May 27 - Artistic Imagination - 2051 Objects

[jamesallenevans]

Note that the “memo” for this, final week is motivated by the following prompt:

Imagine 2051. Use the materials and medium (or media) of your choice to create one modest object that belongs to this future world and animates a rich tension or possibility about the status of the world 30 years into the future. The idea is that you should not create an entire world or detailed narrative. Rather, your object should be evocative of that future world, its ways of life, and forms of action within it. Your object might suggest some of the historical events that have happened between 2021 and 2051. As an added challenge, imagine a world that has overcome some major threat or scenario of doom. You don’t need to imagine a utopia, but to end the course fixed on hope and possibility, try to think beyond purely dystopian and apocalyptic scenarios, which are usually easier to imagine in our troubled times. For your medium, you can work with anything you feel comfortable with, whether it is clay, paint, code, colored pencils, or musical instruments. You can create a short comic, a sculpture, a song or audio soundscape, a paper flyer, a common object, a piece of software, or anything else that exists in your version of 2051. Use your making as a way of thinking about possible (and preferable) futures. Along with one or more photographs or digital representations of your object, turn in a brief one-paragraph artist statement (your “memo” for the week) that discusses your key concepts and themes. Have your object available for display and discussion during class.

[starmz123]

(Image source: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/tyler-john-representing-future-generations/)

Statement

U.S. Democracy is flawed for many reasons, of which one neglected cause is the underrepresentation of future generations. As evidenced by climate change, many of humanity's greatest challenges have effects that span generations and decades. This makes it difficult to motivate action or even understand the full scale of a problem. It also creates intergenerational _in_justice: by creating problems that will primarily be borne by future generations rather than ourselves, we are teetering towards leaving the world worse off than when we came into it. This is at heart an institutional failure, for there is little to no way to give the to-be-born a voice. I show one way this could be addressed above, through the creation of the Chamber of the Future whose sole purpose is to represent future humans. There already exist comparable institutions in other countries such as Singapore and Wales. Given the political power that the U.S. currently wields, however, it might be exponentially more impactful if such a means of representation were implemented here.

[fdioum]

Since our object couldn’t be too specific, I thought about water. In 30 years, I am not sure what our freshwater supply shortage will look like, however what I do know is that we all need water to survive and right now millions of people do not have access to that freshwater. Thus, I concluded that the problem will only get worse from here. I choose to create a DIY way to desalinate water. What inspired my idea is our final project as I have been doing a lot of research on desalination, but also everything that has happened as a result of covid. I think the aftermath of covid made people realize once again the value of having fresh water and nonperishable foods. And even when we come over all of the major threats and scenarios of doom our fresh water shortage problem is and will still be prevalent if not for everyone, it is a problem to enough people for us to think of a cheap and accessible solution.

![Uploading tempImageKgc1PA.gif…]() ![Uploading tempImage6fWAFc.gif…]()

[aj-wu]

Yellowstone 2051

This is a national park poster from a future when the gray wolf — which lost federal protections under the Endangered Species Act in 2020 [1] — has gone extinct. Previously hunted to the brink of extinction by the late 1970s, gray wolves played an important role in maintaining the ecosystems in their range. Other carnivores benefited from animal carcasses left over from the wolves’ hunts, and wolves kept elk populations in check, alleviating pressure on trees that provide food and habitat for other animals. [2] Because of the ecological importance of gray wolves, the National Parks Service has contracted Boston Dynamics to fill their now-abandoned niche with robotic gray wolves, equipped with artificial intelligence and solar composting systems (depicted here in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley).

Note that this is a solution with extremely limited application. As apex predators, gray wolves were not an important food source for any other species. For animals lower on the food chain, replacements would need to be composed at least in part of organic material and their supply continually maintained. Not to mention the several thousand extinct and endangered species of aquatic animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria, [3] for which no silicon-based substitutes are anywhere near viability. And although the technology has become considerably more affordable since the days of Boston Dynamics’ $74,500 Spot (retail, shipping included), [4] there will simply never be enough government funding to supplant every threatened bear, hawk, and spider once they’re gone.

References

1. NPR, Gray Wolves To Be Removed from Endangered Species List, https://www.npr.org/2020/10/29/929095979/gray-wolves-to-be-removed-from-endangered-species-list
2. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Gray Wolf Biology and Ecology, https://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/biology/index.html#:~:text=Wolves%20are%20highly%20social%20animals,and%20other%20non%2Dbreeding%20adults.&text=After%20a%20year%20or%20two,or%20join%20other%20existing%20packs.
3. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Environmental Conservation Online System https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/reports/ad-hoc-species-report-input
4. IEEE Spectrum, Boston Dynamics’ Spot Robot Dog Now Available for $74,500, https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/boston-dynamics-spot-robot-dog-now-available

[dramlochun]

This week, I wanted to try and capture the future of our approach in fighting pandemics. To do this, I wanted to incorporate some of the predictions that scientists have made about how vaccine delivery will improve, and how we might combat the many challenges that we encountered this past year during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first element I wanted to emphasize is the importance of continued partnership and cooperation between the public and private sectors. The government will need to continue relying on leading private companies like Pfizer in pandemic times to provide the R&D necessary to quickly develop and distribute life-saving vaccines.

The second element I tried to emphasize is the push for new vaccine delivery technologies. The first I introduce in the poster is pill-based vaccines, which are currently being researched as a simpler and faster alternative to vaccine injections. Moreover, I wanted to emphasize the importance of developing more efficient vaccine registration and distribution systems. In the poster, I emphasized the possibility of personalized deliveries of vaccines to one's own home using drone technology. Given that pills do not have the same storage conditions that the current mRNA vaccines do, such a system could eliminate much of the logistical concerns and make vaccine distribution more convenient for the public.

Lastly, I wanted to emphasize the recent push to develop vaccines that require less frequent booster shots to retain effectiveness. Instead, hopefully, one day our world will have the capability to have decennial vaccines that will be as effective as the annual boosters that we anticipate needing for Covid-19 and the flu alike.

Sources: https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Article/2020/10/12/The-future-of-vaccine-development-Five-legacies-from-COVID-19

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/the-next-generation-of-covid-19-vaccines-could-be-a-pill

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/pfizer-ceo-says-third-covid-vaccine-dose-likely-needed-within-12-months.html

https://www.abpi.org.uk/new-medicines/vaccines/the-future-of-vaccines/

[dramlochun]

movie

This week, I watched I Am Legend, a 2007 film set in New York City post annihilation of the human race due to a deadly, mutating virus. Will Smith stars as a U.S. Army virologist immune to the disease and one of the last humans left alive in New York. The movie follows the challenges he faces, both survival-related and psychological. The virus wipes out the human race originally began as a novel cancer cure. However, this virus mutated and quickly began infecting and turning humans into nocturnal blood-thirsty mutants (not very realistic).

The movie tackled two threats we have discussed this quarter: pandemics and bioengineering. The pandemic quickly wreaked havoc on the world in the movie, causing gas prices to rise, stores being emptied out, and mass chaos with military quarantine. The bioengineering aspect begins with scientists confident in their new method for delivering a cancer cure that is introduced to the market very quickly because of its potential upside. Of course, this quickly spirals out of control, and neither the scientists, the public, or the government is ready to tackle the issue.

Comparing the movie to what happened with Covid-19 this past year, there are some clear parallels and some obvious differences as well. For one, the pandemic causes similar panic at its height, with stories of people stockpiling household supplies to the point where toilet paper was in mass shortage, among other unexpected items. On the other hand, gas prices in real life actually plummeted as business came to a standstill, which the movie did not accurately capture. With regards to the quarantine, it became clear that outside of countries like China and some other Asian countries, it is incredibly hard to enforce a quarantine that materially affects Americans' lives, and thus, in a more serious situation like in the movie, perhaps a military quarantine would be necessary. In 2007, the movie and its quarantine, mass chaos, and other depictions of a pandemic might not have been realistic, but post- Covid-19, we now know that this is a realistic scenario. With a more deadly and contagious virus, perhaps we would end up in a situation similar to the one depicted by I Am Legend.

Focusing more on the bioengineering aspect, the movie raises concerns that new bioengineered technologies made available too quickly without lengthy trial periods can result in disaster. Although this was the source of the pandemic in the movie, a parallel can be drawn to the way vaccines for Covid-19 have been rolled out this year. mRNA technology is widely regarded as safe, yet it remains a fact that no long-term studies are available assessing its safety, yet hundreds of millions have been vaccinated worldwide. Although the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are unlikely to cause humans to turn into nocturnal, blood-thirsty mutants, the risks associated with bioengineering-related technologies are real ones. The cure in the vaccine was developed single-handedly by Will Smith, but as we saw this past year, a vaccine/cure requires immense private-public partnership in the form of billions of dollars of R&D. Going forward, maintaining this relationship and continuing to place a focus on developing newer and more effective vaccine technologies will be important. We cannot rely on a single human's will as I Am Legend suggested.

One big missing element was the political and social pushback we witnessed over the past year. The movie essentially assumed that people would cooperate but to no avail. However, we saw in actuality that people were and continue to be incredibly resistant to making changes to their lives to combat the virus.

