Dear past me,
You were right, we’re more connected than ever before. We didn’t look for calm in our lives nor did we look to take anything away.
You see, connectivity and devices are still everywhere. No longer are they just in our pockets and attached to our wrists.
What you had back then was only the start.
People laughed when they said they wanted less notifications and interruptions, that they didn’t need wearables or the internet of things.
You on the other hand often used to think about how this would all turn out, you thought that instead of less, there would be more, just different.
You were so right.
Now the entire world is connected, Facebook and Google did good on their promise and regions of the world that never had connectivity are 100% covered with connector drones.
You’re probably wondering about how things have changed? It’s probably best explained with a rundown of my day.
Eleanor knows the optimal time for me to wake up so she does so in a natural manner providing an increase of natural light and ambient noise around me to wake me. I jump out of bed with a spring in my step as I’m fully rested and ready for the day. I head to the bathroom to grab a shower which is nice and warm as Eleanor had the switched it on just a couple of minutes before I woke.
As I get dry, I wander back to the bedroom as Eleanor brings up my vitals on the HUD. She lets me know that the work that I’ve been doing in the gym has had a good effect on my resting heart rate, my BMI has been stable for a week and my muscle growth is on track. She notes that I should take a hay-fever tablet as a precaution as she’s found a higher level of pollen which will have an effect on me. Thanks, Eleanor.
We run through my diary for the day. Eleanor gives me a run down of the personality types for the people I’m meeting. She’s recognised that I’ll have to change my approach for one specific meeting in order for me to get a positive outcome.
Eleanor has my breakfast ready downstairs, I pull it directly from the refrigerator, we still have them, but as well as stocking our cold food, they also make it for us as well. She’s stored the rest of the days meal data directly to the hub so everything will be ready on schedule.
At 08:45 I leave for the office. I walk upstairs, open my office door and my commute is done. You see, our team is totally remote, but we now achieve this in a way you would never have done in the past.
Eleanor has the VHUB ready, I step in and the curved door slides shut behind me. The floor of the VHUB moves beneath your feet as you walk, so you effectively walk and move in the same way as you would walk down the street. I connect in to our company hub, the 360 degree screens around me display our reception, the early birds are already here. There are over a million sensors in the VHUB tracking my every movement.
The VHUB enables our company to have a virtual office where all the staff are at, we’re just not actually there. Everything is virtual. I think at one time you would have called these holograms, but to look at any of your friends in the VHUB is like looking at them face to face.
At work, everything is virtual but so incredibly real, we can do all of our jobs yet don’t have to be together to do them.
After work I decide to head out to the local park for a run, there’s traffic so Eleanor recalculates the best route, I sit back and ask Eleanor to give me a running route to help with some cardio training. As we arrive at the park Eleanor prepares the data I need for the run and syncs it to my eye-glass (it’s like a contact lens but way more functional).
Most people have hearing chips these days which connect with your eye-glass. You can do everything through voice activation. No more carrying around a device, they’re almost part of us. As soon as I begin talking Eleanor simply recognises my voice.
It’s only 3pm, work days are shorter now due to the heightened productivity our world now lives in. Due to everything being connected we have nothing to take up time in our lives allowing me to go for a run or enjoy time with the family. Everything is smarter now, not harder.
Oh, and by the way, Eleanor, that’s the name of my halo system, the thing that takes care of me.
New hardware and technology have given us the ability to live with connectivity all around us in an non-disruptive and non-obtrusive way.
This is it. This is our world.