When I checked out Nick’s Speculative Futures task, I was drawn to the illustrations in his post. I think using a storybook format was a great ideas. I have never created a storybook like this before. When I completed this task, I did not consider the possibility of adding illustrations to my stories. When I was thinking about our futures, I was looking at education and tried to imagine what it would be like if I were to return to my current school in 30 years. Nick took a more holistic view of the future.
I found it interesting that the same character in each story lived a very similar, video game type life, with access to the same technologies and yet how he interacted with those technologies was so different. When I read the stories of the future, I found the control exerted by Surli over the main character to be rather disturbing. But, when I really think about it, many aspects of our lives are controlled by technology today. We have alarms and timers reminding us when to wake up in the morning, when we have to be in class, when to take our medications, when to watch a particular TV show. We have smart watches and Fitbits that count calories and tell us when we need to exercise more. We have apps and cards to pay for things, without ever seeing real money. Maybe Nick’s future is right now.