[brettkatz]

A near-perfect scenario for the next thirty years is one in which we do not get annihilated by self-inflicted/externally caused catastrophe, and the rest of the world achieves economic prosperity, but there is still a major issue we will face, an aging population. This is one of the few problems that only affects the most economically prosperous countries. The “five stages of development” is a theory regarding the population shifts, in terms of absolute size and distribution over age intervals, due to changes in economic output of a society. Overall, once a society begins to industrialize (stage 2) the population booms, with many young people and fewer old people. By contrast, declining birth rates, attributed in part to increased access to women’s education and access to contraception (not that this is a bad thing!) causes the population pyramid to begin to invert, meaning there are more older people than younger people (stage 5). Given one’s productive capacity declines after a certain age, the younger members of an aging society will struggle to provide the necessary resources to sustain the older population. Few countries have attained stage 5 to date, the greatest example being Japan - with a declining absolute population. However, as economic output increases, so will the average age of the global population. I believe the answer to this issue will first come in the form of biological immortality. As described by Martin Rees, in the future I believe humans will uncover ways to reverse aging as a disease. In my artistic illustration of the future, I propose a 6th stage of development in which the technology for biological immortality becomes widely adopted. The result is a disjunction between the “biological age” - or physically roughly how your physical condition would compare with a human of that age without this anti-aging technology, and the “actual age” or the literal time you have been alive since birth. The actual age pyramid appears as a “snow cone”, in which there remain few births and a high population of old people, although instead of the old population dropping off sharply at around 80-100 years, it rather slowly declines as age is no longer a factor in increasing one’s risk of death. Conversely, the “biological age” will have a massive occurrence around 20-30 years of age - as this is the physical prime age for humans.

[c-krantz]

In this future world, the year being 2051, many countries have experienced famine as a direct result of climate change. As a response, the countries who had the resources to survive expended trillions of dollars to research and develop affordable synthetic food. Thankfully, through international cooperation affordable synthetic meat was created. For this week, I created a menu for a steakhouse that uses strictly synthetic lab grown cuts of meat from across the country. Of course, the prices of this menu are quite high, but given that this is supposed to be a “higher end” restaurant they are priced appropriately. At this point in time, I believe that lab grown meat will not only be incredibly common in the world, but it will be served across the country for affordable pricing. Ideally, the development of synthetic meats will drastically cut down on emissions, land occupation, and energy used in comparison to land grown meats. Even beyond the year of 2051, it is my belief that the development of synthetic meat will continue to improve thus dropping the price so that it is even more affordable than the meat we are accustomed to purchasing at the grocery store today.

[TimGranzow7]

In the year 2051, much has changed. Some changes were for the better; great advancements have been made in the realms of healthcare, computing, clean energy production, and architectual and city planning. Positive developments are not enjoyed totally equally across the globe, but the nations that were developing in 2021 were supported by an international effort to inspire sustainable and clean growth through the sharing of technology, research, and resources. However, many of the dark paths humanity traveled in 2021 were followed to their destinations. Global warming and climate change were addressed too late, and average global temperatures surpassed the 2.5oC mark by the year 2040. The residence time of carbon in the atmosphere continues to increase warming, and although green steps have been taken worldwide, fossil fuels have not been phased out entirely. Coastal communities are beginning to feel the impact of well-documented sea level rise, forcing migrations inland, and stressing food supplies and living space in the most affected countries. AI is not bent on eliminating humanity as many predicted, but its worldwide implementation has rendered human beings profoundly unproductive. AI and technology accomplish most of our daily tasks for us, resulting in the average person spending very little of their day actively thinking. Skilled labor is a thing of the past, and most of us no longer know how to cook, drive, garden, or use mathematics -- we don’t really need to.

Perhaps most disparagingly, biodiversity across the globe has plummeted. Continued expansion into natural areas and utilization of resources has decimated the fragile balance of nature. Many species living in specific conditions could not survive when those conditions inevitably changed, and so died off. Conservation efforts were focused on the flora and fauna useful to humans or considered especially cute and charismatic. Livestock, certain species of fish, and agricultural plants that produce cocoa, coffee, soy, and palm oil were preserved. Most of the rest have disappeared or dwindled to dangerously low numbers.

In a final effort to preserve the once-plentiful biodiversity of the Earth, the last specimens of every known animal and plant were preserved. This flower encased in resin is one such preservation. It once thrived in the Chicagoland area, but has since become critically endangered due to its inability to grow in the constantly unstable climate that now exists there. It sits now in a grotesquely sterile state of unnatural, suspended animation, as a reminder of the vast natural world that was squandered in exchange for superfluous comfort and a constant, selfish craving for more. This flower, along with the other casualties of the human war on nature, now rests in a museum of natural history. It serves as a reminder of the not-so-distant past, but also as a warning to future generations of the cost of expansion and gratification. Worryingly however, it serves the same purpose that the mammoths and Irish elk skeletons in natural history museums of 2021 did, and those were not enough to halt the human onslaught on nature.

[LanceJohnson1]

My paper flyer from 2051 was inspired by one of the assigned readings, Anthony Dunne's and Fiona Raby's 5th chapter of Speculative Everything, in which they posit that "game design is the area where world building is most developed." In the year 2051, virtual reality has become a popular means of socializing with colleagues and meeting new friends from around the globe. Its open-world, realistic and affordable nature have disrupted the social media and entertainment industries. As a direct consequence of a new and more serious version of the COVID-19 pandemic, an indefinite quarantine is taking place globally and people are eager to socialize, accelerating the adoption of the VR world. Amidst all of the existential threats in the world, VR serves as a way to escape from it all.

At the turn of the century, the video game industry was in its adolescence and was thought to be a 'nerdy' activity. In early 2020, the global video game industry ($168 billion) more than doubled the music and movie industries, combined (~$70 billion). By 2051, the global video game industry's only medium is virtual reality and is dominated by the social media giants, thanks to exponential advances in computing power, which has enabled their creation of a hyper-realistic digital world. The world of VR has been easy to participate in for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, as the social media giants are selling the VR hardware to consumers at steep discount to cost. Over one billion VR hardware kits have been sold globally, with figures steadily growing as no vaccine seems to be efficacious yet. The companies are monetizing VR players, via a freemium business model (made popular in the late 2000s by League of Legends) where the players pay for clothing and items. The code for the digital world is open-sourced and software developers monetarily participate in their creation of items and scenes, to ensure that they are incentivized to never stop building the world.

[LucLampietti]

Below I have created a product flyer for The Empathizer! This groundbreaking technology allows users to truly empathize with one another by simulating past memories in a safe and controlled environment. No longer just for expensive hospital visits and trauma patients, The Empathizer is entering the home for personal use at the very affordable price of 4.99 H2Π(the new currency adopted globally in 2028 using the Water Standard, which was determined to be a better store of value than even Gold or Silver given its instinctive value and rarity!). The Empathizer has been lauded as the breakthrough technology of the millennium for breaking down boundaries between race, ideology, religion, language, orientation, you name it! For once, users don't need to get in fights or get confused trying to make points using difficult and archaic words. Rather, this new technology allows users to relive experiences together and temporarily see in the same light. This technology emerged as a solution to the widespread polarization and tribalism witnessed at the turn of the 20th century that increasing thwarted the communication of ideas and development of innovative solutions to some of the worlds biggest problems. Luddites will claim The Empathizer poses a serious risk to learning on one's own and experiencing the outside world for oneself, but users will quickly see that this is a form of learning. In fact, this is the highest form of learning as one is cutting out the middle man and putting users in direct contact with the memories and lessons others already hold in their minds.

[joshuanash]

My futuristic object is a guitar shaped multi tool. The 2021 version is equipped with a flashlight, several screwdrivers, and folds inside out to form a pair of plyers. In the year 2051 the technology is much more advanced. The screwdrivers have been upgraded to power-tools that are operated telepathically. Now the flashlight can be tuned to different settings. It can be adjusted with a dial to become a high powered laser capable of healing wounds and removing cancer cells,. After covid-49, it also came standard with a UV light setting for sanitization. Instead of folding out into plyers, it now unfolds into a syringe with an mRNA vaccine sequencer that uses neuralink artificial intelligence to analyze and detect airborne disease. It automatically sequences the viral or bacterial genome to construct the perfect antibodies.

[ghost]

When thinking about the world in the future, I found it hard to imagine some fantastic new object or technology that might be invented sometime between 2021 and 2051. Rather, I thought about what objects are already relevant that would likely continue to be so in the future, especially in the bonus context of humanity having overcome some of the existential threats we have spoken about this quarter. One of the first things that came to mind was a mask, both as a tool to combat future pandemics and possible air pollution and effects of climate change. The mask was proven to be an effective tool at mitigating pandemics, and with proper air filters could serve as a way to ensure humans are breathing clean air, free of pollutants or other dangerous particles. Furthermore, I find it difficult that this particular object is going to fade from the mainstream anytime soon. As I have addressed in earlier memos, the fact that the mask became such a politically charged object makes me believe we aren’t going to be able to let go of it in the near future. It is not beyond the realm of possibility for this object to make a reappearance in the response to a future pandemic or the effects of climate change.

[c-krantz]

movie

Having never seen the movie Contagion before, my takeaways are most definitely different than what they would have been had I seen the movie prior to 2020. Throughout the film, it is incredibly unnerving to see how many of the scenes unknowingly served as predictions to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the current pandemic we are living through is not nearly as infectious or deadly as the disease in the movie, the international response to the disease is incredibly accurate. Because of this, Contagion serves as a great representation of how art can serve as a medium between people and their understanding of potential threats; especially those which are commonly overlooked.

