Selected Essays

Essay 1: A Glimpse into a Post-covid Future

«Sujin, what is the weather like today?»
«Good Morning! Zurich is currently 14°C and awaits a 60% probability of rain at 6 pm. You have 5 minutes to leave home if you want to be on time for the meeting!»

Sipping the rest of my coffee, I rush away from the table. Before going out, I still have to do my daily testing. I take a clip on my finger.
«Your test is registered. You can go!» confirms Sujin.

I leave home and sit in the back of my car. On the way to Höngg, I have 20 minutes to scroll down through my blood testing and prepare my meetings while my self-driving car drives me to ETH. My watch reads out the blood test result while I launch my tablet: my blood sugar is a bit high, and my virus vulnerability is around 5%, which means that I don't have to wear a mask today. What a relief it is to know everything about your body just with one click! I almost forget about the uncertain times during the COVID situation and look through the window: we leave the residential area and drive through the vertical farms: tall greenhouses, some for aquaponic vegetation and others for cattle, separate the residential area from the urban center. Ten years ago, we reached the critical level of ozone in the atmosphere. Since then, we were building these greenhouses as the excessive earth-farming industry became way too polluting and was not sustainable in its land occupancy anymore.

Arrived in the parking, I plug in my car into a charger and head to our office. At the entrance, I have to pass through a glowing corridor of UV sterilization light that cleans from any bacteria I might bring in the public zones. I work for the chair of AI structures, and this morning, I have to assist in testing the building robots that could fulfill all the dangerous manual tasks on the construction site.

Today is the only day of the week I have to be physically on campus to assist in some important meetings that will not be possible virtually. Most of the time, I don't need to be in the office, which makes my time management very flexible. We have become entirely independent of physical places and time schedules, focusing on the quality and the amount of our work.

At noon, I take the «tele-tram» that brings me down to Limmatpatz within 5 minutes. The city center is now accessible only with electric public transport. However, there are now many attractive coworking centers in the city that are free for public use, and to get there, you have to book an entry to avoid overcrowding. They adapted the previous old-fashioned offices and installed hierarchy-free working zones with numerous cafés, sports centers, and other social facilities. Coworking zones are places of social and professional exchange, offering an opportunity to meet new people out of your daily circle of contacts.

Today in 2040, we stress more than ever the need for spaces to escape from home routine and to change the scenarios of our daily life.

Essay 2: Monitoring and Self-optimization

English translation

«Good morning, it's 8:12 a.m.,» an androgynous voice gently whispers in my ear. I am awakened by a neuroimplant (NI) in my brain, which has calculated from my vital signs that after exactly 7 hours and 33 minutes the right moment has come to wake me up. Today I chose birdsong and vanilla scent as my wake-up stimulant.

Still lying in my natural latex bed, which uses Smart Dust sensors to record my sleep movements and optimizes hardness and temperature, I read the news projected directly onto my retina. I'm worried about the Swiss AI army on the rise again. A group of cyber-soldiers simply overrode master commands and fortunately tried in vain to reprogram killer drones to recognize and target specific people for death. Dieter Bohlen died and uploaded his brain to the cloud. Not much better.

I may already be 65 years old, but I'm far from retirement. Statistically, I still have 45 years ahead of me. Thanks to the introduction of the basic income ten years ago, I can finally dedicate myself to what really interests me, be creative, take care of the family. Surveillance and self-optimization have become second nature to all of us. But like many people of my generation, every now and then I simply turn off my brain-computer interface.

Since my cortisol level is high today, I get lukewarm seaweed muesli as a breakfast suggestion. I sigh, but don't protest against it. My Robutler is still charging, so I get up and prepare breakfast myself. Luckily, I enjoy manual work, as my NI confirms. On the windowsill I have a bioreactor that grows different kinds of algae and meat for me.

While cleaning up, I find an analog newspaper article from the year 2020. It is about the then new Corona pandemic. I smile a little mockingly. How naive we were! True, the coronaviruses had finally turned into harmless cold viruses by the mid-2020s. But in 2035, returnees from the Mars vacations introduced a very resistant super-fungus that grows and thrives magnificently in our subtropical climate. Fortunately, a promising antidote is being developed at the Department for Pandemic and Suprahuman Technologies at ETH Zurich, where I volunteer. Meanwhile, my husband has been campaigning for 20 years to have the exam session in the summer pushed forward by two weeks.

