Two Futures

My first narrative was done as a Twine, and can be viewed here.

tl;dr: I focused on world-building; in the aftermath of multiple Pandemics, humanity became increasingly dependent on digital technology and the Web as a way to connect during Physical Distancing. People work and learn from home. However, schools still hold an important role as gathering places, where students can access mentors and collaborate with one another in person.

The second narrative is a recorded discussion between me and my partner.

 

tl;dl: Max and I discuss efficiency, augmented reality, telepathic devices, and the trend towards aggregate news sources.

Shownotes (in case you want to listen, but also want to skip ahead!)

• • • • 1:15     more efficient writing and reading
      • 4:15     augmented reality
      • 7:00     hologram ads
      • 10:45   more augmented reality
      • 12:30   advancing the pen and keyboard
      • 16:25   speech-to-text and writing stories
      • 19:00   mind-movies (e.g. “NeuroVision (TM)”)
      • 23:20   editing writing
      • 24:15   telepathic mind-movie collaboration
      • 25:45   reflecting on changes in past 20 years
      • 27:14   aggregate news and social media — the push to be more than a content consumer

reflection/Notes on this assignment:

This task sent me reeling; between its open-format nature and the infinite possibilities of 30-years-from-now, I found myself riddled with Choice Paralysis. I wanted to continue expanding my skillset through my work. But I have my new house to paint, my wedding to rearrange, my garden to care for, and berries to pick from it. Thankfully, Count Rugen is always there when I need some words of encouragement in this kind of situation.

“Get some rest. If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.” – Count Rugen, Princess Bride (1987)

 

I used Sims 4 to create the sets that illustrate the first narrative. While this did limit my creative vision, it saved me the time it would have taken me to draw the scenes from scratch (I did use Photoshop to add to them), since I was determined to have a visual element. I also learned how to use buttons in Twine’s SugarCube format (which create the pop-ups for all of the footnotesque text).

For the podcast, I used the “Smart Recorder” app on my phone and edited on the computer using Audacity (which is free). I had never made a podcast before, and it has given me a lot more respect for unscripted shows like Ologies and The Draftsmen. Initially, I tried to brainstorm the future with my parents, but unfortunately, that resulted in an hour-long history lesson and a few choice lines of “I can’t even imagine what they will come up with!” It missed the mark because I did a poor job at steering the conversation towards the future, and it was very disheartening when I listened to it afterward and realized there was very little that was salvageable. Even in mine and Max’s conversation, I had to edit out a lot of banter and unrelated tangents (I was unsure of their entertainment value, so I scrapped them for the sake of saving the listeners’ time).

My biggest takeaway: I believe the future will have more multi-modal texts (visual, audible, and interactive). HOWEVER, this will only happen if content-creation becomes faster. It takes very little time to slap my internal monolog down on a keyboard. It takes substantially more to create a game or edit an untranscribed audio clip.

 

Ok, back to the berry patch. We have put over 300 lbs (~136 kg) of strawberries into the freezer (destined for the freeze dryer), and now the raspberries are bursting! And then there are the honeybees.