To make this exercise more manageable, you’re given a superpower- the wild imagination of Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, “one of the true geniuses of our time.”
Clarke was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist of outstanding ability, an inventor, an undersea explorer, and one of my favorite childhood authors. He co-wrote the screenplay for “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The movie touches on themes ike human evolution, artificial intelligence, technology, and, yes, aliens. What kid doesn’t like aliens?
The movie is considered one of the most influential films of all time. In 1991, it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Clarke’s imagination and science fiction writings earned him the moniker “Prophet of the Space Age.” Clarke not only won the highest science fiction honors, the Nebula and Hugo Awards but also received nominations for an Academy Award and the Nobel Peace Prize and was knighted for his services to literature.
Clarke made the movie in 1961, imagining what would happen in 40 years. So whether you think the film it’s boring, futuristic, or requires that you get stoned to watch it, it’s beyond the point. The idea is to imagine your life 40 years from now. And thanks to secret technology, you get 40 years added to your life expectancy.
Now to help your imagination even more, we’ll add these conditions to the film script you’re writing.
Now, imagine it’s 2062.
Where do you live? What do you do for work? How do you fill your leisure time?
I want to think that a typical day in 2062 looks like this:
If termites can do it, why can’t we?
In one of Arthur Clarke’s stories, he talks about an alien who observed humans learn their behavior so they could conquer them. He realized that humans are relatively easy to defeat. But he was startled by the behavior of termites which, once they realized he was a threat, attacked his ship and almost killed him. So he retreated from Earth to share with his alien tribe:
“They work, live, and die for the good of the state. To them the individual is nothing. With us, and with man, the state exists only for the individual. Who shall say which is right?”
Imagine what would happen if we all start acting as if it’s already 2062. Legendary founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, just gave away his company.
“Rather than selling the company or taking it public, Mr. Chouinard, his wife and two adult children have transferred their ownership of Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, to a specially designed set of trusts and nonprofit organizations. They were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe,” said the New York Times.
Your turn. What would you do?
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