Re-imagined: Life in 2100.

When you’re fed up with the current state of affairs, sometimes to let off some steam you let yourself imaginatively rethink the whole lot. Below are my completely impractical (and some assuredly impossible) solutions for some of the most common bits of every day life, and my answer to the question “what will the world look like in 2100?”

Impractical solutions for real problems: the world in 2100

Cell phones

Flowers. Phones are now flowers. Okay? Re-branded as flones, they can be slipped into a pocket, rest romantically on a desktop, or function as a summer hair accessory. When gathered together, they are often arranged into bouquets (and indeed, flone bouquet arrangement becomes a burgeoning area of study, art, and philosophy). If you hold it up to your ear, the flone whispers your messages in the most cheerful of sing-song ways. By putting it to your eye, like a monocle, you can view images; at your mouth it becomes a microphone. Flones open when the sun rises and automatically shut down when the sun sets (as a result, in a complete surprise turn of events, humans start looking directly at one another in the evenings and find that they enjoy it very much and also that their necks feel much better). Flones are generally grown at home from seed, with a huge assortment of colours and flower types to choose from. Corn-cockles, Scurfpeas and Spiny-leaved Sow-thistles become all the rage in 2050, before a throw-back Hydrangea trend takes over the flone fashion scene in 2053.

Lamps

Electronic indoor fireflies twinkling about the room with an adjustable warm yellow glow.

Cars

Glass-bottomed and frying through the air! Yes, you read that right: flying vehicles that fry eggs off their solar-powered glass bottoms. Because of this frying ability, they are colloquially known as frars. The shape and size of each craft is custom built to its passengers’ needs: a round bubble-filled jacuzzi; a sleek hexagon-shaped cocktail bar; a library nook complete with dark mulberry velvet wingback chair and the musty smell of old books. The one thing all frars have in common is that their bodies are completely clear—like window glass—so from below it looks like people are literally “flying by the seat of their pants”.

Frars fly using bumblebee technology, with thousands of tiny fast-beating wings powered by solar energy and navigated via the often-overlooked method of olfactory wayfinding (i.e. navigating by scent or smell). Since vehicles are primarily used for pleasure, their slow and meandering (“bumbling”) paths are generally seen as a perk. Adrenaline junkies get their kicks hopping from one frar to another in mid-flight (known as frar leaping, not to be confused with frar diving, which is similar in practice, if not intention, to frar falling). All humans are in constant possession of a tiny parachute bag, which automatically inflates at 6,000 feet, and comes with a complimentary sandwich. Once activated, the parachute navigates you to a lot where you are given a new parachute bag (and another sandwich) before being sent along your merry way.

Sidewalks

Everything is a sidewalk. YOU CAN WALK ANYWHERE. There are no “designated” walkways, no private property, and definitely no “DO NOT TOUCH THIS GRASS” signs: almost every which way is a walking way! Concerned about run-ins between pedestrians and vehicles in this mayhem of paths? No need! The frars, as previously mentioned, are all flying crafts: the worst a pedestrian might suffer is the occasional slosh of bubbly water falling from an overhead floating jacuzzi.

Buildings

In part to help absorb carbon emissions from past generations, all urban buildings are “built” using living trees. The term “architect” becomes synonymous with “Master Arborist” as black walnut, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and scarlet oak are coaxed to intertwine into 800-foot tall wooded skyscrapers. Gardens are planted along each buildings’ branches, providing most of the ingredients for its occupants’ meals. Majestic waterfalls cascade down the entire length of these 800-foot structures (cleaned and treated through their inherent hydro-power) providing both water and air-conditioning to the occupants, as well as a cooling mist, constant rainbows, and new extreme sports.

Pets

There are no pets. Dogs are free citizens, cats are free agents (I mean, they always were free agents but now it’s become officially so), and crows have the same rights as seven-year-olds. Many of the smallest and cutest of dogs volunteer for the Pawtrol, a worldwide replacement for the police after the latter’s dismantlement in the infamous Fluff vs. Fuzz vote of 2025. The Pawtrol maintain the peace and deescalate situations through cuteness. In return for this service, every citizen is at all times required to carry treats, to be immediately dispensed to any paw patrolling the area.

Oil and gas

The graveyards of dinosaurs are finally left in peace after the Great Dino Ghost Apocalypse of 2022. Fed-up with their bad luck in life and the besmirching of their remains in death, giant dinosaur ghosts rise up from their oil field graves and begin a nightly rampage of protest in the winter of 2022. Dilophosauruses haunt the oil sands, ghostly Triceratops’ crash through drilling rigs like a herd of prehistoric elephants, and zombie-like Velociraptors gnash their teeth at the foot of oil execs’ beds. Within a span of only 2 months every oil operation in the world has been abandoned. However, it should be noted that the dino hauntings don’t officially end until the summer of 2032, when red-eyed oil companies have cleaned every tailing pond, recycled every piece of rusted equipment, and apologized to every individual human, wolf, caribou and water creature in the area (the fish, in particular, take a long time to find and contact).

Dismantle and re-imagine

You can’t just get rid of the stuff that doesn’t work: you have to create something new in its place. As inspiring teacher, coach and writer Andréa Ranae notes on Instagram, “Dreaming is a necessary part of revolution”. The things above are just some of the things I’ve been imaginatively dreaming about lately.

What new worlds have you been dreaming up?