Twenty Years from Now
About the same time I was writing Market Forces, the French book and music chain FNAC asked me for this short article – for what it’s worth…
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Prophecy is a risky business. The greatest science fiction movie ever – Bladerunner, that is – will be proved wrong in less than twenty years. And if those guys got it wrong, what chance for the rest of us? It’s a problem I generally get round as a writer by basing my work a comfortable several centuries into the future. Incrementally, it means I’m likely to have got it wrong by a massively wider margin of error when the twenty sixth century finally arrives, but by then I’ll be long dead and won’t have to face embarrassing questions on chat shows.
Oh, alright then – twenty years from now. Not my specialist period, but here we go…
More technology. Less tigers. About the same number of dangerous diseases – the ones we thought we’d cracked seem to be making a comeback recently, and we’ll probably generate a few brand new ones along the way to make up for anything we’ve really eliminated. Video mobile phones will be cheap and plentiful, but most of the time no-one will want them. Ever seen yourself on close-up web cam – not flattering! And how the hell do you phone in sick? Faking a weak, croaky voice is one thing. Faking the visuals for flu – apart from the few method actors amongst us, forget it! Plus, you can’t walk rapidly through an airport concourse or up a busy street while you’re looking at a tiny 5 by 5 screen held awkwardly a half metre in front of your face. It doesn’t look cool, and you’ll tend to trip over a lot. Oh, sure we’ll transmit postcard images to our families when we go on holiday to some barbed wire gated beach in the third world, gaze longingly at our partners through a satellite link when we’re away from home working our ninety hour weeks, but aside from this stuff, the future of phone is text.
Still, look on the bright side. Game Platforms will be fucking superb. Courtesy of Play Station 4, you’ll be able to fight a hyper realistic ground war in Iraq without suffering a single injury – a luxury currently reserved for certain western leaders and their high command. You’ll be able to have sex with Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, in fact you’ll be able to be Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, having sex with Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. No-one will take drugs anymore because they just won’t be able to bring themselves to unplug and go outside to score.
Does this sound unduly cynical? Hey, I’m probably wrong. Give me twenty years and come laugh at me on that chat show.