Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer
Article in Forbes – November 2016
Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better
Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city – or should I say, “our city.” I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes.
It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.
First communication became digitized and free to everyone. Then, when clean energy became free, things started to move quickly. Transportation dropped dramatically in price. It made no sense for us to own cars anymore, because we could call a driverless vehicle or a flying car for longer journeys within minutes. We started transporting ourselves in a much more organized and coordinated way when public transport became easier, quicker and more convenient than the car. Now I can hardly believe that we accepted congestion and traffic jams, not to mention the air pollution from combustion engines. What were we thinking?
Sometimes I use my bike when I go to see some of my friends. I enjoy the exercise and the ride. It kind of gets the soul to come along on the journey. Funny how some things seem never seem to lose their excitement: walking, biking, cooking, drawing and growing plants. It makes perfect sense and reminds us of how our culture emerged out of a close relationship with nature.
In our city we don’t pay any rent, because someone else is using our free space whenever we do not need it. My living room is used for business meetings when I am not there.
Once in a while, I will choose to cook for myself. It is easy – the necessary kitchen equipment is delivered at my door within minutes. Since transport became free, we stopped having all those things stuffed into our home. Why keep a pasta-maker and a crepe cooker crammed into our cupboards? We can just order them when we need them.
This also made the breakthrough of the circular economy easier. When products are turned into services, no one has an interest in things with a short life span. Everything is designed for durability, repairability and recyclability. The materials are flowing more quickly in our economy and can be transformed to new products pretty easily. Environmental problems seem far away, since we only use clean energy and clean production methods. The air is clean, the water is clean and nobody would dare to touch the protected areas of nature because they constitute such value to our well-being. In the cities we have plenty of green space and plants and trees all over. I still do not understand why in the past we filled all free spots in the city with concrete.
Shopping? I can’t really remember what that is. For most of us, it has been turned into choosing things to use. Sometimes I find this fun, and sometimes I just want the algorithm to do it for me. It knows my taste better than I do by now.
When AI and robots took over so much of our work, we suddenly had time to eat well, sleep well and spend time with other people. The concept of rush hour makes no sense anymore, since the work that we do can be done at any time. I don’t really know if I would call it work anymore. It is more like thinking-time, creation-time and development-time.
For a while, everything was turned into entertainment and people did not want to bother themselves with difficult issues. It was only at the last minute that we found out how to use all these new technologies for better purposes than just killing time.
My biggest concern is all the people who do not live in our city. Those we lost on the way. Those who decided that it became too much, all this technology. Those who felt obsolete and useless when robots and AI took over big parts of our jobs. Those who got upset with the political system and turned against it. They live different kind of lives outside of the city. Some have formed little self-supplying communities. Others just stayed in the empty and abandoned houses in small 19th century villages.
Once in a while I get annoyed about the fact that I have no real privacy. Nowhere I can go and not be registered. I know that, somewhere, everything I do, think and dream of is recorded. I just hope that nobody will use it against me.
All in all, it is a good life. Much better than the path we were on, where it became so clear that we could not continue with the same model of growth. We had all these terrible things happening: lifestyle diseases, climate change, the refugee crisis, environmental degradation, completely congested cities, water pollution, air pollution, social unrest and unemployment. We lost way too many people before we realized that we could do things differently.
This blog was written ahead of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils.
Ida Auken is a Young Global Leader and Member of the Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization of the World Economic Forum,
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Did we discover free energy or something ?
Or something, yeah.
I loved this random little passage-
“Once in a while I get annoyed about the fact that I have no real privacy. Nowhere I can go and not be registered. I know that, somewhere, everything I do, think and dream of is recorded. I just hope that nobody will use it against me.”
Classic.
I’m wondering if this is a pro or anti Great Reset piece. Because the left is that insane to believe this, but it sounds like a dystopian nightmare and makes an excellent argument against the whole project.
It is Forbes, so I would consider it predictive programming.
That was the line that got my attention most.
Thank you for your contributions and examples…sir.
The Unknown Citizen
W. H. Auden – 1907-1973
(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
I don’t see the Metaverse mentioned. Did it not make it?
Have you heard about this? I just stumbled upon it at Margaret Anna Alice’s web page… She has a new “letter” posted today.
https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-tyrant
https://makeamericansfreeagain.com/
https://makeamericansfreeagain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Make-Americans-Free-Again-Manifesto.pdf
Another central planner promoting unachievable utopia. There has always been a solution to all the problems (or at least the best solution possible in a world of limited resources) – FREEDOM. Sad that so many have spent so much time being led around by the nose that their only version of freedom involves someone “better” doing it instead.
