Signs my brain is healing a bit from SARS-CoV-2 damage, I had an essay that I lost the original files for but wanted to share (it's probably in a compressed archive somewhere, or it could legit be lost), and finally figured out how to deal with it. It has been floating around in my "to do" list for years... the paper getting shuffled from one despair pile to another over and over again. I found it again when I was moving some papers today and did another search for the original... nothing... what to do to get it "out of my to do list"? I've been staring at the thing for years and finally today it occurred to me: scan it into a PDF and run OCR on it, then edit the text file and publish it on my blog (like the other essays I've shared). I use a program called
PDF Studio because it allows me to edit PDFs (fuck you Adobe, seriously fuck you, you suck) and I remembered it had an OCR option. Scan. OCR. Save PDF (with text). Save as TXT. Edit. Save. Format in HTML. Publish. It is now off my do-to list, and is here to read if you are so inclined. It's from a course called "Technology and Society: Forecasting" and I wrote about the future of "currency" (cash, monies) in an age of "mixed reality" technologies (AR/VR/etc.). The goal was to take a 25 year horizon and speculate on what it would look like (2041 in my case here, the course was in 2016). It was overall a group project and we made a group presentation, but each of us had to submit an individual essay that we did on our own.
Technology and Society: Forecasting CurrencyRather than focus on a specific area of endeavour, our group chose to look at how currency could be impacted by mixed reality over the next 25 years. Currency touches every aspect of human existence, and with the continued assault of global hypercapitalism, neoliberalism, and renewed colonialism on several fronts, there is no reason to suspect that its importance to our day-to-day lives will not continue to increase and pervade every corner of our existence. The question then is, in what way will mixed reality technologies impact the way that currency operates, and perhaps even what it is in 2041 and beyond? All indications are that mixed reality will become entwined with, and in many cases drive, what future societies consider to be “value”. While 25 years is not sufficient time for such a transition to take place, both most of the group and I believe the world will be at a cusp by 2041. By that point in time, traditional forms of currency will start being supplanted by gamification systems accessed through ubiquitious and varied augmented and virtual reality systems associated with the delivery of “work units” in both cyberspace and in meatspace
1.
( The rest of the essay is here... )To conclude, I hope I have shown that mixed reality has worked in the world of 2041 to allow for a new paradigm of organizing and executing all the tasks necessary to run a functional society and global trade system — which should just be starting to unfold fully by then as a new generation that grew up with it operates effortlessly within it. 25 years on, I certainly see it as a success in many ways, not the least of which is opening up the possibility for a truly service-oriented valuation and currency system, and the opportunities this will bring to motivated people and societies all over the world. The negatives are the marginalization of demographics, societies, and individuals that cannot function effectively in this mixed media gamified future (much like how ineffectiveness with the Internet is an impediment today), as well as a “race to the bottom” in terms of compensation for tasks that are no longer limited to a small number of professionals or monopolistic guilds to perform. Finally, I will state that an unknown coming to pass will be the gamification of the mitigation and restoration ofthe environmental impacts of global warming, pollution, and the Anthropocene (Borenstein, 2014) extinction event. This will provide us with a much needed common purpose where individual effort really can have a positive global impact.
1 Cyberspace: occurring primarily through distributed networked computer systems and human/machine interfaces; meatspace: occurring where physical humans exist and operate, aka now as “the real world”. As was stated in class, “mixed reality will become just reality” — I actually believe that is true when you consider how augmentative technologies have been effectively incorporated into moment-to-moment existence in all human societies.
2 “2.97 mn professionals employed in IT-ITeS sector in FY13:Govt” (2013).
http://www.rediffcom/money/report/tech-three-million-professionals-employed-in-it-ites-sector-in-fy13-govt/20130503.htm( And the bibliography is here... )Comments by marker:Interesting discussion of currency in the present and in 25 years, with the addition of mixed reality and gamification. Your delineation of the way currency itself will change, from the philosophy of ‘pay’ to the application, is telling. The positives are there, along with major social disruptions. It would have been interesting to hear a little more about the unknown potential consequences. You mention gamification in regard to the environmental impact of global warming, etc., but a bit more elaboration there would have been useful. Good discussion. 17.5/20 (87.5%)
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