Recently, I'd been wondering what life on earth would be like in another fifty years and not being sure I'd still be around, decided that I wanted to have a peek - just in case - and made it a project for the past weekend. So it was that at precisely 9AM on Sunday, I dusted off my time machine that I'd built two years ago but never really tested, and prepared to project myself into the future. As I felt my body being drawn into what I could only describe as a whirling mass, I knew that when I opened my eyes again it would be exactly 9AM on October 26,2058.
“Wow! I feel great for 119“. Startled by my own voice but still suffering the effects of jet lag, I opened my eyes and looked around. Struck by the change in the landscape, I momentarily wondered where on earth I had landed? I shortly established however that not only was I in my old hometown, but my time machine had placed me on precisely the spot that I'd left fifty years earlier. The reason for my confusion soon became clear as I looked over the landscape and realized that the ocean had claimed much of the land that I'd once walked on. I immediately attributed this to the melting of the ice caps. “Ah” I thought, “so Al Gore was right about global warming“. Momentarily I wondered what a map of the earth would look like.
Looking at the houses, I was fascinated by the odd shapes, and decided to make a few inquires. As I pondered the thought, two gentlemen of indeterminable age, obviously out for a morning stroll came into view, and I hastened to introduce myself. Styles of dress had clearly changed and I felt myself being observed with bemused smiles. I soon learned that all buildings were now heated by solar energy and that the shape was vital to get and maintain the maximum sunlight. There were still a few of what I concluded to be cars, but they too had changed so much as to be almost unrecognizable. The many small flying machines clearly indicated a switch to a new and more unconventional means of travel and I knew that cars - indeed most land travel, would soon be a thing of the past.
Amazed at the little knowledge I had of the changes that had taken place, they nevertheless showed little surprise when I explained that I had come from the year 2008, they had heard of such things before. A crowd had now gathered, drawn perhaps by my manner of speech and outlandish clothes. Something was bothering me and I suddenly realized that I had no idea as to the ages of these people, their looks and manner made such discernment practically impossible! Shocked, I learned that the two men with whom I'd been conversing were both more than a hundred years old. The rapid progress in stem cell research, I learned, had made human organs readily available to everyone and much progress had also been made in reversing the aging process.
As I continued to look around my new environment I overheard two ladies chatting about their grandchildren and quickly gathered that they were not living on the earth but on some distant planet that I'd never heard of. I soon discovered that religion too was still around but was nothing like I remembered it from fifty years ago, its main concern now was not about worshipping a deity, but for a way of life. It had been determined scientifically that all life survives physical death and other discoveries had taken away the fear that people at the turn of century had of the unknown. A beep from my inner clock advised me that I had only a few minutes before I must return, and I remembered that I'd given myself just four hours for this voyage into the future. Reluctantly, I turned to say good-bye to my new friends and return to the source of my experiment. I had learned much in my short sojourn, not the least of which was that there was still an earth in 2058 - good news I thought for my grandchildren.