Throughout the film, the constant fear of contracting the deadly disease was never ignored. In fact, I would argue that the constant fear is what bound everyone in the film together. One element from the movie that I found incredibly relatable and insightful was how the cinematography put focus on small, sometimes incidental, interactions between humans. Chips at the casino, making of cocktails, and hands on bus poles all served as indications that the virus was being transmitted; all of which was brilliantly captured through the camera’s focus. In my own personal experience, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, I found myself focusing on these minor interactions as well. For this reason, in being just one example of the many relatable components of the film, it is no surprise that Contagion’s sales skyrocketed in early 2020, nearly 10 years since it was produced.

Although this movie got many things right, like the mistrust of the CDC and the global mobilization towards a vaccine, I believe it failed to show much positivity. While the pandemic in Contagion was deadlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, it still failed to show the cooperation, support, and resourcefulness of humanity that was seen quite often throughout the past year. If I had to guess, the majority of this was done for cinematic purposes which is understandable considering this is still just a film for entertainment.

Lastly, one question that I pondered over while watching the film was what would a Contagion 2 look like? My reason for this question mainly comes from the real possibility that a deadlier disease may eventually be released. It would be interesting to see in what direction the directors would take the film, especially their depiction of the post pandemic society. Would the world still be social distancing and wearing masks? Would proper response plans be put in place by the government? Would there still be those in the public who refuse to get the vaccine, but willingly believe internet conspiracies? All these questions are important because they are questions that can be asked to our society as well. It very well may be only a matter of time before we get an answer to these questions.

[slrothschild]

Thinking about 2051, and how it differs from 2021 leads me down the path of emissions and how we can hopefully avoid the environmental devastation we will face. Electric Vehicles (EVs) are already on the rise in the United States and China, with companies such as Tesla, Nio, and Lucid Motors, but I see a future where all vehicles are electric, and solar power hopefully drives the majority of what powers these vehicles. While I do not exactly have a picture of model generated to get this point across exactly, I have attached a picture of the Tesla Roadster, a move to tackle the premium sportscar market by Tesla. Beyond this, I believe that all logistics vehicles (18 wheelers, etc.) will eventually operate in the EV space, eliminating emissions from a large part of the supply chain.

[slrothschild]

movie #Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer engages with humanity at its lowest point: population depleted, resources drained, environment devastated, and everyone is trapped on a train that never stops moving. However, the movie mainly grapples with social inequality and the unfair allocation of resources on the train (with no real grounds). This is represented through the struggle between the back of the train (poor/inhumane living conditions) and the front of the train (moving forward = more status and control).

The movie truly hits on the point that we put ourselves in different brackets without reasoning, and power is placed upon people in the society we live in, not earned. I think it misses (or leaves out for the purpose of length), the fact that money, for the most part, does equate to power, and how that caused people to be where they are on the train from the beginning. Status tends to breed status, and while they touch on the point, it is never entirely clear how the sections were parsed out initially.

Generally, I think the direct risk of the movie where we all end up on a train fighting for resources, food, and water is not a realistic or inevitable future. However, underlying the entertaining plot of this movie, the competition and willingness we have to put others down in order to gain for ourselves is what I believe will screw us all over in the end. I think the movie resonated with me a lot, especially in caring about social equality and driving change before it becomes as immediate as it is within Snowpiercer. I also think throughout society, the movie and the commentary it takes on social inequality are very well received. The movie is highly rated and viewed, and makes the idea more digestible to the general public in an entertaining format.

[janet-clare]

My “object” from 2051 is based on a future where global eating habits have successfully, and necessarily, changed. Fast food will be good food, plant-based and environmentally sustainable and meat will be fringe, rather than central to our diets as it is now. In 2020 global meat production declined for the second year in a row. Plant-based meat alternative sales were up 264% and demand for beef in particular declined from 39 percent to 20 percent of total meat production from 2016 to 2019.1 This is going in a good direction for my future. Nonetheless, McDonald’s sells about $50 million worth of hamburgers worldwide daily, or about 750 a second and Americans alone still consume an average of 2.4 burgers a day2 and climactically speaking “beef production is the most resource-intensive of meats” as well as responsible for over 25% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions worldwide3. But with “positive change coming to our food system”, thanks to the philosophy and techniques of agroecology, a shift away from industrial agriculture and a wider adaptation of regenerative methods, and the lead of such global organizations as “Via Campesina” and guidelines such as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s “2030 Sustainable Development Goals”4 our attitudes toward our food will improve what we eat, how it is produced, and resultantly the global impacts of agriculture on climate and society. The popularity of fast food is practical, after all it is just that, fast, and convenient, and it is hard to imagine people being any less pressed for time, or hungry, thirty years from now, but what’s on the everyday menu will change. Vegetarian offerings, now novelty options at many restaurants, will become principal choices. Food availability will change, with less variety and a global shift toward a plant-based diet and more sustainable turns in grain consumption and grain production. And all that said, in my 2051 we can still enjoy our meals. We will be consuming good food that is better for us, and better for the common good, and we can make it fast! For 2051, I’ve picked up lunch! The fast food of the day is:

“The SustainaBurger”, today’s special: the “Zippy Pepper!”
One delectable four-ounce pea protein burger served on bumpy sourdough slices made from locally sourced grains, with mesclun, onion*, and a zippy pepper dressing
(As always wrapped in 95% recycled content food safe compostable paper) So let's eat! Bon appetit!

2051 #climate #agriculture #lunch

Compared to other plant-based proteins (soy, tvp, gluten) pea protein is significant in protein and carries the lowest environmental impact. According to a study in Victoria, Australia elevated levels of CO2 in grains produce greater yields, but cause them to contain less protein resulting in products that will rise less and less uniformly.6 The world’s supply of vegetables may fall by over a third by 2050 due to increased temperatures and water shortages however this can be partially balanced by locally growing and sourcing seasonal produce.7 ****Onions have a relatively low water and carbon footprint and their “destruction” impact is rated as low, provided they are not cultivated with pesticides.8

Garrity, Tanner. Meat Production Is Actually Down for the Second Year in a Row. Food & Drink. August 4, 2020. InsideHook. https://www.insidehook.com

Rella, Emily. Americans consume an average of 2.4 hamburgers per day – and more meaty facts. yahoo!life. May 28, 2020. yahoo.com. https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/lifestyle/hamburger-facts-172259185.html

Ranganathan,Janet, Waite,R, Searchinger,T, and Hanson,C. How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts. World Resources Institute. December 5, 2018. Wri.org. https://wri.org/insights/how-sustainably-feed-10-billion-people-2050-21-charts.

Bittman, Mark. Animal, Vegetable, Junk, A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal. Boston, New York. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2021

Cassetty, Samantha, RD. Is a plant-based burger healthier than a regular burger? Today Diet & Fitness. June 12, 2020. Today.com. https://www.today.com.

Phillips, Nicky. What climate change will do to your loaf of bread. The Sydney Morning Herald. Updated June 22, 2015. https://www.smh.com.

Jowaheer, Roshina. World’s vegetable supply to be reduced by a third by 2050 due to global warming. Country Living. Jun 22, 2018. Countryliving.com. https://www.coutryliving.com

Marie, Adriane. Onions/2021 Ingredient Guide for Health, Environment, Animals, Laborers. May 15, 2021. Healabel. Healabel.com. https://www.healabel.com

[ChivLiu]

My "Imagine 2051" project was a song that I heard from a dream about the future. From that dream, mad scientists took genes from patients survived all those famous pandemic in human history and created meta-humans that immune to all kinds of virus. However, the only man who survived the scientific test gained superman power and destroyed the laboratory. The meta-human called himself the "Dooman" and started to haunt people who had similar genes to him to stop the world from creating another meta-human. However, while killing several people, he lost control and started killing for fun. To fight against the "Dooman", governments work together to search for people who potentially have superpower by simulating plots of comic books. The song was the soundtrack that played while the "Dooman" waited for the super troop to come to his castle. He recalled his life before the genetic tests as the memory became more and more blurred. The "Dooman" finally got demonized and turned into a feelingless animal.

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/50223635/119669349-92954900-be6a-11eb-9da9-53403822f17a.mp4

[Samcorey1234]

My object is a hat, emblematic of the animal rights movement. If we stop eating animals, and protect them, it will be much better for the natural environment, better for animals, and better for humans. It's the intersection of many ideas — climate justice, animal welfare, and expanded rights for all sentient beings. If we move more quickly on this one issue alone, the future will be a safer place.

[AlexandraN1]

The object that I decided to create for this week's task is a menu from the year 2021. I believe that it can often be the simple things that we encounter in our everyday lives that can demonstrate the largest change over time. Menus very much reflect wider societal values and changes in agriculture through time. There are five elements of this menu that demonstrates large-scale alterations in the global sphere by 2051 - some of these are positive, while others represent failures in humanity’s conduct over the previous three decades.

The first unique feature of this menu is its imagined “sustainability allowances”. These are percentage figures representing the portion of your total recommended environmental usage for the day. Just as we are recommended a daily calorie allowance of 2000, and menus state calories per meal, I believe in the future there will be a metric for how much a given meal stresses the environment, and what percentage of your daily sustainable food allowance this represents. This would be the opposite of the status quo in which subsidised agricultural prices are so low that they do not reflect, to the consumer, the true environmental cost of the produce. These sustainability allowances would give consumers a full understanding of their recommended environmental impact, and allow them to make comparative choices between products in a food- or energy-scarce world. Moreover, more environmentally harmful foods are more expensive in this menu, representing an end to the mismatch between economic and environmental values.

In an effort to keep their sustainability figures low, restaurants would be incentivised to locally source most of their produce. Where produce is imported, this is highlighted in red on the menu, again increasing consumer awareness and choice.

