Transformation
Transformation
The Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age, but now the Age of Big Data has arrived. Enormous amounts of data are ceaselessly collected and integrated into a global database maintained by individuals and newly developing international governance structures.
The constant stream of data requires 24/7 surveillance and human interaction, blurring the once clearly defined units of time such as “day” and “week.” An international community of recurrent nocturnal humans has grown to support the Big Data world.
In a world defined by total information, but incomplete long-term analysis, complex algorithms can be created almost instantaneously to solve isolated predicaments, but because they require accurate, real-time data to function, the algorithms cannot predict the outcome of its own suggested solution.
Rapid now-casting once convinced large populations to grow immense amounts of algae which has the ability to sequester large amounts of carbon in the atmosphere and can also be used as an alternative fuel source.
But it wasn’t until this strategy was fully implemented that data could be gathered on how the burgeoning algae population was changing ocean temperatures. The algorithms also didn’t consider rising divorce rates as the pungency of algae interfered with natural pheromone responses.
Everything worked out alright, however, because new algorithms were soon created to instruct people how to deal with the consequences of their actions. The traditional Westphalian governance structure eroded as it became clear that it could not keep up with the mercurial international environment.
With information zipping around the globe, major technological advancement in nano 3D printing, allows students in Asia to send files to individuals in South America to print identical synthetic food, organs, tools and even new 3D printers.
HEALTH
Nutrient Bars
As a nutritionist, Lisa was hesitant to follow the craze of the nutrient bars, maintaining that real, fresh foods were superior. However, they seemed to be having a transformative effect on her patients. She thought it might be worth a try, especially since her busy schedule hasn’t allowed much time to make sure she is following a good prenatal diet.
Lisa and her husband hit a rough patch when the algae pheromone masking incident combined with a hormonal spike that resulted from eating an old nutrient dense bar she found in her kitchen. She was able to download a new plug-in for her embedded arm sensor that alerts her on a virtual screen if the bar she is about to eat isn’t synced with her current metrics.
Fecal Transplant Center
We are in the “yotta world”_of 1,000 trillion gigabytes of data ? the clunky data warehouses of old gave given way to massive cloud-based storage systems. Databases like Hadoop allow for sifting through unstructured data streams in real time. This is huge for health as a clear picture is starting to emerge from all the data exhaust. However, the rapidcasting that results is starting to wear people out. In the past, it may have taken 15 years to see any effects from drinking polluted water. By that time is nearly impossible to trace your colon cancer back to that water. Now, immediate feedback on a decision creates a domino effect of subsequent actions, scrambling to avoid an even worse health outcome.
Recent studies on the importance of a robust human microbiomehave Lisa very conscious of creating an optimal birth environment. She knows that having a healthy culture of Lactobacillus johnsonii in her vagina during birth will inoculate her baby and prepare it to digest breast milk. A couple fecal microbial transplant centers have opened nearby and Lisa is going for a consultation. If she seems like a good candidate, she will get paired with a donor who has never taken antibiotics - this way she can rest assured that her Lactobacillus is nice and hearty.
Mapping the Connectome
With so much of nutrition automated, Lisa has switched career paths and is working on mapping the human connectome. Much like genome mapping projects earlier in the decade, this seeks to fully understand all 100 billion neural connections and make that data public for further exploration. There have already been huge breakthroughs about Alzheimer's and autism.
Now they are exploring genetic memory_- trying to prove that DNA is capable of passing on certain types of memory - the "factory installed software" of our brains. The lab employs nocturnals for the analysis that still requires a human touch
FOOD
Indoor Farming
Henry grows all of his products indoors so that he can control every aspect of the environment and provide accurate information to consumers. About two-thirds of his crops are grown on a hydromembrane microfilm which allows him to feed and water his plants without having to worry about soil quality or diseases. He converts whole buildings into indoor ecosystems that grow “real food for real people.” A more rapid growing cycle allows him to respond to trends brought about by Big Data analysis, but because it’s not nearly as dependent on “now-casts” as the nutrient dense bars, people enjoy the familiarity of Henry’s food.
