twentyforty
utopias FOR a digital societyHow will we work, live, love, shape schools and governmental structures in 2040?
Visionary stories address the opportunities and challenges that digital technologies present for society in the future of 2040.
love
The End of Feelings
Every morning, Adam activates a chip on the back of his ear. His social interactions will be neutralized for 18 hours. In a society where feelings are governed, should Adam join a dating service to find love? What are the costs of resistance?
Digital Pharaohs
ZombAI apocalypse or digital immortality? Will AI break the intergenerational contract? In a post global-warming world, a couple has to decide how much influence it wants to give to the digital ghosts of the past and find their destiny.
live
Everyone is a Narcissist Together
Attention android: your entire existence is monetized. You are either entrapped at work or trapped on your devices at home. The future had so much promise. But only by looking to the past did we find the future.
In Mangal’s New World
Mangal’s mutiny against the machine was driven by the historical injustices it reminded him of. His rebellion ushers in a long lasting socio-technical revolution that changes the way people live in 2040.
Living in Togedera
Do you ever imagine a society where care homes for older people have become obsolete—where senior citizens who need round-the-clock care can stay at home?
learn
The Translators
We do not yet have children’s stories interacting with and confronting the promises and illusions of emergent technologies that reinforce human values such as autonomy, responsibility, freedom, creativity, empathy, and collaboration.
Academic Complexity: A Sketch of the Next University
Currently, the university is a place that invests in academic specialization. It rightly fears not having answers to the complexity of nature, culture, and society. The essay describes two necessary ingredients for a culture of academic complexity.
Something I Noticed
[[WikiLeaks Alert]] The Kuneco Files: board meeting agenda and accompanying emails reveal internal sabotage at America’s largest education social corporation.
work
From Dark Roots to Shared Routes
We all struggle with computers. If only we could talk to them, so that they could understand want we want without having to reprogram them. Controlling computers with our voice sounds much better, unless computers control us with their own customized voice.
Platform Socialism
Platforms will soon mediate almost every human interaction. This story follows three ravers, and the paths they take, as platform governance is transformed from platform capitalism to platform socialism and back again.
rule
The Manifesto
In 2040, artificial intelligence will no longer be used to optimize human life, but to de-optimize it. This story is about making machines more human instead of making humans more like machines. It is about letting coincidence come back into our lives.
What Would You Rather Be: A Privacy Have or a Privacy Have-Not?
Do you share information on social media? Would you like to be paid for sharing your information? Would you be happy for others to take your photograph? Think carefully. Your future life and the lives of your children depend upon your answers.
Operation Beyond Fun
What are the consequences of gamified policy-making? Is game design manipulative? What if gamified policy-making does not bring about the expected results? A story about the attempt to introduce playfulness into policy making and how it backfired.