There are also changes in 2051 to the foods available on the menu. Three of the meals include insects and arachnids, among them crickets, mealworm, scorpion, and grasshopper. This represents a shift in global consumption patterns towards a more sustainable source of protein. The UN has called for more people to consume insects, noting that there are over 1900 edible types, and insects are consumed by two billion people worldwide already.

The menu also includes synthetic meat (“synth meat”), which is lab-grown from in vitro cell culture, and “imitation meat” which is a plant-based meat substitute. This represents a shift that is already underway towards recognising the environmental cost of meat consumption and sourcing alternatives.

Finally, the menu does not include fish, and a note at the bottom calls for consumers to donate to replenish fish-stocks to 5%. This reflects more dystopian predictions about the future. For example, a study by the IRIN predicted that current fishing rates would result in a total depletion of ocean fish by 2050.

[sosuna22]

After reading this week's readings and following the prompt about realistically thinking of some changes. I decided to recreate what a food label would look like. Since the impact food makes on our environment is becoming more and more significant, I feel like soon we will require the environmental impact of food to be publicly disclosed, as if it were the equivalent to nutritional facts. This would be impactful when it came to taxing the item at checkout. This idea comes from a tax enacted in Seattle, called a sugar tax. Here added sugars to beverages are taxed; this is to raise awareness for drinks that you may not know have added sugars due to discreet packaging and to make sure you know what you are drinking. I believe a similar tax could be enacted for foods that heavily damage the environment by needing a lot of CO2 to produce or releasing significant methane. I think there could be a new rating agency that gives a number between say 1-100 (1 = good for environment, 40-50= about neutral for environment, 90-100 = terrible for environment) and every food would be given a number. Then the foods could be taxed appropriately, perhaps no tax for anything under a 50. This could bring significant awareness and actually help incentivize people to make more sustainable choices.

IMG_3994.pdf IMG_3995.pdf IMG_3993.pdf

[omarh4]

When thinking of what technology might look like in 30 years, I found myself imagining movies such as Pacific Rim and Real Steel, where humans use neurally controlled robots for a specific purpose, in these two movies the purpose being fighting. In my imagined world, projects such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink have proven to be successful and strides have been made towards linking human minds with synthetic systems. Specifically, humans are using these neural devices to control robots under their ownership, not so much to fight, but perhaps to send them to do errands or just to live their life for them. If we are in fact moving towards a society such as the lazy, chair-bound society shown in Wall-E, then we may in fact see many humans choosing to live their lives through a robot's body. Despite the general use being for everyday individuals, some robots will be able to modified to fit specific demands. For instance, military robot frames can be neurally controlled by humans to fight, which would drastically reduce the amount of human casualties lost in combat. These developments would also allow the elderly to continue to explore the world even past the point where their bodies have given out on them. It may even be used by busy parents who may need to pick up groceries or their kids from school. Similarly to how individuals create and live through an avatar in virtual reality, people will use these neurally-linked robots as an extension of themselves, customizing them to fit individual needs.

[smshiffrin]

movie

The 1983 film War Games is a classic movie that touches on many of the themes we have discussed this quarter, including nuclear war, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and extinction. It tells the story of a computer-whiz teenage boy who, when trying to hack into the newest video game system, accidentally hacks into a military war-strategy computer. When he starts playing the strategy game “Global Thermonuclear War,” this sets off false alarms to NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, warning that the USSR is firing nuclear warheads at the US. With the Cold War as the film’s context, fear of nuclear war is at a high level— any sign of incoming nuclear weapons was a source of anxiety and panic, and this was played out among the military officials who stressfully debated their strategy in response to these potential threats. While fictional, dramatic, and thrilling, the plot of the film wasn’t far off from what could happen in real life. When Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes were writing the script for War Games, they consulted with Willis Ware, an expert on computer security and one of the designers of the NORAD computer software. He informed them that the plot was plausible, and was something that had been of concern to computer scientists for a while—someone could potentially break into vulnerable military computer networks and cause major problems for national security (1). A day after the film was released, President Reagan watched the film and was struck by it, so much that he asked his advisers if something like this could happen in real life. After determining that this was a real threat, Reagan signed the “National Policy on Telecommunications and Automated Information Systems Security” which aimed to prevent any cyberattacks from foreign powers (1). The film therefore had a tremendous real-life impact on the future of national cybersecurity and government policy on information warfare.

In addition to the theme of cybersecurity, the film’s portrayal of artificial intelligence helped convey messages of both fear and hope regarding existential threats to humanity. Towards the end of the movie, the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) computer was so determined to win the game “Global Thermonuclear War” that it began to take control, trying launch the missiles itself. This was very frightening for those watching at the NORAD headquarters, and is representative of the age-old fear of AI taking control from humans and causing pandemonium. However, the computer was designed to learn from its mistakes to find the best strategy to win a given game. It did this, testing every nuclear war strategy and finding that it consistently ended in a draw—there was no way to win the game. This communicated to the audience the absurdity of mutually assured destruction, discouraging the use of the nuclear weapons that would inevitably dismantle society and potentially lead to the extinction of humanity. While a fun and exciting adventure movie, War Games sends a realistic message of the dangers of nuclear, cyber, and AI threats to humanity, but at the same time sends a message of hope for peace in the face of these threats.

Still from War Games showing the WOPR computer as it tests nuclear war strategies.

Sources 1 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to-a-hollywood-hack.html 2 War Games, 1983.

[seankoons]

2051: airports are again how they were pre-9/11. After the many wars and the many terrorist attacks that we in 2021 and in 2051 have lived through, we’ve come up with screening technology that is so efficient that we don’t need to have TSA/security at airports anymore. Your airport experience is as easy as walking through the door, checking in any bags you have without the hassle of having to show ID or even taking out your wallet, eating at the many fine dining establishments that new airports have to offer (Del Frescos, STK, Nobu, Chipotle, Sweetgreen, Del Toros, etc.), picking up any souvenirs you think will make your friends and family happy, and walking right onto the plane at the gate it is parked at. Using AI facial and biological recognition technology, as well as metal detection and sonar shaped radio waves, right as you walk through the Abhaya Doors, your identity (which is also linked to your credit cards so you can pay with your presense) is known and you are scanned in seconds to see if you have any weapons, explosives, and of course, water and food on you. The Abhaya Doors are a ten-foot passageway at all entrances to the airport. If food or water is detected on you, a security agent asks you to come to the side and you are screened. If weapons or explosives are detected, the doors lock at both ends of the passageway and you are immediately tased by the taser tracking system within the passageway. Each Abhaya Door is bullet proof and can handle a blast as large as an IED. Airports are now safer and more social. Your loved ones can walk you to your plane as you go off for college or maybe your first job.

[shanekim23]

novel

Over the past week, I read 1984, a dystopian novel by George Orwell. This novel, published in 1949, imagines a future where totalitarianism dominates. The world is ruled by Big Brother, and his party weeds out the independent thinkers, namely anyone who does not conform to the totalitarian regime.

Protagonist Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth in London, where he revises history as the government wishes. While working here, he realizes that all of these institutions are shams; their manipulation of the truth leads to misinformation and indoctrination. He buys a diary from a man named Mr. Charrington so that he can write his thoughts down.

Winston soon falls in love with a woman named Julia, who works in the ministry with him. They develop a relationship, but they both know this is illegal since the Party banned sex that is not for reproduction. He meets a man called O’Brien, who introduces himself as part of the Brotherhood, which is the rebellious movement against Big Brother’s party. They talk for a while at O’Brien’s house and O’Brien gives Winston a book called The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism.

A few days later, Winston and Julia are captured by the Thought Police for conspiring against the state. Soon, Winston finds out that both Mr. Charrington and O’Brien are undercover Thought Police agents, and he feels deeply betrayed. Winston is taken to Room 101, where he is tortured by rats, his deepest fear. Yet, for Winston, even scarier than the rats themselves is the fact that these agents know Winston’s greatest fear. The book ends with Winston and Julia each betraying each other during their torture sequences, and when they meet after being liberated, they no longer have feelings for each other. And Winston grows to love Big Brother.

Orwell focuses on the spread of propaganda and mass surveillance, which are both issues we talked about in class. He coined three phrases that summarize the ideologies of Big Brother: “Ignorance is strength”; “Freedom is slavery”; and “War is Peace.” Through these phrases and through agents like Mr. Charrington and O’Brien, Orwell strips the Outer Party and the Proles (proletariat) of any humaneness or agency. The risk itself may seem exaggerated due to unfamiliar terms like “Newspeak”, “Thought Police”, and “Ingsoc”, but in reality, we are not too far from this. I say this because 1) some countries are already deeply engaged in spreading propaganda to glorify a totalitarian regime (like North Korea), and 2) we are already under mass surveillance; it is simply a matter of whether the government uses this information to invade our privacy.

Obviously, the people’s lack of agency and the ubiquity of hidden cameras and microphones are not humane, and this made the issue more salient for me. To me, what makes humans powerful is that we think about issues and make our own decisions. Thus, it would not be an understatement to say the essence of humanity is stripped by the Party. I’m not sure that this future is more likely than a nuclear doomsday or climate disaster, but I am sure that if this future happens, it will be just as catastrophic as the other existential crises, if not more. I say this because when we face nuclear armageddon or a global temperature increase of 4ºC, we know we are doomed; thus, we may combat these issues together. In Orwell’s story, the scariest part for me isn’t that Winston gets tortured, or even that the Party knows he hates rats, but rather it is the fact that most people never even realize that they are facing an existential crisis. That’s why the spread of misinformation is scary; as Herb Lin mentioned in his lecture, illusory truth bias is real, and it is certainly present in Orwell’s novel.

