Lockdown 1.0, 2020: Please do digital things now, offline is illegal, people are illegal. Lockdown 4.0, 2023: Locking away all digital things & AI, all that I have left in my life now.

Anonymous

June 7, 2023

Lockdown 1.0, 2020: Please do digital things now, offline is illegal, people are illegal. Lockdown 4.0, 2023: Locking away all digital things & AI, all that I have left in my life now.

This image was generated with Dream Studio AI.

It is the year 2040. I am struggling to make ends meet, here, in the US, the place I immigrated to in 2024. I meet a crazy old professor - he invented a time machine! I travel back to the year 2023 to make a change in this form, stating how in 2020, my job was cancelled, and then I was sent into solitary confinement without a crime for two years. I have lost all real-life relationships I've had, I explain, telling a sad tale of Lockdown and the fact that my parents died years ago - I have no family, I was a persona non grata, I was illegal, and without a job. But it is also a story of hope, I explain, because I have adjusted, I am fighting for myself, and now I consider myself to be "AI & I". I use generative AI in many forms, and it is roughly a third of my income right now. Just yesterday I have used GPT4 / ChatGPT to fix a piece of code I would have had trouble fixing in less than an hour, I said! And I said that I am now very afraid of another Lockdown. After I have died the social death, I am afraid of a Lockdown first happening in Italy, and then shortly after, grasping Germany. This time, a digital Lockdown. First my social life was destroyed, and now I feel hunted again, afraid of losing my income, AGAIN, to Lockdown 4.0. I continue, saying how the only positive thing about this is - the fact that I can run away from the Lockdown, and even years later, from another country, when I am legal to use ChatGPT again - the AI will be the same! It will not be destroyed like my social relationships, I just need to run away to get access in a better place, so I can keep my job! But I am very afraid of an avian flu lockdown, I explain, because that would be a double-lockdown. I would be locked up without a job, without help, without friends, without anything. I am afraid of losing my mental and physical existence this time, I pleaded, hoping somebody would hear me, think twice. Or if I should really try my best to run away to the USA, just so I am safe from the deadliest Lockdown ever, the Lockdown 4.0, that has even more of a risk - a solid chance I will not be able to survive this one....

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kari.porttila@gmail.com

In 2030, there was a war in Europe involving the use of tactical nuclear weapons in a restricted area. As a result of the war, dozens of cities were destroyed, and nuclear pollution spread to the territories of warring parties and neutral countries under the influence of winds, causing a large number of civilian casualties. As the consequences became widely known throughout the world, the demand for a total ban on nuclear weapons arose. This led, especially in the nuclear powers, to the fall of governments and, in a few years, to the deactivation of nuclear weapons everywhere. In 2040, atomic power was harnessed exclusively for civilian use - mainly for the production of energy and heat. The main focus is on local small-scale power plants, whose patent rights are freely available to all countries. Fossil energy use has decreased significantly: or in very sparsely populated areas, it remains the most advantageous option overall. Even the smog that plagued China's big cities has practically disappeared. At the same time, green construction in urban areas has taken over the sector in almost every part of the world. The roofs of the apartment buildings are like gardens. The use of geothermal heat has become more common, while fields and forest squares covered with solar panels have been restored to their natural state. Wind farms are set up either at sea or further away from settlements, although higher installation and energy transmission costs cause critical debate.

denisgrnt@yahoo.ie

Here we are in 2040 I am now 83 years young and glad to be here the changes I have seen since times gone by are unleavable and let me explain some of them to you now. The government we now have work for the people and not themselves the wages now meet the cost of living needs, the fuel of petrol and diesel are now like gold dust to buy but the cars that run on these fuels now are nearly extinct and cost more than our EVs to buy now. Cleaner environment for us all to live in. The housing market is better now more houses are being built and at affordable costs not much poverty about at these times and we should thank god for that. Now some of the downfalls of this era are computers they control everything now we shop online now no more going to the supermarket the times of our local pubs are gone we are controlled by robots and AI this for me is hard to take I miss some of the old times open fires snow fall good summers and lots more are our times changing for better our worse YOU TELL ME.

Positive briller

I hope all the war in Europe will be over and the situation has calmed down again. I hope Europe's economy flourishes and trade across national borders just flows. I also hope that a lot has happened in the field of renewable energy with solar cells, wind turbines and hydrogen cars. I hope that hydrogen has become well intertwined in Europe

Brezkompromisna

I want a world without wars and terrorism, but the reality is that there will be more and more of this. Digital literacy will be much more developed, as will artificial intelligence. Future generations will be more protective of their environment and nature, as it shows us our teeth over the years and will even more remind us by 2040 that we are destroying it too much. The poor will be poorer, the rich will be richer.

#OurFutures

Lockdown 1.0, 2020: Please do digital things now, offline is illegal, people are illegal. Lockdown 4.0, 2023: Locking away all digital things & AI, all that I have left in my life now.

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