twentyforty

utopias FOR a digital society

How 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.

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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.

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.