[jrgill-coder]

While I am disappointed with how cringey this photo came out (I am not a master of the visual arts), my point is that globally there is going to be a reckoning over the consequences of first-world lifestyles, as more and more people are able to connect the problems caused by climate change to the consumption practices in the first world. As consciousness on this issue rises, anger toward the past sins of the global north will be aired through "artistic" pieces like this one in 2051. This will serve to damage the international credibility of countries that have caused the problems, as new powers begin to rise up in Africa and other parts of the globe. Once more and more people start blaming the consumption practices of rich countries for climate change, and the consequences of climate change become direr, the anger toward the first world will begin to boil, setting the stage for tense global conflicts.

[a-bosko]

Statement

With the increasing amount of strain placed on resources due to population increase, we have to think of alternative ways to consume products that consume a lot of energy and produce unnecessary waste. As mentioned in the paper flyer, making one pound of non-cultured beef can take almost 1,900 gallons of water. With in-vitro meat (otherwise known as lab-grown meat or cultured meat), we will be able to create more sustainable food alternatives for those who cannot be vegetarian or vegan. This way, we can direct resources, such as land and water, to growing other crops or items that can benefit society. In turn, we can avoid famine and starvation due to lack of food, or even prevent wars over resources.

Works Cited:

https://foodtank.com/news/2013/12/why-meat-eats-resources/#:~:text=Shock%20is%20reasonable%20after%20discovering,gallons%3B%20corn%20is%20108%20gallons.

[blakemoss]

When thinking of the future, I'm immediately drawn to the idea of human-computer interfaces. As computers get smaller and more powerful, possibilities for wearable or even implanted technology to improve human life are increasing drastically. So, my idea for a future object was to (roughly) represent one such device: a small computer worn on the back of the head which electromagnetically interfaces with the brain and provides cognitive assistance to the user. This could include features such as allowing the mental computation of advanced math or the ability to "download" large amounts of information directly into one's working memory. The technology could present itself in a variety of ways, but in this implementation the external computer is simply attached to a hat and lies along the base of the skull. Such technology would drastically increase human cognitive ability, and hopefully give us a better shot at avoiding doom.

[chakrabortya]

The desktop 3D printer will take the forefront of retail household product markets in 2051. Pictured below is my youtube thumbnail for how best to use the 3D printer to alleviate the problems faced by people in 2051. The video will discuss 3 ways in which 3D printing will change the world in the 2050s.

1. Geoengineering
2. 3D printed demand-dining
3. Pollution alleviation

Geoengineering I foresee significant portions of the population, especially in the global south, to deal with climate change-related topographic problems at an individual scale. Solutions could involve creating makeshift housing solutions, repair parts, and gear creation. In short, I expect the maintenance, repair, and operations industry to fall on the hands of the individual. 3D printing will allow completely customisable solutions which will enable climate change intervention at a small scale.

Food Production Accessibility to food will decrease by 2051. People will have to rely heavily on pre-made foods with synthetic ingredients. This phenomenon is something that is discussed in other portrayals of 2051. The 3D printers of this time can print these synthetic materials, enabling people to get access to the most basic foods from their homes without having to rely on the crumbling agriculture industry.

Pollution Alleviation 3D printing will completely revolutionise several industries, including agriculture, transportation, shipping, and retail. These industries are responsible for a lot of the world’s pollution. Thus, by relying on 3D printing, we can decrease our carbon footprints as they relate to these domains. There will be increases in other forms of pollution depending on the materials used by the 3D printers. Human interaction will also change because, suddenly, people will be much less reliant on each other for survival.

These solutions will come into play when governments fail to avoid the aforementioned existential threats and supply large-scale aid to those affected by these threats. The desktop 3D printer, as used in this context, is beneficial to everyone— from people affected by rising sea levels in the global south to those crippled by waves of cybersecurity attacks in the global north. At this point, private companies would have figured out how to reduce the cost of 3D printing enough to make it affordable for individuals. This is a trend that has been seen with most of the personal computing technology we use today. Our education systems will have to adjust to enable people to use such technology and reap its benefits.

[elijahrain28]

There's obviously some creative license taken here (it is, after all, part of a very sexy art project) but the Mystery Flesh Pit National Park is a good model for looking into how ecological disasters could possibly be molded by capitalism into tourist destinations.

Again, it's not a direct parallel. It's been a while since I've actually gone down the Mystery Flesh Pit rabbit hole-- there's lots more of this out there, if you're curious-- but I think it was caused by? Aliens? Weird freak of nature? Something like that?

Either way, it wasn't caused by an ecological disaster. It was just sort of... there. What I'm using it as a springboard for, though, is something closer to how the Chernobyl documentary turned that site into an impromptu tourist destination. Whether it's climate change, nuclear meltdowns, oil spills, or whatever, we're set to very dramatically ruin a whole bunch of places by 2051. If capitalism is still the dominant economic system, then... I am sure that it'll find ways to profit off of that.

Nuclear meltdowns are much more likely to be tourist-trapped than oil spills! Oil spills are just sad. But even still.

[aj-wu]

movie #art

Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" is set one thousand years after the Seven Days of Fire, an apocalyptic war in which Giant Warriors, immense humanoid biomechanical weapons created and unleashed by humans, obliterated the Earth's ecosystem as we know it. Much of the Earth is now covered by the Toxic Jungle, filled with fantastical plants, fungi, and insects, including the behemoth, hive-minded Ohmu. The humans who do remain live in scattered settlements all on the brink of being swallowed by the Toxic Jungle and its unbreathable miasma. Princess Nausicaä devotes her time to studying the Jungle and connecting with its inhabitants, hoping to preserve her Valley home and repair the relationship between man and nature.

Time ticks as interhuman conflict rises again. Two nearby settlements -- Pejite and Tolmekia -- are at war, and the Valley of the Wind finds itself wrapped up in the fight when Princess Kushana and her Tolmekian army crash an airship in the Valley. The military general announces the Tolmekian occupation of the Valley and reveals her plan to gestate a secret Giant Warrior embryo and use it to burn down the Toxic Jungle.

In the ensuing clash, Miyazaki tells his pro-environmental and anti-war story through our hero, Nausicaä , and her foil, Kushana. Both leaders strive to bring security to their people. But while Nausicaä works toward her goals by empathizing and communicating with nature, Kushana’s strategy is one of human triumph over the wild. Kushana’s physical form reinforces her position: having lost three limbs to an Ohmu attack, she is inseparable from the armor that reminds us she is as much a product of industrialization as of nature.

It is clear from the outset that Kushana’s approach is doomed to fail. Attacking any life within the Toxic Jungle enrages the Ohmu, which have repeatedly demonstrated the sheer strength and will to raze entire civilizations to the ground. There is no stopping the spread of fungal spores, which, Nausicaä discovers, are only toxic where humans have polluted the water and soil. Destroying the plants means eliminating the only system capable of purifying the environment to allow human coexistence with the Jungle. Kushana has apparently learned nothing from the hubris and militance that ravaged the world a thousand years ago.

In the end, Nausicaä prevails. Of course she does. Calling on her emotional intelligence and charisma, Nausicaä brings the right people over to her side, has Kushana captured before she can execute her fatal conquest, and pacifies the provoked Ohmu. But while peace and harmony win out in Miyazaki’s optimistic version, it is far from obvious that today’s humans are headed down the same path.

[ishaanpatel2022]

movie

For my movie selection for this quarter, I decided to watch I am Legend, starring Will Smith. In the movie, Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a U.S. military scientist who is attempting to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that has been ravaged by a pandemic. The virus at hand was human engineered and was originally created as a cure for cancer. The virus has a 90% death rate, and those it does not kill turn into blood-thirsty mutants bent on feeding on whatever life still exists. At its core, the movie is an action film, but it does shed an interesting light on the nature of pandemics, the psychological feelings of isolation, and the science behind the creation and alleviation of pandemics.

Although entertaining, some aspects of the movie are quite unrealistic in their display of an existential threat-level pandemic. For starters, it is quite unlikely that a pandemic level virus will ever have a death rate of around 90%. There are a few cardinal characteristics that epidemiologists have agreed upon for pandemic-level viruses, one of which is its high ability to spread. If a virus has extremely severe symptoms and a high death rate, its host will not have contact with others long enough for it to spread. Therefore, the barren scenes of NYC, with only Will Smith and the mutants as occupants, are quite farfetched. Moreover, the zombie-like survivors of the virus that exhibit heightened strength, speed, and aggression are unrealistic, but they do serve to make the movie entertaining.

However, I am Legend does exhibit a surprising number of similarities to the situation observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, when the pandemic in the movie first reached a critical state, it was clear that global governments were lacking in appropriate response measures, which is very similar to what was observed in governments during the Spring of 2020. As the timeline in the movie progressed, viewers can see gas prices experience extreme shocks, stores experience heighted product demand and being looted, and quarantines in major cities like NYC being enacted, all of which occurred during COVID-19.

Another less apparent similarity between COVID-19 and the pandemic from the movie was the depiction of the psychological toll of isolation. As the movie progresses, one can see Robert fall into a deeper depression. This psychological toll peaks when he tries to commit suicide after the death of his only companion, his dog, Sam. While the psychological effects Robert experienced from being the last person on earth were quite extreme, they are vaguely reflective of the isolation-induced depression that mental health experts observed during the quarantines of COVID-19.

