2047...

 Think ahead to the year 2047...

World 1: identity

This is a world where people place a lot of value on identity. ICT, called "Explore the Unknown", helps people who are meeting each other for the first time to identify the characteristics of their self-identity, such as their political views, their sense of belonging, their art of expressing themselves, and so on, instead of traditional social constructions such as gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and age. Later, people use this ICT to build their communities and the world becomes a decentralized tribe.

Francis Fukuyama argues that the need for recognition acts as a significant historical driver. The recognition of self-identity plays the most important role in human relationships. Fukuyama asserted that there is a component of the soul that longs to be treated with respect, a concept from Plato called thymos. This might be seen as a call for equality (or "isothymia"), the yearning for superiority (megalothymia) is another way it shows up.

It is a bold statement that the #MeToo movement, Donald Trump, and Black Lives Matter are all the same phenomenon. Fukuyama introduces three steps; the first is a philosophical history of the inner self, especially the idea that people should express their inner selves and insist on demanding respect from society, rather than deferring to its judgments. 

Digital networking is not just about interaction. It is also a porous surface that is no longer used only for communication in the traditional sense, but also for the sender and receiver to negotiate what is real and what is not. Using it changes the rules of the game of political communication, even politics itself, while it also generates new types of negotiable identities, both at the individual and collective levels.

--- Ferran Sáez-Mateu

Fukuyama's second step is to claim that these ideas occupy much of the left, at least in the West, and that they demand justice for oppressed groups. The third is that, in the form of identity politics aimed primarily at whites, this same form of politics has now gained a foothold on the Western right. Its market is not the poorest in society, but those who have declined in relative status - the lower middle or working class, more from rural than urban areas, those who used to think they were at the center of politics but now feel disdained by the elite.

"The emergence of an ‘American democratic empire’, rising from the global informational and transportation revolution, that has its epicentre situated on the territory of the United States (US), has produced a profound metamorphosis in world affairs.  National power elites, including those in America, are confronting a dilemma.  They are compelled to accept, favour and even defend the so-called globalisation process in order to avoid further erosion of their economic and political power.  On the other hand, this process is also directly threatening this same power.  The paradox is that the US is the main promoter and defender of last resort of the new global ‘order’, which at the same time is restricting its own margins for sovereign action.  The ‘democratic empire’ is thus fostering the rise of a democratic hegemonism at the expense of a ‘US hegemonism’.  This democratic hegemonism is a gradually rising—and fragile—consensus on a proliferating set of perceptions and values, stressing individual freedom, responsibility and political and social activism.  This consensus arises from the material possibilities of a more individualistic way of life and the increasing capacity of single individuals or organised groups to participate in global and local political decision-making processes.  This is a process that favours the empowerment of interest groups whose reference is no longer solely the nation-state.  Hence, traditional power elites are progressively losing their ability to present themselves as the ultimate embodiment of a national ‘general interest’."  (pp.243)

--- Alfredo G A ValladãoI

FINANCIAL TIMES

World 2: Virtual 

A world organized around a collective practice of the interdependence between people and virtual worlds. In this world, cities become empty and people connect with acquaintances, friends, and strangers in virtual worlds. People express political opinions and All the actions and thoughts of people in this world can be done through the virtual world.

Due to the popularity of concepts such as work-from-home and online meetings induced by the global COVID-19 pandemic, people are hungry for the right information to connect effectively and efficiently. Many organizations are scrambling to create virtual meetings and events in order to save time and save on infrastructure budgets. People are starting to adapt to everything about virtualization, the use of mobile devices is everywhere and everything, and young children now have unprecedented access to mobile media technologies, youth are shopping, touring, having virtual clothing, showcasing themselves through APPs such as Tik-Tok, and playing virtual-reality games which all takes places in the virtual world. They enjoy their idealized selves and build their idealized worlds to connect with people. Things matter when they can be posted online to perfect their online personas. Then maybe things do not play an important role eventually when they are not in the virtual world. 

virtual world

The next 25 years?: future scenarios and future directions for education and technology

K. Facer, R. Sandford        12 January 2010

Facer & Sanford published an article called The next 25 years?: future scenarios and future directions for education and technology, exploring the socio-technical developments that the next 25 years are likely to bring in 2010. 

"Creating the personal cloud"

"In the near future, the capacity to connect to a network and be constantly connected to knowledge, resources,  people and tools will be taken for granted in most countries with a robust technology infrastructure.  Individuals will have the capacity to remain in ‘perpetual contact’ with diverse networks and communities,  both physical and virtual.  The rise in mobile and  personal technologies and the lowering of barriers to  data storage mean that individuals are increasingly  likely to ‘wrap’ their information landscape around  themselves rather than managing it through institutions (for reviews exploring these first two issues,  see Cliff et al. 2008;  Goodings 2009;  Horst 2009;  Jewitt 2009;  Reich 2009;  Riley 2009;  Young & Muller 2009)." (pp.83)

Internet is now being used by 5.07 billion people worldwide, 63.5 percent of the world's population. At the same time, the significance of Web Accessibility has been stressed to guarantee that persons with disabilities can access the internet. People have the opportunity to not control their information landscape through institutions as a result of the advent of mobile and personal technology and the reduction of data storage obstacles. A very recent example of how the personal cloud is viable can be the Chinese protest. A report from MIT Technology Review explained the social phenomenon. 

Protests against China's strict Covid control measures have swept social media over the past week, with one Twitter account, @LiTeacherNotYourTeacher, serving as the main source of information. People across China sent protest videos and live updates via private messages to the account, which also posted them on their behalf - careful to keep sources anonymous in a time of widespread fear and uncertainty. They were afraid of revealing their identities online due to the Chinese government's regulations and censorship. In this way, every individual's information and personal clouds can be spread without political censorship and institutions. At the peak of the weekend event, Li received dozens of submissions every second. His Twitter account is now a central hub for information about the protests, gaining more than 600,000 followers in the past week. 

In the end, I believe that almost everyone has perceived that our world is moving extremely fast towards polarization and virtualization, will there be anything to stop people from stepping on the end of the Tower of Babel? How can humans understand each other?