Smart people are great at diagnosing things but sociopathic at prescribing solutions.
Ghost…I haven’t heard about it. Reading through it, I had one thought that kept popping up in my mind…ANIMAL FARM.
I’m a bit jaded, though. How do you feel about it?
I am skeptical that a bunch of lawyers filing a bunch of court cases will get us out of the problems caused by a bunch of lawyers filing a bunch of court cases.
If SCOTUS even acts as if it is going to study the constitutionality of the lame duck grifter’s totalitarian takeover of this country, Biden will name an additional four justices to the court lickety split, making the Supreme Court a modern day Star Chamber which will find whatever it’s bosses tell it to find. All of this is due to the inept and immoral behavior of Congresscritters who were supposed to conduct checks and balances through oversight and instead simply accept checks into their campaign fund balance.
I was pretty active in the Oklahoma Tea Party for a while, until it was co-opted by the Republicans and turned into something it was not.
I call them Pod People.
Yea it’s great until you turn 30 and have to participate in the Carrousel rite, and if you don’t the sandman will come get you.
Nice 40 year old movie reference.
If either of these two came after me, I’d stop running.
Especially the good looking one.
Cool Story, NO!!! Unless you like EXISTING like a POS!!! It certainly is NOT living!!!!
If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom. Dwight D. Eisenhower
I thought that’s what was being described. Or maybe Hell.
Jf it includes free Talmud-vision I’m in.
I am 100% not worried in any way, shape or form “you will own nothing and be happy about it”. Why? Have you met a woman lately? Let me see you take her shoes from her shoe closet. Have you been in the home of a woman lately? There more shit in it than you can even begin to imagine. No! She will sew a dick on her “man” and tell him “now get out there and kill those fascist bastards and get my shit back”.
That’s funny, but arguments like “it’s OK to ban coal because we’re switching to windmills” or “it’s good that Biden killed those pipelines because we don’t all need to have cars anyway” hold sway mostly with women and eunuchs. The fact that they get to vote is why we’re in this pickle.
What’s that got to do with what he said?
I kind of like owning stuff. Some of it was something I worked and saved for. I bet owning firearms is not in this planned future. Funny how things and people change, I was always into having my privacy and less Government in my life. I read they just put more satellites into orbit. A.I. combined with this will destroy personal freedoms in the future.
I think describing a mix of escape from NY and a Rawles book would be a more accurate description of the coming future. The Governments depicted in both seem eerily possible.
Ha Ha Horseshit. Nothing but more of the same establishmentarian propaganda that outlets like Forbes are so famous for. Presented to enthrall, entice,….warn. All at once. All done with a seriously tin ear.
“Hello, Amazon? Yeah, it’d be real nice if I could use the pasta maker tonite, mkay? Drone delivery will be fine, sure. 6 would be fine, the sex workers that I share with have their last appointment at 5:50. Yeah… great. Say, send some durum, an egg, a can of tomatoes… what do you mean there aren’t any?”
Keep your head down. Disengage as much as possible. Avoid the debris field. That’s as goos as it gets.
The Blue State Conservative version is probably much closer to what they have in mind for us.
And then your production supply chain stops the lights go out and you sit in your cubicle whining for food water and some sanitary needs and all those worthless doers you thought so little of don’t give a rats ass about your worthless ass .
You are now at the bottom of the food chain !
Worth nothing and in shock why you are no longer cared for !
Maybe if you can suck a dick like you lost your car keys in it somebody might keep you around …MOOOOO!
Yeah, fuck that.
Thanks for the heads up honey. I’ll just stay here in my rural enclave.
“My bike”
So dipshit owns a bike
My question, what will the global elite own while we own nothing? Me thinks the answer is EVERYTHING! You can bet your ass that nobody will have access 24/7 to their livingrooms. They will live like kings while you ride your bike to the imaginarium of a world where you USED TO LIVE.
Dear Mr. Algorithm in the sky:
How do I adjust the algorithm to deliver me gorgeous 25-year-old twin sister prostitutes for free? Last time I got a 68-year-old withered bitch with no teeth. She opened her legs and dust flew out. The time before you sent a fag! I threw him out the window of my 22nd floor 100-square-foot room with nothing in it. It took the street sweepers 10 minutes to mop him up. That’s too long! When I want to take a shit, I have to wait 15 minutes for the toilet to show up at my door, then sit there longer to wait for toilet paper. Too long. You’re supposed to make me happy. I’m not happy! Do something!
