Welcome to 2030 - I own everything I need, have control over my privacy, and I am very happy

I have privacy through my personal AI on my blockchain, can sell my data to the platforms and life has never been better!

This is a vision paper about a Libertarian future as a counterpart to that of the World Economic Forum. 

By Bernard (Benno) Pieters - Interpreting the Future Possibilities 😉

Welcome to the year 2030! Welcome to my district - or should I say, 'our district' of the village. I have everything I need to live a good life. I have a self-sufficient house. I have a nice partner and 2 children, and we can go on holiday whenever we want. I have a solar-powered car, so I don't need fuel anymore. Not only that, but I have all the appliances and clothes that make life pleasant. We live in a self-sufficient community, and we are part of the 'free cooperative society'. 

Privacy & Smart contracts

Our neighborhood is a Smart contract neighborhood in the village or small town, where everything communicates with each other via the Smart contract AI of the Neighborhood, and with your personal AI on your blockchain, it is coordinated by your AI. The personal blockchain allows you to regulate what you want to share with others. Your personal AI monitors that.

Production via 3D printers

It may seem strange to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this village. We make products ourselves at home and deliver them mainly in the form of services to others. Our houses are built on it or adapted for it. Almost every home has a workspace. We make accommodations and food from the 3D printers and all the things we need in our daily lives. 

Every house makes and delivers what the household is good at. For example, as a shoemaker; the leather is 3D printed, after which a shoemaker robot assembles it. Some families invent and design the shoes and deliver them, others make them. If you are a baker, then you are in luck, because almost everyone needs bread every day. Are you a beer brewer? That is always in demand.

If you are a knowledge worker, you provide your knowledge on platforms that act as a knowledge market and look up a customer on your behalf at the market price. As a knowledge supplier, do you have your a video channel? Then you can immediately promote the products and services worldwide for your neighborhood if you want. 

Transport

We own our own transport, which we also roam autonomously as taxis in the nearby SmartCity; all-electric of course. Our scooters can now also roam autonomously now we have equipped them with 3 wheels.

Crypto payments.

We deliver it to the City in exchange for City Crypto tokens that we use in trade with the City. We have a neighborhood crypto token ourselves.

Our tokens are based on Bitcoin, which is used worldwide. You can pay with Bitcoin anywhere in the world. Most communities have their own Token Coin based on that. SmartCities almost all have their own Coin based on their own blockchain. We settle with them in Bitcoin; with a few exceptions. 

In the past, many knowledge workers were needed to run the government. When the AIs started taking over their jobs, there were a lot of unemployed people. The young were retrained, and the elderly could receive a basic income, provided they did voluntary work that did not compete with the market. Meanwhile, many older knowledge workers have become content creators on the web for third parties and have found their newfound happiness.

Deflation

Communications became increasingly digitized and eventually free for everyone. When clean energy also became virtually free, things started moving fast. 

Transport dropped drastically in price. Solar energy made energy virtually free. With AI, we were able to ensure that vehicles could operate independently. Almost everyone has a number of cars 'in service' so that you can earn a decent income from transporting people and goods. Your own personal AI coordinates that for you. Almost everything is electric, passenger cars, trucks, lorries, flying cars, and even airplanes.

For long distances, we use the Hyperloop and there we work together with the SmartCities. Electric also; it ensures clean air and traffic-free travel. We are in Sevilla (Spain) in less than 2.5 hours (24 hours by car) and you arrive relaxed. From there we go to a family of a friendly cooperative with a solar car. They live close to the coast.

WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, all social media of the past have been replaced by free communication, albeit in exchange for your privacy, for which you get paid a little. Your personal information is used as currency. Your personal AI coordinates how much you can earn from it. 

Clean energy

Solar energy is generated everywhere. The solar panels that you used to have on the roofs are now 10x as small and 5x as efficient. Most people now have solar cell roof tiles. Lampposts have their own power generation and once purchased and installed, maintenance is minimal. Batteries with solid-state technology store excess energy so that we can survive for at least one month without charging.

Own property

Our houses are 3D printed, a house costs much less than in the old ages, about a tenth of what it was compared to 10 years ago. We think it can be even cheaper, and our clever minds are working on it. Because owning your own home is one of our fundamental rights, isn't it? 

We also build cafés with workspaces where we can sit when we want to work away from home. They are located in nice places so that working digitally is a real treat. The neighborhoods compete with each other to determine which neighborhood has the best work center. It is a pleasant thought that is the center belongs to all of us.

We also allow guests from the SmartCity to stay overnight in separate guest rooms, close to the work center. That's what the SmartCity's AI pays for. They have then done something special for their city, and they can see how primitive we live (haha).

These locations are also the common property of the district. We are all shareholders through a modern type of Cooperative. It also regulates the roads, street lighting, and sewage. 

Food Printers

3D food printers are now really starting to advance. We now have separate printers for meat, vegetables, and fruit, and a whole new industry is starting to emerge for recipes that drive the food printers. I expect that in 5 years' time the printers will all be 'all-in-one', because a lot of research is being done on this. Of course, we also have food delivered to our homes. That is brought by a drone on the special landing pad on the porch. There is a lot of choices, and you should really pay attention to the reviews. But nowadays, no one is bad anymore.

 

Circular

If you're a bit of a lazy type like me, you let a health program deliver your food. This way you always eat responsibly with a lot of variety. If there has been something that you did not like, you report it, and it will no longer be sent. You can also indicate which restaurants can participate, and then a menu is put together based on their offer. Food waste is taken every day by the same drone that brings you food.