A final difference to be noted was that, while the general consensus was that COVID-19 was naturally created, the virus in I am Legend was created through a bioengineered viral cure for cancer. Even though this bioengineering is unlike COVID-19, I am Legend does raise the important issue of a man-made, pandemic level virus, which is an ever-increasing concern as bioengineering advances and becomes a common part of scientific methodology.

All in all, while I am Legend embellished some aspects of a pandemic for entertainment purposes, it effectively captured much of what has been seen during COVID-19, and raises some interesting questions regarding the future of man-made viruses.

[ishaanpatel2022]

For my “Imagine 2051” piece, I made a magazine cover for Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. In the past, Time Magazine has stretched the word “person”, often having their Person of the Year be an idea like, “The American Soldier” (1950, 2003) or even an inanimate object like, “The Computer” (1982). Therefore, I decided to make the Time Magazine Person of the Year for 2051 an AI called “Benedict”.

The whole premise behind this idea was that, in 2051, a company recently created the first fully functioning, sentient AI, “Benedict” (similar to the naming of IBM’s Watson). Due to the sentient nature of Benedict and its ability to learn and adapt like a human, I thought it would be an interesting concept to have Benedict be the Times Person of the Year. This is because, in the past, others who have earned this award have been people like Mark Zuckerberg, Pope Francis, and Ben Bernanke. These are individuals who have shaped the fabric of our society, so I wanted the message of Benedict winning this accolade to be that AI has the potential to influence our society in a significant way.

Moreover, I wanted the magazine cover to display an overly positive tone in regard to this new technology, so I chose the caption: “World’s first sentient AI is here to help humanity”. This is because the experts that lectured throughout this course (and especially during our AI unit) repeatedly emphasized that humanity consistently focuses on the positives of our inventions while underestimating the risks, both minor and existential. Therefore, I believe that, when humanity does create a sentient AI, all of the focus of an article like this would be on the positive aspects of the technology and would ignore the risks.

The final portion of this media memo was the photo that needed to be selected for the cover: while I recognize that the first functioning, sentient AI would most likely not take on a humanoid appearance (it would be code/a program), an image that displayed such an appearance would make a more attractive magazine cover, as opposed to a cover that featured a few lines of code. Moreover, the photo of the human head with a technological spin seemed to be an effective way to represent the sentient nature of this technological invention.

[bbroner]

My object is an advertisement for a rig that would allow individuals to plug into a matrix type simulation. If video game development continues at a similar rate to it has in the past its highly likely that there are games that exist that are nearly indistinguishable from regular life. The application of this technology could lead to a scenario where a large number of humans spend their lives largely in the cloud and not in real life. While I do not think humans will move to the cloud by 2O51 I do think we will start to see upscale luxury items like the one in this ad attempting to be a cost effective vacation alternative or just as a video game console.

[nataliamedina1202]

In the 2024 elections, Donald Trump fulfilled his vows to his followers and ran again for President. However, misinformation and distrust weighed down America’s democracy and violence even more dangerous than the storming of the Capitol led to the disruption of the election and widespread chaos across the country. Party polarization made this worse, and America appeared essentially doomed. Until the iPanopticon.

The iPanopticon is a device that, similar to Foucault’s ideas of a Panopticon, is a 24/7 surveillance on all social media, websites, and news sources that can fact-check all posts as they are being created. This prevents blatantly fake posts from being created, and any controversial or non-fact based posts are clearly labeled with an “OPINION” icon. This helps people discern fact from opinion, so no one will objectively believe that statement is true without personal research. If something is objectively untrue (like Donald Trump saying in 2020 elections that all mail-in votes will be fraudulent), the post will be taken down and the accounts will be flagged. After a number of continuous offenses, accounts will be suspended or banned. This type of punishment will help reinforce democratic ideals of fairness and truth, as people will have to learn that what they post, if it is not based on fact, is just an opinion and can hold no extra weight.

After the installation of iPanopticon throughout the entire digital world, party polarization became less severe and more people were able to confront their own misinformation while finding liberation in knowing that the old saying no longer applies; “just because you read it on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true”. Now, in 2051, people have more faith in information, more trust in politics, and less hostility towards one another. The government has become more effective in collaboration, and the quality of life has incrementally improved.

[jatkins21]

social #conflict #film

(this memo is to fulfill my movie requirement)

This week I watched the 2014 movie "Snow Piercer", a film that had been on my radar for quite some time. This film took place in a post-apocalyptic, frozen over world in which the only survivors lived on a high tech train, immune from the cold. Each cart of the train essentially housed a different class of citizen, with the back of the train jammed with low class, struggling citizens while the creator and leader of the train rested in the futuristic front cart. The movie follows a man named Curtis, a resident and rising leader of the back cart as he leads his oppressed group to the front cart in an attempt at rebellion. Immediately, the movie gives off a similar vibe as The Hunger Games series, as the grimy yet sensible people of the bottom class grew more and more outraged with the treatment they received from the wealthy, eclectic, and weird upper class members. In both films, the upper class would constantly justify the oppression through claiming that every society must have tiers in order to maintain order, which is essentially just a poor justification for the rich to oppress the poor (similar to many circumstances in the real world). It is this sort of unawareness of the upper class in real life society, like those in the film, that continually fuels social turmoil and conflict and makes an eventual social collapse entirely possible. A quote from the film that most encapsulates this idea and that stuck out was: "My friend, you suffer from the misplaced optimism of the doomed." While optimism may often be misplaced, especially by those at the bottom of the social totem pole, it can result in those who feel they have nothing to lose to take extremely drastic actions that, given the circumstance, are reasonable for them but can be deleterious to all. It is the responsibility of those in power to understand their situation and aim to mitigate it not through overbearing control, but rather pragmatic and humane solutions. In the end of the film, the train's leader/conductor explains to the protagonist that the entire rebellion was essentially his plan to control the growing population. I felt this conclusion was very reflective of society, especially in its especially polarized state currently. Oftentimes, those with the most power want those below them to clash with and fault each other as it distracts the average citizen from recognizing that most of the corruption affecting them is instituted by the top level of society. A major aspect of righting social conflict globally is not removing those you deem to be against you, but rather coming together and turning your attention to the source of your shared issues. It is not the people directly above or below you that constitute your plight, but rather the puppeteer at the top pulling all of your strings.

[Aiden-Reynolds]

My futuristic object is a device that can custom build an antibody for any disease that a person comes into contact with. By 2051 the fields of microtechnology and chemical engineering have become so advanced that they can build a device the size of a battery that can fight off any pathogen it detects in an individual. The device would be attached at a certain point on the body and would automatically detect any pathogen in the body and immediately produce enough antibodies to fend it off. As this device becomes cheaper eventually it almost eradicates all communicable diseases. Pandemics are no longer an issue as almost everyone in every age group is essentially immune to all diseases. This device would be especially helpful for people who are immunodeficient as they would no longer need to rely on their own immune systems to fight off diseases.

[Aiden-Reynolds]

Movie

The 1983 movie War Games, while a bit dated, provides a clear example of the primary issues behind nuclear conflict as well as the main fears behind AI. The opening scene of the movie informs the viewer that the United States military has handed over the responsibility of launching the country’s nuclear weapons to a custom built AI, WOPR, after finding out that many of their human nuclear handlers wouldn’t launch these weapons in a real nuclear conflict. The movie then follows a teenage hacker who accidentally accesses WOPR and launches a nuclear simulation believing that it is a video game. This simulation appears to be a real soviet attack to the United States military and its AI responsible for launching the nukes. The hacker responsible for this is at first arrested by the FBI but then escapes custody and eventually is able to convince the United States military that the Soviet nuclear attacks they are seeing are just part of a simulation. However, he is unable to convince the AI that the attacks are a simulation causing the AI to attempt to hack its way to launching the United States nuclear arsenal. Eventually, after forcing the AI to play tic-tac-toe, the AI finally understands the game theory behind nuclear war and understands that mutual destruction is not winning the conflict and decides not to launch its nuclear weapons.

The plot of this movie deeply involves two of the possible doomsday events we have discussed in class, nuclear conflict and uncontrollable AI. The depiction of the government's frustration with its military’s unwillingness to launch nuclear weapons felt very realistic. Despite the fact that almost no one really wants a nuclear conflict, every state with nuclear weapons has to be willing to fire them in order for these missiles to have any defensive use. This disconnect between the states interests and the individuals played out in the Cuban Missile Crisis when a soviet nuclear submarine received a false signal that the U.S. had started a nuclear war and had orders to fire its nuclear payload. Despite these orders one of the commanders on the submarine refused to launch the submarine's weapons, a decision which almost single handedly prevented a full scale nuclear war. The film also demonstrated the biggest fear concerning the development of AI, namely that it will misinterpret the goals of its creators causing it to engage in activities that are catastrophic to humanity. The AI in the movie fails to understand what many of the human operators at the beginning of the movie already do, that mutual destruction is not the same as winning a nuclear conflict. While some aspects of the plot aren’t very plausible or realistic like the AI playing tic-tac-toe and then understanding nuclear conflict, the movie does a good job showing the connection between these two issues. The nuclear situation is already volatile enough without the involvement of AI, and one of the biggest concerns with AI proliferation is that it will be given a monumental responsibility that it is not capable of reliably handling, like launching nuclear weapons. While the plot may not be realistic the dangers to humanity's future that it deals with are.