I can’t wait to order up a free flying car to take me to Hopewell Farm for free maple syrup. Of course I’ll have to bring along my free national guard contingent to make sure Marc is happy to provide me free stuff. Then it’s off on my free trip to Aruba for free food, drinks and never ending happy ending massages. Of course the first free thing that gets this free fantasy going is the free frontal lobotomy with one of those free reaming tools that you use to prep the hole in your truck tire before plugging it. Dennis Canned and Banned in Boston. Refuse and Resist!
Total bull shit fantasy.
Fantasy – everything is free.
Reality – everything will be rationed and if history tell us anything, the most common feature of socialist economy’s is shortages of all the necessities of life.
over a century ago, a prohetic short story entitled ‘the machine stops’ was written. I dont think many people noticed it then. indeed, i dont even remember who was the author now, it’s been maybe twenty years since i stumbled across it. find it and read it.
E.M. Forster; Very prophetic, it is very much like our current society in many ways.
Oh, someone will own it all…..guaranteed.
And when you decide to not work and expect it all to keep coming….how long does that last?
Utopia is the dream of those who have never bothered to put in the time, either physically or mentally, to understand where shit actually comes from or how the world actually functions.
This moron would have died of starvation & disease well before he got his free crap, unless he stole it from a Walgreens in San Francisco.
Sounds like waste of time. What, pray tell, is anyone’s motivation to work?
Seriously, the peddlers of this shit aren’t stupid enough to believe it will work. They just want more for themselves, and this is fancy marketing for them to get it. An entire world full of renters of everything.
Rest assured that Gates, Schwab, and their clan won’t be living in a 100 square foot coffin on the 50th floor, waiting hours to get a food delivery or a car to go somewhere for some reason (it sure won’t be for anything productive). Someone will be the landlord, right.
At the end of the day, they want the riff-raff off of their ski slopes, and off their roads and runways. If it takes a “Great Reset” to make it happen, so be it.
When you follow the rules ,everything will be free. Sounds harmless doesn’t it.
A former Libertarian Party presidential candidate once said that he believed that the democrat party would always continue to exist, while the GOP might fade away. He said he believed this because people love the idea of free shit, and anyone who continues to exploit that in people will always have their vote. I suspect he never appreciated how much free shit the GOP gives away to its friends in big business.
Or that voting never really mattered. There was never an elections system that can be taken seriously.
I am gob smacked that there is sooooo much skepticism about the obvious socialist utopia that is just begging to be initiated. Its also obvious that those here are the primary hindrances to realizing that utopian goal and therefore will be needing re-education or soilant solution.
Ministry of Unity and Wellbeing
She’d still fit in a wood chipper.
If this happens, I hope I live to see the basement dwelling video gaming fools and lazy ass niggers getting their free shit to make them happy. They will learn the true meaning of “Arbeit macht frei.”
“Some have formed little self-supplying communities.”
Oooh, that sounds nice!
whatever she’s smoking/drinking, I’d like to try some
Call for free BJs
“Auken is also a member of Old Brick’s advisory board, which is a Danish company that cleans and recycles used bricks.”
She looks like she’d give some top notch brick cleaning advice.
“Like her mother, she is a priest of the Church of Denmark by profession.”
The only thing she does better than give brick cleaning advice is her professional priesting.
Do any of these people actually do anything? They all seem to be in the pontificating game.
Priesting always seemed like something old people should do, not young people. What the hell did we know, when we were young?
No, you will be in the metaverse, or else you will be trying to earn some financial credits in exchange for your body activity data. Your real body will waste away, so you won’t have the strength to ride your bicycle. You will be ingesting some kind of slop, certainly not cooking any real food. You don’t own any clothes, that’s disgusting, I don’t want to share your dirty underwear. Everything may be designed for durability, but when it is not owned by someone, no one will take care of it because it doesn’t belong to them.
Who’s her father?
What, no sex in the New World? Is that how boring it’ll be???
In the future there will be no satire, because no satire can possibly compete in absurdity with the stupid shit published routinely by our media.
How exactly will this work with the ‘Bros”? Let’s see; lots of technology, required pre-planning, loads of free time, required impluse control on personal level…………. good luck with that!