Greece, America
In response to the nutritional emphasis of Big Data algorithms, those who can afford it are willing to pay a lot of money for truly authentic food. A new international system of AOC has developed, certifying that a bottle of Champagne is really from France, that Manchego cheese is really from Spain and that a Russet Burbank Potato is really from Idaho. New technologies, however, allow American farmers like Henry to grow Greek olivesin Greek soil with the same humidity and temperatures as the Peloponnese region in Greece. Henry started selling his own brand of “authentic” Kalamata olives, but the Greeks have are disgruntled. If Henry continues to sell his olives under the Kalamata label, he could lose his land. The Greeks are arguing that if he’s turned his indoor farm into an exact replica of Peloponnesian farmland, then it’s as much a part of Greece as the original city of Kalamata.
Henry's Home
Some say that 3D-printed, nutrient dense health bars provide all of the nourishment an individual needs to live a healthy and happy life, but culture does not evolve at the same pace as technology. Around the world people are struggling to maintain the customs and rituals that surround “traditional food.” Families don’t want to carve an extra-large nutrient dense bar for Christmas dinner. Jews and Muslims are relearning how to eat according to age-old spiritual guidelines and the vegetarian philosophy is adapting its ethical principles. A new market for “traditional food” has sprung up that Henry, a modern urban farmer, hopes to capitalize on.
3D printed food
Henry remembers a time when people ate lettuce because it was good for them. Now, the only things he ever needs to eat are the nutrient dense health bars that are sold out of a converted Kinko’s storefront downtown. Henry’s neighbor gave up the plow and is now partnered with a government endorsed data mining health company that researches the latest in nutritional information, allowing him to 3D print health bars with optimal nutritional balance. When Big Data develops a new combination of nutrients, Henry’s neighbor is sent the “recipe.” Old bars are designed for disassembly, allowing them to be broken down into their nutrient parts, distilled into cartridges for the 3D printer, and reprinted with a different recipe.
EDUCATION
Impromptu Basketball
During the afternoon, Scarlett and her friends Alicia and Jessica take a break to play basketball with some neighborhood classmates.
The game is organized through social technology embedded in their education software; during the course of homeclasses, when the girls are taking a break, a small window pops up on their screens prompting them of possible group activities.
When enough students select basketball, a notification pops up with information about the time and place. It even suggests teams designed to break the monotony of cliques: Alicia and Jessica will play on one team, Scarlett on the other. Of course, often times the students make up teams on their own.
Blended Learning
At 11:30AM, Scarlett walks home from class with her friends Alicia and Jessica. It's time for school, and the girls set up their laptops in the living room.
At first, the girls go through a bit of GS, their General Studies work. They buff up on Mandarin and Arabic with their classmates in China and Egypt. Then they dive right into Math and statistical analysis.
As 2PM approaches, the girls take a break to play some basketball with their neighbor-classmates, but they can't stand to be away from class so long- learning is SO much fun. After all, next up is AOI- areas of interest learning. Scarlett finds Oceanography fascinating, and her AOI program is tailored specifically to fuel and feed those interests. She's been looking forward to it all day. Meanwhile, Alicia learns programming and Jessica, Nanobiology.
Scarlett's mom shakes her head in disbelief when she returns home from work at 6PM. The very notion of children loving to learn still baffles her. Scarlett already knows more than her mom in more subjects than could be kept track of. 'Why couldn't learning be this way when I was young?'
YoungGov: A Co-Learning Space
Greg Fields spends most of his school day not at home, or at the high school, put at his favorite co-learning space, YoungGov. YoungGov is a student aggregate cooperatively promoting global democracy through working with dissidents and activists, creating diplomacy and providing logistical support for youth empowerment worldwide.
YoungGov was in the news last week for being critical in providing support and communications tools for the student-revolution in Swaziland. In fact, it's not unusual to see diplomatic limousines parked outside the office. Tons of US senators come and go, trying to figure out how their global influences could be so thoroughly subverted by a group of children.
Scarlett imagines what it would be like to learn there. She and her global classmates in Egypt and China have discussed their different views on global politics.
University Reborn
While Geoff continues his education at State University, he only attends on Mondays and Fridays. General Studies aside, the University has become more akin to a giant forum than a 20th century college. Every class takes place constantly. Instead of preset times for meetings, students use their smartphones to subdivide autonomously into groups of 5-15, discussing the material and engaging in debate in organically timed sessions.
