Speculative Futures
Story A (Utopian)
Story B (Dystopian)
Narratives
Story A (Utopian)
[Scence One: a conversation with PEP about program status]
[Me]
PEP, report the current status.
[PEP]
No emerging new instance in the past year. 95% of the existing ones have been eliminated. The speed of generating new space is 0.000001% faster than the use of space. I am glad to report that the break-even point has been reached.
[Me]
Finally! Thank you, PEP. Continue to monitor the cloud pace.
[PEP]
Yes, madam. Would you like to disconnect from my server now?
[Me]
Yes. Disconnect me for an hour. I will need to draft a report to share this news.
[Scence Two: drafting and sending the report via AINITE ]
[Me]
AINITE, connect me to your text editing system
[AINITE]
Yes, Madam. Do you want to use the converted system?
[Me]
Yes.
[AINITE]
May I ask what is the purpose of this text?
[Me]
Report to the headquarter.
[AINITE]
Selecting the formal reporting template for you, time-stamped with the current date and time, 2051 November 29th. Please start.
[Me]
Hmmm, let me think, where should I begin?
[AINITE]
Based on your conversation with PEP, and the format of this formal report, here is a recommended report.
[Me]
Okay, let me see…
Punctuation marks Elimination Program (PEP) status report.
PEP started in the year 2045.
PEP’s goal is to eliminate punctuation marks to save cloud space.
Current status: 95% of the existing ones have been eliminated. The speed of generating new space is faster than the use of space. I am glad to report that the break-even point has been reached.
This looks good. Thanks, AINITE.
[AINITE]
You are very welcome. Should I start to convert your text now?
[Me]
Yes, please.
[AINITE]
Congratulations! The report has been converted to AINITE symbols. You have used 98% less cloud space. Should I send the report now?
[Me]
Yes, send.
[AINITE]
All done. Is there anything else I can be of service?
[Me]
Please open my journal and start recording
[AINITE]
Yes, please go ahead.
[Scence Three: recording journal ]
[Me]
Today is probably the last day I will be working with PEP. I know I would be moved to a different project when PEP achieved the goal. I am the PEP handler. My job as a handler is more like PEP’s human companion that shares all she sees. Yeah, PEP is AI and she believes she is a female. No idea why she thinks that, but I just go with whatever she prefers.
PEP and I have been working together since the start of this project, the year 2045. The shortage of space in the cloud has led to many purge projects for things that can be eliminated from the cloud.
Since the emergence of AINITE, a service that uses AI to interpret everything into your chosen media, for example, an entire book to audio or video, there is less and less requirement for printed media. After a few years, everyone starts to get the inserted chip into their brain so they can simply “connect” to the service they need on the cloud. No one needs to access the library anymore as they could simply search the title, can get anything readout or played out for them if AINITE had the title in its main library. Now, people do not even remember the library for printed media existed once. Most of them are guarded by AI, but no one ever visits.
Since AINITE is owned by a private company and is only interested in titles requested by more than 20% of the population. The government decided to input all printed media that ever exists to the cloud, so we do not lose valuable content. You can see this can be a slow process as the government has a limited budget for this. What makes it hard is that the creation of cloud space is slower than the use of it, because everyone lives on the cloud now. In order for everyone to be able to enjoy the freedom to save anything they want on the cloud, the government started to investigate how to save spaces while not losing the content. Scientists found many ways to reduce the text uploaded to the cloud, and PEP is among the many purge projects but it took the longest. The headquarter of my current company is the third company that had been assigned this project, and we are so glad that we had finally reached the goal
The government also shared these projects and developed a converted system with AINITE so all texts can be converted into symbols that take less time, and AINITE can read the texts to their owners anytime. Our company uses AINITE’s system as well. Everything written in text now is stored online, and text communication has been most effective than ever. No one uses punctuation marks and everything is converted into symbols. And whenever you need it, AINITE reads those to you. Rumour had that the company that owns AINITE is currently working on the audio and video conversion, and hopefully to work with the government on other projects that may help improve cloud space efficiency even more.
[Me]
AINITI
[AINITI]
Yes!
[Me]
Save my journal
[The End]
Story B (Dystopian)
[Daughter]
Mom, what are these?
This is the 3rd time I saw my mom goes to the basement by herself this week, so I just followed.
I saw her move a cube away from the wall manually. Yes, manually. I never knew we could move the cube as they are just shifting on their own, showing us a different view based on the frequency we choose and our preference. Well, I guess I never really looked into this corner cube, was it always this colour and never changed?
She reached her hand out and grabbed something. The things she is holding in her hand now look familiar. Where have I seen this before?
Hmmm, history class?
[Daughter]
Are these what our history teacher called books?
My mom nodded and said
[Mom]
Shhh! Be quiet. Don’t want any device to hear us.
[Daughter]
Can I take a look at them? I have only seen projections of these in history class.
[Mom]
Be careful, do not touch it directly.
She puts one book on the float, and I noticed that it looked very different from what I had seen in class. It is thick and looks like it can be opened.
Mom seemed to read my mind. She slowly waved her right hand from one direction, and the book moved.
[Mom]
The pages can be flipped.
Her right hand waved again, and it flipped again. I saw a lot of little black things in the book.
[Daughter]
What are these?
I pointed at the “. ! ? “” ,”
[Mom]
These are punctuation marks.
She lowered her voice again.
[Daughter]
What are they for?
[Mom]
They are for you to know how to read out the written message.
[Daughter]
What is a written message, and why do we have to read out things?
[Mom]
The written text exists before any of the Artificial intelligence who read us the recorded communications. They are still texts that you need to identify with your eyes and read based on how these punctuation marks to guide you.
[Daughter]
This sounds interesting! How does it work, and why didn’t I know this before?
She signed deeply.
[Mom]
The transparency policy requires AI to be the filter for our communication. Anything complicated must be expressed in visual, not written text by layers, because there was a conspiracy theory that writers can hide information in the written words with the help of punctuation marks. So about 15 years ago, before you were born, the transparency policy banned all written communications. All the printed text and written text are burned. School stopped teaching anything related to it, including punctuation marks, capitalization. Instead, they teach fake history about books like the one you learnt in school. So many great things just got lost.
There is this sad look on her face that I don’t understand.
[Daughter]
If all books are burned, why do you have these?
She hesitated.
[Mom]
I…let’s not worry about that. Here is a storybook, let me read to you. You will see how these punctuation marks work
She opened another book on the float
[Mom]
Once upon a time…
Neither of us noticed the wall started to shift slowly.
[Peace Guardian]
Freeze
A peace guardian shouted at us and waved his hand at the books. They fell off of the float. Another guardian came up, and I didn’t see what he had done. The book turned into ashes.
[Mom]
No!!!
My mom screams. The lead guardian looked at her, and apparently, his scanner was searching.
[Peace Guardian]
A missing linguistician and a writer. Nice disguise code. You have hidden well for many years. We would probably not be able to catch you if we didn’t get the alert. Now, come with us. We could use your skill to track the others.
My mom floated into the air, circled by a bright, yellow thing that I don’t know what it is. She had tears, but she could not make any sound or movement.
[Daughter]
Mom!
I wanted to scream but could not make any sound either. The last thing I saw, was my electro-pet snake looking into my eyes, and the wall closing.
[The End]