This also made the breakthrough of the circular economy easier. New products are always created from our waste flows. If you are tired of an item of clothing, give it to us and let us know if you want a new one. You get a small exchange fee, and you indicate what you want new. You may want the exact same pants or dress because you love the design so much, and then it will be delivered in a few days. 

Everything is designed for durability, repairability, and recyclability. The materials flow faster into our economy and can be converted into new products quite easily. Environmental problems of the past seem far away because we only use clean energy and clean production methods. The air is clean, the water is clean, and that ensures that we don’t get sick. 

Nature

We let nature do its work as much as possible and use plant-based medicines as much as possible. Now that the air is so clean, and we eat healthily, we are much less affected by diseases. We are increasingly working on the prevention of illness by making your own immune system strong. Prevention is always better than cure. 

Medical

An annual medical check-up is carried out to make sure that there is nothing developing that can cause you problems at a late stage. Your DNA may have that in it. Your medical file is maintained by your personal AI. The medical check-up results are processed by your own AI, drawn conclusions out of, and put on your personal blockchain. No one else has access, unless you give explicit permission.

Grocery

Shopping? For me, as for many, that is a wonderful activity. Nowadays, you can do that in 3D virtual reality. You put on glasses, and then you can go shopping worldwide. You can also feel things through a technique called 'haptics'. Furthermore, you can instruct your AI to search for you, and it will present your personal market in 3D. Of course, you can share it with your friends' markets. 

If you prefer to go to a physical store, you can point at what you want, try it out, and purchase the goods. You don't have to carry the stuff around because it will be delivered to your home.

AI robots

When AI and robots took over so much of our work, we had more and more time to eat well, sleep well and spend time with other people. We received more and more programs to discover what you really like doing, whether you could earn something with it to boost your purchasing power, but also whether what you do has social relevance and how you can become good at it. Then you got an AI guide on how to put that on the market to sell worldwide.

The new way of working

The concept of 'going to work' no longer has any meaning, as the work you do can be done at any time. I'm not sure if I would still call it work. It is more thinking time, creation time, and development time. Almost anything you do can be turned into an earnings model, using the long tail possibilities of the internet.

People in the entertainment industry gained more and more prestige as their skills were mixed with education. In this way, adults can also learn through play. Our 3D glasses became addictive! Many people had to be taken out of their virtual lives to come back 'on Earth'. 

Learning from and about nature

We are increasingly returning to nature, albeit with AI assistance. Every neighborhood has a lot of greenery, water, and/or forest, and we allow as many animals as possible to live there. Biodiversity has also increased because the air is so clean. 

Our children learn a lot in nature, and their personal approaches and talents are taken into account. Learning is thus stimulated through their own interests. As much as possible in the open air; the schools are located on the edge of nature reserves. 

Adult education is also increasingly taking place in nature. If this is not possible for practical reasons, an environment is created in 3D virtual reality in which an individual can learn to play. 

 Our concerns about our neighbors in the SmartCities

One of our biggest concerns is the people who live in the SmartCities. They have lost their freedom. They traded that for safety. Everywhere in the cities, you see drones that monitor that everything runs smoothly. No one owns a home, and the City-AI may decide that you have to give up your home 'for a while’, for someone else’s use or an important event. The people don't work; we see them walking around aimlessly and having no energy. 

When we visit the Cities we notice that the inhabitants have to be vaccinated every once in a while for a certain variation of a disease; they do not get sick in any way anymore. Their AIs are set for maximum security and maximum comfort; suffering is no more. We even suspect that when you get depressed, you get a cocktail shot of dopamine and serotonin to feel happy again. Yes, people also get healthy food, but they don't have much choice in variety. With them, enough is good enough. 

Their clothing is also monotonous because they believe that sustainability means that it should last as long as possible. In one way or another, they realize that once you have a circular economy up and running, this is no longer necessary. 

They still have old-fashioned schools where a robot teacher or master tells the children how to do it all. They do have Augmented Reality support, but their education is much more based on how it should be done and not on discovering the world. Own initiative is not appreciated.

We have an agreement with the City to take in people who don't fit into their society. That's dozens a month. We then include them in a deprogramming program to teach them to be independent thinkers and free people again.

The other way around, it happens less. But sometimes our elderly people are afraid of getting sick and their fear becomes too much for them. They then want to go to the City because they believe that they will be better protected against diseases.

Privacy with the Personal AI

We are very committed to our privacy. If you want, you can go through life almost anonymously. In the mid-2020s, the Personal AI came on the market that monitors everything for you through your personal blockchain; under lock and key. Your finances, personal preferences, medical records all have different levels of encryption that only you have the keys to. If the doctor asks for your medical data, and you give permission, his AI will arrange for him to retrieve the data that is needed at that moment. 

We know that visitors to the SmartCity are regularly annoyed that they no longer have privacy. They are also wirelessly connected to the City Blockchain, for which they have all received a Neuralink in their skull. Everything about them is recorded in real-time. What they do, think, dream, everything, and everything is recorded. Well, let's just hope it won't be used against those wretches. 

Everyone happy?

But usually, they dismiss it when we talk about it: “It has made it much safer and we no longer have any sick people. Viruses don't stand a chance with us because we are vaccinated every six months. Because our physical processes are continuously monitored, we can be sure that if we get something, it will be noticed immediately and immediate action is taken!”