has helped the library to become a center for community activity.
Bill Paying at Home
As a young mother living below the poverty line, Anya works hard to make ends meet. In exchange for allowing her cell phone carrier to monitor every interaction she has with her phone, Anya’s monthly cell phone bill is much more affordable. Her cell phone plan takes more out of her monthly budget than taxes, but unlike the social security system that’s failed her, Anya’s phone is an integral part of her daily life. She uses it to pay bills, stay in contact with friends and family, keep track of the news, and more.
Anya's Commute
Because it’s too expensive to own and maintain a car, Anya uses public transportation to take her kids to daycare in the morning and then to get to work all the way across town. Without the bus tracking app on her phone, the unreliable bus system wouldn’t be manageable.
Working in Restaurants
Anya earns 2/3 of her income from 2 part-time jobs at restaurants outside the hospital. Lucky's Breakfast Bananza is breakfast only, and the Chile Place is lunch and dinner, which lines up perfectly.
Both restaurants have flexible schedule and free wifi access, allowing her to micro-task on her breaks.
MOBILE TECH
Demands for Larger Screens
Ae Sook is a computer scientist specializing in the design of interfaces that lets humans access the ever growing prowess of computers. She has been given a new mandate by her boss. Her latest challenge is to build a flexible and agile design for the mobile phone interface that is easy to transport around as well as provide a larger surface for displaying results of data mining.