[Short Fiction] What will the world look like in 2031?

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Link: What will the world look like in 2031? - Storythings

 

The impacts of the last year on culture and society will reverberate through much of the next decade. We know from our clients that a lot of people are asking how this will affect them and their work. Storythings started in 2011 with a project for Faber & Faber that imagined life in 2021. So we thought for our 10th anniversary, we’d ask the same question: what will the world be like in 10 years’ time?

 

We’ve commissioned eight writers from across the globe to write short fiction that explores some of these impacts – climate migration, climate change, digital identity projects, the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in multiple settings from work to health to culture, and how all this affects who we are – with a view to the year 2031. The world was different 10 years ago when we launched and it will have changed again 10 years from now.

 

The Storythings perspective doesn’t stop at fiction though. We want to extend the thinking and themes behind these brilliant stories. So we asked experts to build on them in different formats – like a reading list, an interview with an expert, a discussion, an epistolary exchange between writers or explaining a subject as if you were speaking to audiences with different levels of subject knowledge. For Storythings, a format is the magic ingredient that makes a story memorable – so if you read both the stories and their responses, maybe they’ll kickstart some interesting ideas and reflections for you...

[mikes]

Couldn't tell you about robot maids, but I could tell you about - prices rising by 25% and wages rising by 2.5%. Smartwatches/smart bands will eventually take over from smartphones, you'll have a wide, sleek, flexible band around your wrist, it might even have a lil projector on it so you can project things onto walls.

But when you think about it, 2031 doesn't sound that long away. But man, thinking back, 2011 for me is HUGELY different to 2021/2022. I remember working in the school in 2011, we still had Windows XP, there was basically no remote access - now staff take working from home on the computer for granted. Back then working on the school network was like working on the school gym, there's no way you could do it at home. Electric cars were a joke, Elon Musk's talks about building a rocket to send astroauts into space was crazy billionaire talk we'd all heard before that we all thought would go nowhere.

But we've had alot of maturing when it comes to computer power, if the same happens again things will be interesting. I wonder if ultimately speeds won't get much higher per sé, they'll just become much more efficient e.g. my desktop has a 6 core 4GHZ CPU, but it needs a big box and blocky cooler. In 2031 I might only have a 6 core 4.5GHZ CPU, but it'll fit around my wrist and will be powered by a thin flexible battery.