Stories

2100

---

The alarm went off at 6 am as usual. Ashok was already awake before that, as usual. He always awoke just before the alarm was set to go off. It was the body clock. Many times, he wondered why he bothered to set the alarm. But it had become a habit for him. Even though he lay awake in his bed, he opened his eyes only after the alarm went off. He could see the sun rise over the eastern shore of the river. His 180 degrees dome in his home, 216 stories above the ground, in a lavish 3500 square feet flat in Mumbai was set to the live feed from Seine river, Paris. Paris was his favourite city. He never missed the Seine river cruise whenever he went to Paris, which was often.

Next to him, Aditi was asleep, immune to the sound of alarm. Ashok switched off the alarm by a mind command. He always liked to control everything by giving mind commands. Aditi preferred voice commands. She hated wearing that skull cap which enabled control of devises through thoughts, even though, you hardly ever felt the presence of that thin skullcap.

Today was April 24, 2100. It was Ashok’s 140th birthday today. As he sat up in his bed, the Parisian scene changed to a vibrant multicoloured display. Rafi’s famous song, “happy birthday to you”, filtered through the bedroom. Aditi sat up in the bed and said,
“Happy birthday darling.”

They hugged and kissed each other. They sat in bed, enjoying the moment. Finally, Ashok got up. He went to his bathroom. On his way, he commanded Sonu, his personal robot, to prepare tea for them. Sweety, Aditi’s personal robot, was pre-programmed the night before to prepare breakfast. Both the robots were programmed to clean the house, change the bed sheets, curtains etc. and to carry out routine household chores.

Ashok opened the door to the terrace which overlooked the Arabian sea. It was a sunny day. The sunrays were glinting off the sea water. In the last five years, many hi-rise towers had come up next to Ashoka, their own tower. Fortunately, Ashoka was just on the sea shore and they had an uninterrupted view of the sea. Ashok sat down in the garden chair under the sun umbrella. The water of his own swimming pool in front of him, was looking cool and inviting.
Aditi joined him, followed by Sonu, bringing the tea service.

“Good morning and happy birthday, Ashok saheb.” Sonu intoned in his metallic voice. He setup the tea service and withdrew.
“I still remember your 60th birthday in 2020.” Aditi said. “I never imagined we would live to see 2100 at that point of time. But technology has done wonders to our lives. We of course, were lucky and healthy enough to live till 2045 on our own. Everything changed by that time.”
“And what a life we have had. I think we can live for ever, barring accidents or some catastrophes.”
“But do you want to live for ever? That is the question we have been debating over and over again. Live, for what? What is the purpose?” Aditi said.
“Currently, not everyone is able to live like we do. There is still poverty, diseases, unequal distribution of wealth. Not everyone is able to live up to 150. Only those who have access to technology are able to do that. No doubt average life span has improved. But still…”
“Yeah, you are right,” Aditi said.” We can still contribute in a meaningful way. That is there. Anyway, let us not worry about future right now. Let us enjoy your birthday, darling! Let us go for a swim.”
Both Ashok and Aditi stripped naked and jumped into the pool. Both easily reached the other end of the pool with powerful strokes. They hauled themselves up and sat dangling their feet it water. Every time, Ashok saw Aditi naked, he marvelled at her figure. He himself was fully fit, no doubt. His mind went back to 2020. The entire world was plunged into a crisis as a result of deadly virus which spread to all corners of the world. Many people died. There was no vaccine or cure for the virus at that point of time. But the entire world fought back as one. They prevented the spread by total isolation for months together. Scientists raced against time. A vaccine was found. Medicines were developed as a result of co-ordinated research. Mankind survived. But economy took a large toll. It took couple of years to things to get back to normal. But something good came out of this crisis. Everyone changed their mental outlook. There was even more emphasis on technology development on every front. More money was devoted to development. But three critical developments changed the world.

First was the stem cell technology. Its importance was already established by that time. It was theoretically possible to regenerate every human organ and human fluids like blood etc., using stem cells. Problem was controlling the growth of cells. But through research, scientists finally mastered this technique. By 2030, it was possible to recreate most of the human organs by extracting and using everyone’s own stem cells. 3D printing was used to recreate and replace human organs. This brought down the death rate of humans. Blood too was artificially created.