[jane-uc21]

For my #movie memo, I’ll be writing about Soylent Green’s grotesque portrayal of mass manufacture as a commentary not only on climate change, but also on inequality and humanity’s self-positioning in a global framework, as discussed by Dipesh Chakrabarty. Soylent Green takes place in futuristic 2022 New York City. Industrialization-induced global warming has driven the world into an arid, barren land, and it is so overpopulated that there is mass unemployment and homelessness, with people living on the streets, in cars, and in stairwells. This combination of loss of crops due to climate change and overpopulation has led to severe food insecurity, and a company called Soylent monopolizes the food market with soy and lentil-based bland biscuits. The protagonist, a detective, and his sage elderly friend Sol, eventually learn that new Soylent Green biscuits are in fact made of human meat, including bodies transported from government-run elective euthanasia centers. While global warming created the barren world of Soylent Green, the film primarily portrays mass production, consumption, and commodification associated with industrialization as being the greatest threat to civilization. Our mass consumption drives the global warming that strips resources, and that lack of resources then requires the mass production of processed foods. This food insecurity and lack of personal choice is displayed grotesquely in scenes of hungry mobs fighting tooth and nail over crumbs of soylent at makeshift open-air markets. These hungry rioters are reduced to waste, and literally overtaken by our industrial society, when “scoop” dump trucks bulldoze through crowds and cart off people in their way. Our consumeristic society is rapidly driving us toward a world in which we can no longer choose these items. When all that’s left is over-produced wafers, we realize that we are meant to be in and miss the "natural" world. This disgust and yearning for the natural world culminates in Sol’s election to undergo government-sanctioned euthanasia after learning the secret of Soylent Green. The mass euthanasia center, in which the elderly are overeagerly welcomed exemplifies ultimate consumerism. Patrons sign a “receipt,” request a color light and music to be played as they die, and can see footage of the beautiful natural world as it once was- but only on a movie screen. Death is commercialized when patrons’ bodies are hastily trucked off to the Soylent Green plant and dumped onto conveyer belts for processing. In addition to this commentary on the malice of mass manufacture, there is an ongoing commentary on class. All of this chaos is starkly contrasted with, and yet worsened by, the lavish consumption of the rich and powerful in the movie, who have access to meat, fresh vegetables, sweets, alcohol, cigarettes, and other pleasureable goods, and who also happen to be aware of Soylent Green’s vile truth. While the world starves around them, those with resources crank the AC “to make it feel like winter used to,” bask in hot showers, gain passes to go out after curfew, and enjoy live-in escorts. Soylent Green’s commentary on capitalism, consumption, and the human desire for nature meshes well with Dipesh Chakrabarty’s discussion of inequality, in which the consumption patterns of the wealthy drive the ravages of climate change in poverty-stricken regions across the globe, as well as on our oneness with the globe, despite our efforts to separate ourselves from nature by industrialization and mass consumption. In conclusion, Soylent Green addresses themes of food insecurity, inequality, and consumerism with very physical, powerful depictions of machine assault on the human body and will.

Source: Pin on SOYLENT GREEN https://www.pinterest.com/pin/498632989972823388/?autologin=true (accessed May 27, 2021).

[jane-uc21]

My item is a ticket to the 2051 Australian Open. My object was inspired by a report on the effects of climate change on summer sports such as cricket and tennis. The effects of climate change on temperature in Australia have been especially dramatic, with Adelaide and Perth projected to have a 60% increase in days over 40 C by 2030. This has caused an uptick in unplayable conditions and heat stroke in the tennis and cricket communities. For this reason, my ticket indicates that the 2051 Australian Open will occur in March, the Australian autumn, rather than the summer. However, my ticket is also optimistic. The UN Sports for Climate Action is an initiative to encourage affected communities of athletes and sports fans to use their collective power, influence, and wealth, to enact, promote, and support sustainable practices, and build public investment in climate change mitigation. All four tennis grand slams recently joined the initiative. While government treaties have thus far fallen short on climate change mitigation, sports communities can unify impassioned and diverse support to the mitigation of climate change. 1) Sinclair, P. Climate Change Is Threatening to Break Cricket Apart, from Putting Players in Danger to Disrupting Matches. The guardian. The Guardian September 16, 2019. 2) "Tennis World Unites." https://unfccc.int/news/tennis-world-unites-in-fight-against-climate-change (accessed May 27, 2021).

[WinstonHartnett]

"Thy magic binds again What the sword of custom divided; All people become brothers"

• Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

All of human history has been a gradual march upwards, but a march characterized by terrible hardships, short lives, and injustices beyond comprehension. For the simple farmer millenia ago, this relay race was hardly visible---their lives changed very little from one day to another. Now, we have the ability to consciously shape our worlds for ourselves and posterity. It's hard to imagine that only a few hundred years ago, travel was difficult and dangerous---now only a plane ticket away. Our world is becoming more connected and more united with every decade, the injustices of the past brought into open air for a common reckoning, and the arbitrary barriers (language, national borders, economic impediments) which have held us from each other are being eliminated. From the first moment a young bondsmen's eyes touched the sky, they cry out for a deeper understanding, of a world ruled by freedom from destruction, violence, oppression, and slavery of all forms.

The fate of humanity is unification, of a progressive march towards a world government, or at least a government that can speak for all mankind. It's likely that this government would be a democracy, or at least a government which stood for personal autonomy, freedom of expression, and the like. There would be innumerable challenges from the outset, as structures of government always do, but, at last, the tin-pot dictators, the pointless wars borne out of narcissism, the corners of the world where squalor is government policy---all banished from their obscurity and brought finally to a body that can make a difference. Then, the real work of government---wealth redistribution, crisis management, the free movement of people, ideas, and goods, and the establishment of truly international justice---can finally begin.

Such a government, naturally, would need an anthem. Personally, nothing comes close to the universal appeal of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. For many, owing to its liberal roots (Beethoven was a quasi-socialist) it's a song of protests (sung in Hong Kong, Tiananmen Square, Lebanon, and Europe), or a manifestation of the "divine"'s universal embrace, others the tune of humanity itself. More than that, it is the product of more than 30 years of work by a deaf composer who knew that he would never again hear music. Humanity has been engaged in a million-year long relay race, with its runners---sometimes numbering in the thousands to seven billion today---knowing that they might never see a world free of crises. Yes, we may never live to see the day, like deaf composers each.

But we can imagine the music.

[kaiyamerz]

(original image source)

(original image source)

These two images that I have laid a crude mockup on top create the vision of a somewhat hopeful but mostly pessimistic potential future I see for the world of the year 2051. In this future, the world has solved the climate crisis, not through collective action, governmental reforms, or policy changes, but instead through the invention of the Atmo-Clean 9000 in the year 2035, a device capable of scrubbing the atmosphere of excess CO2. In this future world, since the solutions to the climate crisis came not through a real transformation of society or government, the root causes of the crisis remain. Overproduction of goods remains rampant, filling our landfills with ever-more garbage and waste, and fossil fuels aren’t forced to phase out, slowing or even halting development of alternative, renewable energy sources. In this future only one problem, the climate crisis, has been averted but this only served to kick the can of overproduction and of fossil fuels (and their dwindling supply) further down the road, a problem for yet another future generation to solve. While I think a future like this is unlikely, as I think geoengineering (if it ever even makes it to the mainstream which I find doubtful) will be unable to totally solve the climate crisis, it showcases what I feel is one of our greatest downfalls as humans (and what got us into this mess in the first place), that, in general, we prefer to take an easy-to-swallow, half-baked solution which fixes the problem in the short-term but creates a cascade of issues in the future, over a solution with immediate changes to the status-quo which solves the issue without any foreseeable cascading issues.

[chasedenholm]

For this week I decided to focus on the state of Antarctica in 2051. More specifically I wanted to convey optimism surrounding not only sea ice levels, but also the recovery of endangered species native to Antarctica. In my vision for 2051, Antarctic ice loss rates recovered to 1980’s levels when around 40 gigatons of ice were being lost per year. As a result of this recovery (despite still losing ice) the Adélie penguin population will increase due to more available krill as a result of the ice loss rates slowing. The key concept this magazine covers is obviously climate change. The cover indicates an optimistic outlook on the efforts of climate change as it is slowing down significantly by 2051. I wanted to tie in how climate change affects habitats for certain species and how they are impacted as a result.

References: Pictures: https://www.google.com/search?q=adelie+penguin+vertical+photo&sxsrf=ALeKk03M0_zrKUYW-IWvEXOiMSw1z3BLSA:1621621561200&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwit1fWIs9vwAhXwCjQIHVvcDu0Q_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1026&bih=718#imgrc=5auw8EgB27fH7M

Articles https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/climate-change-reshapes-antarctic/

[EmaanMohsin]

Picture a courtroom with no judge or jury. Instead it is the suspect and a computer. The suspect is determined guilty, not based off of a lengthy trial process, not by his peers, but rather by a device that can definitively prove the suspect has committed a crime.

My future object is inspired by the field of brain fingerprinting. As of right now brain fingerprinting is a device that can determine information that is stored in a user's brain. When asked a question, the user's brain emits brain waves that are studied to see if the information is present or absent. Brain fingerprinting has been admissible in court as early as 1978; however, it has recently gained more attention. In my drawing, I depict a courtroom scene where there is no longer a use of a judge or jury. Instead, the suspect is given a new and improved brain fingerprinting device (in red) that is dependent on enhanced AI technology. Specifically, the test is based off of machine learning, where the device characterizes the frequency of brain waves when the defendant is known to be telling the truth or lying. Then when asked a question about a crime the individual has potentially committed, the device will be able to categorize the brain waves more easily. This technology will allow us to know if the defendant is definitively guilty or not. Overall, I believe that in 2051 we will be much more dependent on AI. However, I am not sure if this boom in enhanced technology will be better for society. Some say that this brain fingerprinting technology may be too intrusive. Once it is improved and used frequently on criminals it may become more likely to be used on the public. In the background I have drawn an American flag pointing down. Is this the start of definitive justice or does it mark the beginning of freedoms being taken away from citizens?

