Graham’s prediction:
Everyone keeps talking about convenient deliveries. Deliveries! As if that’s what all those drones will be doing in twenty years. Look up. Imagine a hundred of them. A thousand. Watching every street, every field, every door.
By then, a handful of corporations will have bought the mines, the water and the politicians. Their machines will be tearing open the earth day and night. Their armed drones will be fighting over whatever is left. Forests? Gone. A village in the way? The company will call it an obstacle.
And the governments? They’ll be reading statements written by the same companies. “For your security.” You’ll hear that phrase everywhere. For your security, stay inside. For your security, don’t ask questions.
We’ll be living under machines that never sleep, while executives watch their profits rise. By the time people understand what has happened, they’ll have lost the power to stop it.
But yes. Your parcel will arrive on time.
Discuss
- Will drones make everyday life safer or give powerful organisations more control? How will people be using them?
- In twenty years, will governments or technology companies have more power? What will that mean for ordinary people?
- What will a more hopeful version of this future look like? How will people be using technology to protect communities and the environment?