I found a facsimile in a bus station – it was a funny little tryptic illustrated in the fanciful science-fiction illustration style of the 1950s.
Friendly people in silver suits meeting and greeting others, in an futuristic space town hall full of glows, pastel structures and distant planets.
“Progress Forever”
“The world of tomorrow is at the tip of your fingers.”
The “world of tomorrow” is a remote utopia. In 2026, we -all humans- have a serious problem with technology.
Capitalism has destroyed the Internet. The access to information, the access to goods and services, to communities and opinions -in fact, anything we do online- has been monetized and paywalled beyond recognition, with very little to show for it.
In a generation we have changed the way the world lives, shops and eats. We have also gone from open dialogue and participation into a hellscape of scams, empty promises, subscriptions, spam emails and heartbreak.
The malignant nature of our species has been magnified.
We have become desensitized to a world of dangerous influences, terrible role-models, pay-and-never-own, and utter contempt for nature and the future of the planet.
Our intelligence as a collective has dropped sharply these last years. We have gone from reading paperbacks -and at least gaining a bit of knowledge in the process- to the rejection of outside contact,”doomscrolling” fake news, exaggerated claims and a great dose of advertising.
People walk in crowds with their eyes glued to the screen. Glued to inane content.
Technology is slowly killing us by making us stupid, complacent and disinterested. Ennui is the norm.
Artificial Intelligence is about to destroy the fabric of society -by taking away the relationship between work, subsistence and personal satisfaction.
The creative process is being taken away, and with it, progress and invention.
AI is changing our relationship with inspiration and creation of novel content.
Ideas and concepts that we thought as immutable are now in constant flux, ever rewritten to maintain continuity with the philosophy of the zeitgeist and the powers that be.
We have lost our battle with reality. This is the progress that we were promised.
The question will be: what will be there to fight for?