Today is the day after Christmas. Did you get some spiff new gadgets? Something to play with? Something to make life better?
Do you remember the 1950’s “house of tomorrow”? Do you remember the vision of the future from the Golden Age of Science Fiction when we were all supposed to work less? have push button convenience in all areas of our lives? drive flying cars?
Several mechanical innovations have changed the way humans live. Where would we be without the wheel? the weaving loom? the cotton gin? This set of writing prompts/ideas revolve around innovations that might come about.
1. Imagine if we had teletransporters and cars were only a luxury item for entertainment. A person could live in Fiji and work in Los Angeles. Education, entertainment, friends, and shopping could be anywhere in the world. Parking lots could become groves of trees and urban gardens.
2. Imagine if we all never left our homes and lived virtually with all of our supplies delivered to the house, employment happening online, and we could create avatars to represent ourselves anyway we chose. How do you think people would choose to represent themselves? How would people socialize? What would happen to ideas of family? Marriage?
3. Imagine if we could directly link to a computer through our cerebral cortex and did not need a tablet or laptop. What would happen to dreams?
4. What if cybernetic parts could just continually replace worn out organs? At what point would a person remain a person or be designated an artificial intelligence? Where does a person’s identity and sense of humanity reside?
5. Androids that are impossible to distinguish from real humans are developed. Would they be released and sold? Would there be a protest? Would people accept the androids? Would there be a demand that they be made to look less human?
Have fun writing! More writing prompts can be found at Jo-anne Odell’s Blog at http://www.jmodell.blogspot.com/