The second breakthrough came in solar power technology. By artificially replicating the photo-synthesis process, solar energy was harnessed. This replaced all conventional energy sources.

Third major break-through was room temperature superconductor. This super-metal changed the rules of energy transmission. The power loss was completely eliminated. The improvements in other technologies also helped. Robots became household items. They started doing all laborious jobs, leaving humans free to use their minds more creatively. Social distancing observed in the 2020 crisis taught humans to carry out more and more work from home. Transportation needs plummeted. Air quality improved.

A push from Aditi dumped Ashok into the pool again. Aditi jumped in behind him and started chasing him. Both frolicked in the pool for some time. She got out of the pool and stood there waiting for Ashok to join her. Ashok lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bedroom, kissing her all the time. They made love like never before. Their once floundering sex life was rejuvenated thanks to stem cell technology.

Ashok and Aditi completed their toilet and showered in their private bathrooms. The automated medical toilets did the routine urine and stool analysis. A full body scan was performed while they were showering, where streaming water was used as a conducting medium during the scans. By the time both of them walked out into the 180 degrees dome their medical reports were ready.

Though their house had four fully equipped bed rooms, they preferred to use the dome as living room during the day and as bedroom in the night. A combination of super-metal technology, magnetic levitation and high-tech metallic glass shape memory alloy material was used to make the automatic command driven conversion from bedroom to living room possible within minutes. All of this happened while they were showering.

As they sat at the dining table, waiting for Sweety to serve their breakfast, micro-speaker embedded in Ashok’s ear tingled, indicating an incoming video call. Ashok commanded the projector screen to turn on. Ravi and Mrunal were calling from their home a few blocks away.
“Many happy returns of the day, Ashok.” Both Ravi and Mrunal intoned in unison.
“Thank you.” Ashok said.

Four of them chatted for a while. Similar scenarios were repeated when Vinya and Kalindi called in to greet their father. Ashok had already received countless birthday greetings from his friends scattered all over the globe and indeed the universe. A few of his friends were living in colonies on the Moon.
An electronic voice interrupted, telling them that their medical reports were normal. This was no surprise to either of them. They were completely healthy and fit for the last twenty years or so. Twenty years back, Ashok’s heart was replaced by a new heart, 3D printed using his Stem cells. Since then, he was hale and hearty. Modern medicine had kept them in the pink of health.

After breakfast, both Ashok and Aditi went to their respective “offices”. Both worked from home, Ashok on his software development and Aditi on her art creations. They rarely ventured out of the home for office work. Sonu and Sweety managed their home, looking after everything from purchases of provisions to bill payments. An up-to-date electronic status report about home matters was available to both of them on 24/7 basis.

They were going on vacation to Hawai in a couple of days. They were planning to use their own vertical take-off solar powered auto-pilot mini jet currently siting at the airport. Travelling to airport using self-driven car was not a problem at all. The car was presently siting in the garage next to their house on 216th floor. They were planning to stay at “The beach resort”, part of a chain of resorts around the world in which Ashok was a minority share- holder.

After looking at the flood of emails, Ashok looked at the news reports from all over the world. His main interest was always in the local news. Mumbai was getting de-congested fast, partly due to mushrooming of other mega-towns nearby and also due to tendency of people to stay relatively secluded and enjoy peaceful life. All the slums of 2020 were long gone. People’s living standards were elevated. Everybody had enough for themself, something that was unimaginable in 2020’s. Crime rate was negligible. Average life expectancy was around 110 years, again barring accidents, even though mortality rates in accidents had dropped down considerably. The governments existed only for the namesake. Administration controlled the cities. Very little governance was need anyway.

Ashok and Aditi were eagerly looking forward to their days in sun and sand.

Author’s note: The scenario depicted in the story is an imagination of the author, though it is not far-fetched. Most of the technologies mentioned do exist today, albeit in their infancy. Some prototypes are present in research laboratories around the world. It is predicted that the mortality rates will plunge dramatically by 2045. So, if you can survive all the pandemics to live through 2045, who knows?????

Further reading: Physics of the future; Prof Michio Kaku