Letters from the future

Some of the trends that ran through our letters from the future are

• social stratification
  
• global warming
  
• technological proliferation.
  

We all imagine devices in the future to become smaller, more powerful, and ultimately, serve human convenience. Some of our visions were darker, others more hopeful. However, interestingly enough, none of us really explored the idea of full integration of technology into the human body. We seemed to go straight to brain implants and bioenhancement, skipping the older stereotypical visions of cyborgs – human minds in mechanical bodies.

There are multiple reasons why a letter from the future can yield more interesting ideas than a research paper on the same subject.

A letter requires personal involvement, whereas a report is expected to be detached and perhaps more careful in its predictions.

A report may be more realistic, but a letter allows for some exaggeration, which can be useful as well. In a letter we can carry concepts and predictions much further out in order to have a sharper, more striking image of the trend’s development.