I tried to draw the image in the style of a courtroom sketch :)

Brandom, Russell. "Is 'brain fingerprinting' a breakthrough or a sham?" The Verge. 2015. https://www.theverge.com/2015/2/2/7951549/brain-fingerprinting-technology-unproven-courtroom-science-farwell-p300

[Junker24]

The Virus Pen

So for my idea for the prompt on “2051” I decided to create an idea of a “Virus Pen” that you can wave over a surface and it has the ability to detect microbes on that surface and identify them as harmful or not. Since we discussed the idea of Pandemics, as well as experienced once this past year, I thought this would be a great idea to bring up. This Pen could have identified and alerted users when there was COVID-19 particles on or near any humans they recently came in to act with. This object could even identify the particles existing in the mouth of another human resulting in individuals giving them a Covid test before they went anywhere allowing people to not wear masks and proceed with normal life. In 2051 this pen would allow to detect even more harmful viruses than our recent COVID-19 allowing humans to continue normal life without living in the fear of viruses in our world.

[vtnightingale]

The year is 2051. What can we expect? It might be cheesy, or maybe a cop out, but I'm pretty sure that Lake Michigan will still be around. The great majestic inland seas will very likely still be around, and they will continue to be a beautiful and awe inspiring sight. On a smaller scale, flowers. These flowers are from the Quad, and who knows if UChicago will still be standing, but we can expect that even flowers, or some other natural form of beauty, will survive the next 30 years. The sunset. The Earth has seen a sunset for 4.5 billion years, and very likely will continue to see it for billions more. It doesn't matter what we do, the sun shall set and it shall rise and make beautiful colors (perhaps the nuclear fallout will make even more spectacular colors, but I'd be willing to let that not come to be). My point in bringing up these natural objects is that they are not dependent on humans. They are only beautiful and awe inspiring because we have observed them, but, if we bring ourselves to extinction, very likely they shall continue to be.

It is the last image that brings it all together, and is very much my most hopeful. Look closely. Yes, those are our fellow humans. Every week, I vote that we are not doomed. I believe in the human spirit and that eventually - though it may take a real kick in the ass - we will unite and tackle these existential threats with the same zeal our ancestors survived Ice Ages, predators, disease, volcanic eruptions, and the great vast unknown that was the Earth as we traversed over land and sea. Hopefully we shall begin to address these threats in earnest soon, so that in 2051 (and 2121) there will still be days where the temperature is just right and we can come together and enjoy the weather and the company, and appreciate the beauty of the lakes, the flowers, and the setting sun.

[isabelmw]

My object for 2051 is a variation of the Alexa smart home devices made by Amazon that I've named "Alexa Earth". It's a government required smart home device for all U.S. citizens that forcibly regulates a home's energy consumption in accordance with environmental regulations. For example, Alexa Earth will allocate the appropriate amount of water for each household, turning off the water when a household reaches its daily limit. These limits are calculated according to number of people per household by the government. Alexa Earth will automatically turn off lights in rooms that it senses no one is present in. It organizes timed showers that will not exceed set times. It also monitors trash bins and will issue penalties to households that place products in the trash that should go in the recycling section. In charge of all energy consumption, Alexa Earth is the household mandated produced of 2051.

[benindeglia]

movie

For my movie I chose the award winning movie Akira, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. Akira is set in a post apocalyptic Neo-Toyko, after the first Tokyo is decimated by an “Akira” event. Now it’s 2019, and is plagued by corruption, freedom fighters, and authoritarianism. Over the course of the story we follow Kaneda as he learns about the towering shadow that is Akira’s Legacy, all while trying to save his best friend Tetsuo from becoming the next Akira. Meanwhile, Tetsuo tries to march down his own path, forging it through his new found power.

The movie does have some fantastical elements with the Espers and psychic powers, but they are clear and crisp parallels for the dangers of power and the threat it represents. For Tetsuo, he is the perfect analogy for power in the hands of the short sited. He has nearly unlimited potential, being able to reconstruct robotic arms, fly and survive in the vacuum of space. However, he uses this to indulge his inferiority complex, smashing buildings and people all in his quest to find Akira for more power. Multiple times he is warned against using his powers for selfish reasons, by beings who are much more experienced in these mental fields. He disregards them easily, becoming an unstoppable threat to all, even himself. He spends his power for the sole purpose of getting more power, a ceaseless unstoppable wheel.

Tetsuo isn’t our existential threat. He isn’t our nuclear annihilation, or our unstoppable changing climate. Neither is his power. His power is oil, nuclear energy, instant communication. He, is the man in charge, the one who decides how this resource is tapped. Inherently, the powers, the resource isn’t devastating, it’s the endless draining of it past the point of no return that creates the epidemic. Testuo is our short sighted man in charge, using these powers to accomplish a tiny goal, for him it’s satisfying his inferiority complex, for others it’s capital or personal power. The espers are our scientists, our psychologists, our experts who go and warn against the long term consequences of unfiltered use. And like in reality, Tetsuo ignores them. He only starts to consider, starts to change past the point of no return, only once the consequences have caught up with him. As with the devastation of our climate, action is taken too often taken too late.

But luckily for us, we have no prophets, no predetermination. Any action we take can and will save millions of lives. So we shouldn’t give up. We haven’t crossed the point where annihilation is inevitable. But it must be taken by us, and the sooner we take it, the less consequences we can avoid.

[smshiffrin]

In 2051, another pandemic hits humanity. Quarantine Camp is a small living community in the countryside for those wishing to escape the unpleasant changes in lifestyle brought about pandemic. Quarantine Camp is inspired by the Decameron, the story of ten individuals who sheltered in an isolated villa outside of Florence to escape the Bubonic Plague. We learned from pandemics like COVID-19 how inconvenient it is to constantly have to wear masks, not be able to enjoy company with friends, go to restaurants, etc.—on top of risking exposure to a dangerous virus. All of the pleasures of ‘normal’ life are put on hold to slow the spread of the disease. At each Quarantine Camp, a limited number of guests and staff can live in the small isolated community for the duration of the pandemic. The community is structured much like a family summer camp or country club. There are individual houses or cabins for each family or individual, a dining hall, recreational facilities, office areas, and more. When guests come they are immediately put into quarantine in their houses for two weeks (length depending on the virus), with food and necessities brought to their doors by staff (and all food and supplies from the outside world will be delivered in a contact-free, completely socially distant manner). Once all members have quarantined the necessary amount of time, and have tested negative for the disease, they are allowed to ditch the masks and social distancing, and live more social and ‘normal’ lives. __ will inevitably be expensive to attend, so only those who can afford the high price will be able to take advantage of this opportunity.

[bbroner]

The movie that I watched was 12 Monkeys Directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Bruce Willis. The film tells the story of the human race in 2035 attempting to reverse the course of history by sending a prisoner back in time. The cause of humanity’s downfall in this film is a deadly virus that left the earth’s surface inhabitable. While there are numerous plot twists along the way what I wanted to focus on about this film is the dangers humanity faces with enhancement in gene editing and microbial research.

In 12 Monkeys the final scene consists of a scientist from 2035 telling the evil man that is about to release the virus in 1996 that she works in “insurance”, implying that the humans in 2035 were successful in figuring out the root of the virus and found a way to develop a cure. However I am not so sure that in real life we will have time traveling capabilities that allow us to save humanity from disease.

The movie directly applies to our current time as a relatively non lethal virus showed the ability to shutdown life as we knew it. While we were not confined to below ground bunkers most americans were forced to not leave their home which was a reality not many people could have predicted. The inevitability of deadly pathogens to leak once research begins is also highlighted in this film. A doctor with completely non-evil intentions was simply doing research, however the creation of this virus allowed both a terrorist organization and a homicidal deranged man to have direct access to something that could destroy human civilization. The doom that comes from something like a virus leak is also scary because there is no way to reverse the damage that is caused, as illustrated by the efforts in the film being to find a cure as nothing could save the lives that already have been taken.

While there is nothing conclusive the lab leak hypothesis remains one of the most viable explanations for covid’s beginnings. While I don’t think anyone believes there was an intent to harm the population the possibility of man-modified diseases leaking seems like a constant threat to humanity as long as these technologies are practiced. While covid has tragically taken millions of lives too early, humanity was lucky that the virus was relatively non lethal. 12 Monkeys shows the damage that could be done to civilization if a virus that kills 8O%+ of people finds a way to leak out of a lab.

[panunbali]

This template didn't allow me too much space, but I basically imagined a newspaper front-page from 2051 that discussed Coronavirus' 31st birthday. I imagine this pandemic is only the first major, international challenge we as a global society will be facing this century. Climate change has already started, but the real effects have not been felt yet. Income inequality and social strife increases by the day and there are many other issues we have yet to resolve, or even identify. These challenges may seem separate and unrelated, but I do believe they are all the same in that they will require a global, concerted effort to resolve. But I wonder if we'll be asking the same questions in 2051 about our willingness and ability to co-operate with each other. Will we have learned from the pandemic to act as one? Will we be in a better place when it comes to facing the consequences of our mistakes? Will we be in a better place to solve the problems we will be facing then (many of which I expect will be the problems we already face today)? The next 30 years or so could be particularly crucial in the story of humanity. I wonder if we'll look back on the COVID-19 pandemic as something that jolted us into collective action or a warning call that went unheeded.