Socialist Networking: 2045

Please find here an assignment for my Literature class, in which I was supposed to design my own dystopia set 35 years from now, spiritually similar to that of Orwell’s 1984, written in 1949.  I had so much fun with it, I just wanted to share it.

In 2015, Timex created a timepiece that never needed batteries. By implanting a small LCD into a person’s wrist and harnessing the electrical impulses present in every person, the watch would work all by itself. In only a few years, the Timex Implant became a hit, and companies raced to improve upon the idea. The T2 Implant included RFID tags to allow for purchase transactions and GPS capability to change the clock based on time zone automatically. The T3 implant came about after Qualcomm was able to develop a Bluetooth transmitter that ran off a wristwatch battery. At a range of 30 meters, it was not strong enough to act as a cellular transmitter, but it could easily transmit to Wi-Fi networks or other transmitters within range. This opened the doors for information exchange from a small screen embedded on the user’s wrist, and Twitter was the first social networking site to support it natively.

In 2030, the science of trading electrical signals with the brain was perfected. A secondary implant, the Auxiliary Brain Transponder, or ABT, can communicate with the brain and emulate emotions and experiences. To reduce power consumption, its transponder range is only a few feet, but the ABT was made compatible with the T3, which could relay information over data networks. Twitter used this technology to introduce the first self-posting client, which would gather information from the ABT about what a person was currently doing, seeing, feeling, and transferring that data via the T3—along with GPS information—to automatically post on Twitter at regular intervals what someone was doing. Medical researchers created an application that would monitor vital signs and could immediately alert local 911 centers via connected Wi-Fi networks to emergencies on the fly.

The U.S. government contracted with Twitter to gain access to this raw brain pattern information in the name of national security. Tapping into this information when necessary facilitated the largest terrorist cell bust in American history to date. On September 11, 2036, the FBI, supported by the states’ National Guards and in conjunction with the CIA and local law enforcement, ran a sting operation across the nation that captured 1300 known or suspected terrorists. The government claimed that the data learned from their capture led to the prevention of 26 separate planned attacks aim at Americans or at structures on American soil. America celebrated by renaming the September 11^th holiday to “True Patriots’ Day.”

The new T4 implants include a small touchscreen for manual updates as well as the auto-ABT installments. It is standard to install an ABT before age 5 along with a T4 for controlling it, because all the current technology utilizes direct-brain sensualization to administer entertainment: movies, video games, music, and children’s educational materials are all delivered to the brain directly to simulate the experience of actually being there. In society, social networking became so commonplace that people began to become suspicious of those who refused to show their own updates. People who hid their updates from others were discriminated against openly, and accused of being everything from thieves to anarchists to terrorists.

In 2040, the Democratic slogan was “Americans Have Nothing to Hide,” and successfully ran a platform that promised regulation and release of the information gathered by social networks. The Democratic Party sued successfully in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act. The government could no longer keep all the information it gathered secret, but a loophole allowed for monitoring it for national security. This created a technicality in which all social networking was required to be handed to the government, and then must immediately become public information.

In 2044, Congress passed legislation that required all American citizens be equipped with ABTs and T4s, adding an identifier that could double as that citizen’s passport. Arizona soon followed up with a law that everyone who did not have the necessary ABT and T4 implants would be subject to immediate deportation.

So, by 2045, the United States requires all citizens to be equipped with Timex Fourth Generation implants and a paired Auxiliary Brain Transponder. These connect a citizen with their banking accounts and identification. The ABT regularly posts current activity information on the citizen every fifteen minutes for permanent display and archival on Twitter.gov. Law enforcement routinely scans offenders for their ABT information, and if not found, are taken to processing for verification that they are indeed a US citizen or national.

Okay, So It Works At Work..

Okay, time for another update.

Live Writer is a bugged out piece of software.  One I love a lot.  As Macness may tell you, I am (was) a client freak.  I love all kinds of software and gadgets installed on my computer, and love finding ways to make everything synchronize across multiple computers.

But, as you might tell from the (was), that’s been changing.  We use gmail here at Starraisers.com, and damn, after going with colored labels, I can never go back.  Google Reader is the best RSS feed reader I’ve ever dealt with (no god damn duplicates), and even Google Calendar is decent, minus some minor drawbacks (*coughCOLORCATEGORIEScough*).  Google Docs sucks, as I have to share things on a document by document basis, so I’m sticking with Microsoft Office Live for that.

So really, the only thing left client-wise on my computer, is Live Writer.  It has a lot of nice tools that I’m in love with, except for the fact that I can’t get my computer at home to recognize the theme.  The one at work does fine, but home doesn’t.  *sigh*

Writing update:  I have been deathly sick now for three weeks.  It started the day I went to Macness‘ house to setup the site.  Unfortunately, he and I believe his son got sick too, and I think its all my fault.  (Sorry!)  I plan to continue writing shortly.  I promised to take a look at a couple other stories first, and I fully intend to do that, they’re at the top of my list now.  I realized today that this is actually, technically my profession.  I’ve not just read and write, but studied the art of writing, taken classes on literature and style, etc.  I may not be an "expert" yet, but I’m as close to a professional as some folks have access to… It would be an honor to put my unbiased opinion down for those folks asking me.  You could say I have a responsibility to do so.

Or I’m thinking way too much of myself at the moment.  Ha~~

Either way, that’s the game plan.  I’m going to critique a couple other entries that were sent to me, and then, Chapter 6, here I come.