Wear sunscreen
by Matt Worley

I think Brave New World got to me. I watched the TV version of this future doom novel (it's short, you can read it an afternoon) disappointed that the miniseries people thought the most important aspect of the book was the open sex mindset and subsequent lack of love between humans. But no matter, it was a TV movie, what else did I expect? For those who want to see a more representative presentation of the novel, watch George Lucas' THX-1158. A feature made before American Graffiti, it's a cross between Brave New World, 1984 and Logan's Run (which was made later). Starkly beautiful, and it's got a great ending. Robert Duvall stars.

But that doesn't concern me so much, it just got me to thinking. Where do I see the near future going? So here's a little vision of my 40s. The way we'll be doing business, the way we'll be interacting, the way of the future. And there are a few parallels to 1984 and Brave New World--because Orwell and Huxley were right about a lot of things. Not the love thing, of course. Scientists always forget that humans love to be in love.

All of these consolidations and mergers got me to wondering. Which companies will be big enough to be part of the big, big world company that will eventually run the world. C'mon, the whole point behind capitalism is that money, consumerism and consumption are the reasons for living. We must work to produce to make money to buy more stuff, so we have to keep working. It just makes sense that some big company will be at the head of "government" in the future. But it'll be run like a company rather than some strange consortium of ideological factions. And then there will be China, which will still be China.

But the government, or whoever leads the world, is not my concern. It could be Microsoft, it could be Disney. At the moment, I'd put my money on Disney. And it could be some huge cable company that hasn't been named yet. In fifteen years we'll all be wired via cable into a central system. Our electronics will be run from a central computer somewhere in the house, which is fed by the cable. We'll buy our entertainment by downloading it from this cable system. Groceries, furniture, everything. Most of us will sit in our houses waiting for the delivery people to show up. The world will be divided between those who buy and never leave the house except for going to the office (for those who haven't become "home officers"), those who deliver everything from the warehouses to homes, and those who produce all of these products. The people who make the stuff (the non-automated parts at least) will be at the bottom and paid the least.

We'll talk to our friends, family and business people the same way. In other words, the phone companies are on the way out. Cable holds more capacity, and the system is almost in place. Many computer owners already have a camera hooked up so they can send pictures of themselves typing on their computer to their loved ones. These cameras and the methods to send these moving images will be infinitely better when everyone is hooked up to the central cable system. And who would want to talk over the phone when they can just turn the camera on and talk face to face? The phone companies have already figured this out, and they're beginning to buy up cable companies.

So is it better to buy webTV (which is already over cable) or should we all put our money in AOL or Earthlink or some other online service? My bet is these will not be consolidated for a while and the switch to cable modems will do nothing to change this. AOL will be available over cable just like HBO. And we'll fight it out for a while.

Of course, I'm hoping that I'll be in the income range to afford all this new stuff when it comes out. I'd hate to be one of those plebes who'll still use his antique telephone to talk to people. Considering that phones will become increasingly more expensive to keep and maintain (as demand falls, the price rises), death of this kind of communication could be quick. Of course, the poorest people will get screwed in this deal, unless the government steps in and hooks everyone up for free (yeah, right).

And then there's the real future--the future I won't see. When everyone works in holographic rooms built on to their houses, and everything is done virtually instead of with actual physical contact. Getting married will happen when two people actually live in the same house, as "safe sex" happens in the holo-suite. Everything will be safe, no one will get hurt, and everyone will be happy--as long as the electricity doesn't get cut off.

Okay, so maybe I've been watching too much Star Trek, reading too much sci-fi, and playing too many games of Asteroids. And maybe those creepy chase dreams of a future where people with motor cars are looked down upon by the people with hover cars are skewing my mind. And possibly I shouldn't worry about it all and just concentrate on building those pages at the newspaper. But I'm bored with all that, let's get to the future already.

Oh yeah, there won't be much paper in the future either. And don't even get me started about cloning.

Matt Worley wishes he could be at those holo-Pearl Jam concerts where the long dead entertain millions of virtual fans at once. And no one gets trampled or anything.

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