top of page

Ordinary mornings in 2042

Anonymous

April 26, 2023

Ordinary mornings in 2042

This image was generated with Dream Studio AI.

7am, March 28th 2042:
My personal assistant wakes me up with my favorite workday song and turns on the coffee machine. An ordinary alarm clock would perfectly do the job, but the automatic coffee machine is convenient after all.
While I brush my teeth, my personal assistant displays daily news on the mirror in front of me. Scientists came up with a new way to efficiently store an infinite amount of energy. I guess we are close to reaching complete carbon-neutrality for electricity production (8 years ahead of the plan!).
The next article reports that the 4-day workweek which was implemented in the EU in 2035 shows promising results. People started exercising more, spent more time with their families, attended more cultural events and participated more in local politics. I would tend to confirm it in my own case.
The following article reports how the unified EU-wide social security system enables workers to swiftly move from one country to another with significantly less paperwork and administrative hurdles. I always wondered why it was not implemented earlier.
The next article discusses an ongoing problem in our society. Biotechnology has enabled humans to amplify their physical and cognitive abilities. These technologies became increasingly affordable (though still quite expensive), and it led to a dualistic society. I keep asking myself what we can do about it, probably nothing. We made a lot of progress in guaranteeing and protecting freedoms to choose our life paths, education, careers, whom we love, how we dress, which god we worship and so on and so on. I guess choosing to enhance our abilities is also part of these choices.
The last topic of my daily news review concerns the increase of retirement age. Apparently it's a side effect of the 4-day workweek. I guess I won't be retired before 2085 or something… But at least most bullshit jobs have been taken over by AI and automated systems and I have all the freedom to choose a professional activity that fulfills my life goals.

related stories

hallo
Distopia
A world without borders free from war and hunger with a multi-ethnic society where every individual is respected without any distinction between ethnicity, skin color and religion. A green society no more pollution where nature has resumed its spaces a true participatory democracy where everyone can freely express their ideas
hallo
Antti.n.roine@gmail.com
In 2040, Russia broke up into smaller states and China became a democracy. Prior to this, Russia has been at war, which has led to increased readiness and small border thorns also near the Finnish border. The World War could be avoided. Europe has been able to lighten the regulation that suppresses innovation, and the benefits of the common market have brought new prosperity to the whole region. Space tourism is still a utopia, but we dream of it. Artificial intelligence has reduced the need for labour, just like computers or the internet used to. The pain in society is that the top performers do well, but the less capable have fewer and fewer job opportunities and become passive. However, for political reasons, basic income has not been reached and there is a lot of this in the newspapers. Immigration has decreased and demographic trends have stabilised. The famine in Africa raises concerns and climate change puts pressure on population movements. The threat of war in the South is obvious. In the midst of the threats, I feel that already towards the end of my career I am financially safe thanks to entrepreneurship and hard work, and my children are doing well in a changed world. The future does not seem unproblematic, but disasters have, as before, been avoided.
hallo
Safety in EU
In the future European union will be a very beautiful and very safe space. We will have peace in the world and everything will be perfect. There will be a lot and really a lot of policeman everywhere there will be so very nice to everyone. There will be no conflict no fight especially no war will be very nice and safe. Space to live we will be friends with everybody. Nobody will try to hurt us. you could go for a walk in the middle of the night and feel safe. The streets will be brightly and there would be no feeling of being scared no fear not anything You’re perfect be perfect that’s it so I wish that European Union in 2040 will be very safe. this is my story goodbye.
hallo
lijepsi svijet
in 2040 we have an underground railway that will solve the problem of crowds in the city of Zagreb. we will also have underground garages and more libraries and educational programs so that our students have a comfortable learning environment. we will fight corruption and everyone will have the same opportunity to progress. we will move towards more respect for art as such. we will improve public health institutions so that everyone has access to medicine and medicine, not that we have to turn to private clinics that cannot all afford.
Join #OurFutures now!

The future is shaped by our ideas and our actions today. Tell us about your visions of the future and help us create a futures narrative aimed at inspiring citizens, policy-makers and foresight experts alike!

Our-futures-banner-coloured_v3.jpg

The European Commission support does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained.

ERA_logo.jpg

We support the European Research Area aimed at creating a single, borderless market for research, innovation and technology in the EU.

©OurFutures 2025, All rights reserved.

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
bottom of page