I don't want my life to be efficient, I just want to make the most of my life journey - Dystopian Things that my University Lecturer have told students about the Future Tech
It was around 2018, and I was an Engineering student focusing on Renewable and Sustainable Energy field. I thought, this is really the most 'solarpunk decision' I've ever done, and this was going to be the introduction of me building a better future.
But then almost a decade later, I realized that my lecturers have probably said the most dystopian idea I've ever heard, now looking back at it. So here are the lists that the lecturers have told me, the student, about the 'promising' future, according to them:
"All future food will be in a form of paste, like an edible toothpaste, because to them it is the most efficient way to consume food." I mean, I'd rather keep my meal having its own shape, sorry! That's really the saddest thing I've ever heard to imagine!
"People would just need a VR and they would not need to go outside to buy groceries, everything would be online and delivered to you!". I mean, not going outside, ever? That's really sad because I do like browsing the convenient store and saying hi to the clerks! I mean I had a lovely chat with the clerks at my University because I was a regular!
"We would just need to make a hydroponic project system, then add a lighting system that force the plants to produce food and grow 24/7, no need to worry about the weather and the night!?". Is this how you treat your workers...? Plants have their own biological cycle that allows them to survive, not to please the capitalist fantasy. No wonder I felt off when my lecturers said that. Dystopian as hell. I don't think they see these plants as living things, just a resource to just snatch
'Robots would eventually replace human workers because humans won't be able to protest and unionize!'. Oh yeah no wonder I hate these kinds of people in corporate setting. This is more dystopian as heck when I look back and I'm glad that I didn't go back to engineering field.
These four points, have allowed me to feel like "Yeah, I like being an artist in this day and age, regardless of my day job (I mean we live in such world). As an artist, I want to emphasize and bring back the subtle beauty around me, that give a spark in me and hopefully other people.
I don't want to live in the textbook 'most efficient' life, I wanted to live a life and make most of it. That is way, I am still an artist.
Hope you like this more spontaneous blog post, and I'll see you on the next one!