It is year 2040, 9 AM in the morning on a bright sunny Sunday. I am enjoying my coffee and reading the headlines on my MyBox. “Your grandson has arrived”, MyBox announced. I saw my ten years old grandson outside my house getting out of his personal flying vehicle called MyRide. Oh, forget to tell you about the MyBox? It is a device that can be used to do many tasks like control security devices linked with security cameras, alarm system, scan eye retina, shopping, TV, internet, phone, starting/stopping of several appliances in the house etc. It is linked with other MyBoxes used by my wife, children and grandchildren, retrieves and processes data directly from satellite systems. You can also link with your social or work relationship people as well if needed. MyBox scanned and matched the input provided by the security camera system called MySecurity outside of my house with preloaded personal records and recognized it is my grandson. I clicked the flashing link on the screen “Open the front door”.
My grandson stepped into the house and heard from the indoor control system “Your grandpa is in his bedroom”. He moved towards my bedroom and in the meanwhile on his MyBox told his mother that he has reached my house.
He gave me a smile and said “Good morning Abbu” my grandchildren call me with this name (a word from our native language that stands for real father and I used it for my father. Now it is use as a token of love from all of my grandchildren). I am really happy to see him and open my arms and he ran and hugged me. Nothing could be better in this world than this magical feeling filled with warmth and happiness, I thought.
“How are you Abbu?” he inquired.
“I am fine, how is my little angel?” I always call him an angel.
“Fine, but not great” he replied.
“Why?” I asked.
“Mom does not allow me to travel to other cities on my personal vehicle and one of my best friend’s family moved due to his dad’s new job. I wanted to see him” he responded.
“Dear, I think it is for your safety” I told him.
“Yeah, but you know that how safe is it. Nobody can stop it, open it, no chance of accidents or even getting lost. It has all the maps preloaded” he exclaimed.
“Yes but all of these are technological devices which can sometimes fail?” I added.
“I am sorry grandpa but these machines are thoroughly tested and then sold and these are linked to the master computer at the manufacturer to keep updated. You can contact them with your MyBox and get help at any time” he kind of argued. I thought for a second, in my adulthood even, no children could have used this kind of explanation at all!
“You will not believe it but we weren’t able to drive a car until the age of 18 and above” I answered.
“18 or above to use a car, why there was age restriction to use technology? How do you go anywhere without your personal car, who will drive your car then” he was really surprised.
“I will tell you some of the things which were different than we see them today, but first would you please get me some more coffee from the kitchen as your grandma is not at home” I asked him.
He nodded and got me another cup of hot coffee and sat on my chair with the bed.
“It was 2015, I was a Grad Student at the University of Wisconsin Stout and doing my Masters in ICT. My children were 17, 14 and 9 at that time. It was an era when we had many technological advancements like internet, man’s existence in space, digital technology awareness”. That reminded me one of our professor gave us the same assignment talking to your second level of generation and explaining the differences of technological advancements between now and then.
I told him that “we had technological devices for personal use like laptops, tablets, cell phones separately not together like a MyBox that has all these facilities with many more additional features. We drove cars on roads with other cars and that was a reason for someone to have a driver’s license at the age of 18 or above. It was a responsibility to drive carefully otherwise your insurance rates would go
high. It was opposite to the use of flying cars that did not require insurance rather upgrade package with the supplier or manufacturer of these cars. We used internet a lot but some of the physical efforts were required to get things done on daily basis. We had to drive my children to school and back, and driving to work and home as well. We had to plan our vacations due to our children’s school holidays as it was also required to be physically present at the school. We had to book the flights in advance to lock good rates etc. It was not a practice for young children to study from anywhere they want”.
He was completely astonished and said “How would you actually live in such a backward era?” I laughed out loud and thought how my father would feel if he actually got to meet his grand grandson…” A very awful meeting”, I thought.
Then I closed the discussion and told him that my Sunday is almost free and let your mom know that I can accompany you and we can ride my flying car to go and see his best friend and also continue our discussion during our journey. He jumped with joy and gave me a kiss on my cheek and said “You are the best, Abbu!” Once again, I felt my heart filled with love and a joy as I moved out of the bed to change.
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I love reading about imagined technological advances in the future. You did a great job describing them!