A vibration in my forehead reminds me of my daily schedule. The self-driving «Ruber» takes me to the other end of town to herd the grandchild. My daughter wants to load basic Norwegian into the language center today. She needs them for an environmental project in Scandinavia, coordinating the resettlement to the mainland of inhabitants of the archipelago islands, which are now below sea level. If she is lucky, she will be able to meet in person with Greta Thunberg-Musk, the prime minister of the newly formed state of Norschwegen two years ago. My daughter's husband has to take it easy at the moment: they have decided that he will carry the second child so that she can take care of her career.
 

Essay 3: The Smell of Coffee remains good

English translation

The sun rises on time at 7:54, but I can‘t see it. Winter fog lies over the city of Zurich today, 2 December 2040. My 20-year-old coffee machine is still doing its job – one of the constants in my daily routine. My kids Hannah and Leah come sleepily out of their rooms. Their daily routine is always a bag of surprises for me. Both are entrepreneurs. Hannah develops new offers for permanent guests looking for hideaways in Switzerland, Leah offers learning units for children via a platform. The place of work plays a role and yet none. Interaction with clients, ah no, partners, is online, physical, or a combination thereof. However, Leah and Hannah say no good relationship has ever been built without physical contact. I agree with them. How do we strengthen relationships? With shared experiences. This requires the involvement of as many senses as possible, something that even our robot buddies can‘t fully compensate for. The all-important human essence is missing.

Over our morning coffee, we are once again having a discussion about values – which is not really a discussion, since there is nothing for us to discuss: we only work with people with whom we share our values, and they have been the same for 20 years. What has changed in the 20 years is the way we deal with space – we love the fast-paced life in the city, in the cramped, almost unaffordable apartment. ETH Zurich has long since moved its main location, what remains is the gray-brown facade. Inside, nightlife pulsates, even during the day. I never made friends with it... Anyways, half the time we spend in our hideaway in the mountains, also priceless – connected with loved ones, connected with friends. Mobility? On demand, when it‘s most convenient. As undisturbed as possible and certainly not at the wheel ourselves. My data? The new gold – I control a large part of it and make good money with it. Its currency? Irrelevant, since geographical borders no longer play a role here. Most countries have given up their own currency. The good thing? We are close to internalizing global environmental burdens and distributing the costs efficiently. Is it too late for us humans? No, I‘m confident, and I‘ll be happy if my daughters decide to give rise to another generation someday.

Essay 4: The Future of Today is Happening Tomorrow

Another beautiful, but hot April day. About 20 years ago, April was the beginning of spring with mild temperature, and nature slowly waking up after winter. In 2040, summer is the only season of the year... I am 36 years old and work at the University of Zurich. My role as an event coordinator gained importance after Covid-19 pandemic had ended because social events are the only opportunity to shake other people’s hands. All other aspects of studying and working on campus are held online for the reason of cost-efficiency, flexibility and reduction of CO2.

If you cannot remember these old times when classes and examinations took place on campus, or you cannot even imagine this because you were born within the last 2 decades, visit the main building of ETH Zurich – it has transformed its library and a few classrooms into exhibitions with holograms which move, talk and behave like people from the before-2020 era.

As an employee of UZH and a student of ETH, I can work and study from home, or I can use one of hundreds of booths located in the entire Zurich region: in a busy city center, at a quiet lakeside, facing Zurich Opera or an endless meadow with cows – different locations offering a variety of sources of inspiration.

Today, I need the hectic spirit of Paradeplatz to inspire me, so I am choosing a booth there. The booths are made of glass and equipped with everything you need to be productive and feel good. Travelling in Zurich has never been more convenient before: Zurich is finally a non-smoking and advertisement-free city. Oh, and public transportation is free of charge!

The world in 2040 is graphene-dominated one. Devices, clothing, almost everything we use every day, are based on graphene. Even my Walkman, which is enjoying a second life and a tremendous popularity. By the way, people who still have the first Walkman launched by Sony in the 20th century, can sell it now and make a fortune. I should probably check my parents’ attic...

Let’s get back to the city again. There are certainly fewer vehicles than ever before; especially trucks because Galaxus, COOP (yes, they still exist) and others use the cargo sous terrain (CST) system and goods are transported under the ground. The way we do shopping has changed, too. On my way home later today, I will stop by at one of many interactive boards located literally everywhere. I will select the items I need for dinner that evening, place my finger with a built-in chip with personal data on a sensor and ... voilà! I’ve just paid and confirmed the address where goods need to be delivered. They may be next to my door before I arrive, delivered from the CST station to my home address by a robot. Robots are very friendly. They are hard-working and, therefore, have a very strong representation lobbying for their rights. Some people are saying that we should not worry since rights for robots are a song of the future. But the future of today is happening already tomorrow.