Geoff spends much of the rest of the week bouncing between Co-Learning Spaces. His burgeoning expertise in organizational theory as applied to artificial spaces makes him pivotal to the success of the co-learning spaces dealing with manned space missions, student revolutions, political institutions, and sustainable living.
StarGazers: A Co-Learning Space
While Scarlett learns from home, Greg prefers the co-learning space StarGazers. He honestly can't stand spending time at home. He and his peers, after a couple years feeding their love of learning, have unintentionally acquired a distaste for the older generation. A driving passion for learning, supported by smart social and data technologies, differentiates parents from children. Because of his love of learning, Greg already knows more about biology, physics, and engineering than his parents did when they graduated college. He has trouble relating to them and their lifestyle, which seems driven by convenience and laziness.
At StarGazers, Greg takes online classes in astro-engineering while cooperating with his classmates to design a mission to Mars funded by Nasa. There are 'Stargazers' spaces in a dozen cities across the country. Entry is open to all, but if you can't actively contribute, your work is simply ignored. The project team numbers 250 across all 12 spaces, and together, they intend to prove that well-organized, knowledge-hungry students can land a rover on Mars.
DEVELOPMENT
InfoLicious: A Co-Learning Space
Anya is a self-taught data analyzer. This position once required a high-level degree from a top university, but the accessibility of information and a shift from abstract learning to project-based educational programs means that Anya had the opportunity to work on professional skills from a very young age. She wasn’t hired because of a diploma or for a strong resume, her employer looked at her track record at InfoLicious, the High-school level Co-Learning space, where Anya worked to develop algorithms for developing countries to develop climate change resilience through intelligent agriculture practices.
Data Collection Center
Anya finally feels like she has a place in this world, somewhere between 11pm and 8am. That’s when she goes to work at the central data-center. Gone is the archaic association with the setting sun as the end of the work day, it’s always noon somewhere in the world and that means that data collection must be constant.
While it’s more common for poorer people to work after the sun sets, this is not the graveyard shift that Anya remembers her dad shuffling to late at night. Breakthroughs in phospholuminescent technology means it’s never really dark outside. Coupled with the ability to communicate seamlessly across multiple time zones, it is cost-effective for certain businesses to work through the night. With more businesses, restaurants, stores and public places open 24-hours there are more opportunities for employment, driving down the wages for the most wealthy and decreasing unemployment for the destitute. Within Anya’s lifetime, she expects that the income gap will narrow dramatically.
Leaky Pipes
Much of Anya’s neighborhood has been fixed up over the last few years because Anya’s town uses algorithms to determine how to allocate budget and resources. Unfortunately, because these algorithms rely on a citizen voting mechanism, small projects like fixing the leaking water pipe that leads directly to Anya’s house aren’t popular enough to spark a response.
MOBILE TECH
Change of Heart-Drive
A few years ago, after inventing the virtual screen for mobile, Ae went on a 5-country tour to launch the new product. 3 of the 5 countries were developing nations where market surveys had shown that there would be an unprecedented acceptance of the new product. When Ae encountered the masses of people living below poverty line, she had a moment of epiphany. She realized that instead of always focusing on bigger and better technology, her skills would be more useful creating tools for the developing world.
mHealth
Ae leads a team that developed a series of mHealth products. Almost all room for error has been algorithmically eliminated from crowd-sourced health applications.
Several years ago, scientists invented lens-free microscopy on a cellphone, whereby a light-weight holographic microscope installed on a mobile phone allowed imaging. These images could then be relayed to a central review website and feedback sent back to the sender.
Ae leveraged this technology to diagnose tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant TB in resource poor areas. The team also developed a smart phone based ultrasound. These low-cost devices were distributed to cash-strapped health-care centers in remote and inaccessible regions.
Quiet Revolution
Amidst the incessant chatter of billions of data points that Ae commits her life to, Ae's sister Vidu is spearheading the Quiet revolution. In Quiet, people are encouraged to turn off their mobile devices to Spare-the-Airwaves. Years of usage of myriad mobile devices means adult Gen Yers have severe Attention Deficit Syndromes. Research proved that the only way to reverse this chronic condition was for people to reduce their usage of mobile devices. During Spare-the-Airwaves days, there were group meditation classes in community centers across the nation.