Insight

My name is Jox, I'm 15 years old. I need to start by saying this: by no means, is this a historical document but merely an essay requested by my facilitator to compliment my studies. I should explain; we no longer have things like teachers and schools, but instead orientators as I suppose you might call them in your time. It's a much more focused education, tailored to every individual’s needs, potential and interests. Humanity has changed a lot and our formation and studies no longer only comprise traditional subjects like the ones you study such as maths, geography and history for example. In addition we are also offered tuition in a more complete way, involving how to deal with our emotions and keep our body working at its optimum level. This essay is part of my emotional well being studies where I was asked to write a letter to someone in 2016 to explain how the world has changed. The main idea behind this exercise is to learn how to put ourselves in someone else's place. This practice has been part of our culture for a long time and serves as a means to solve many of the global conflicts; its use has been very successful in this regard since it was instituted. It might be something you have heard about in your era but nowadays it’s used as a very practical and effective tool in many areas such as politics, business and personal relations.

I love history, learning how people went about their lives in different periods helps me get a better perspective of our current issues. In my time it’s very difficult to get in touch with the culture and history of your time and that's the sad part, when so much was lost. Since the global act enabled the possibility for anyone to live wherever they wanted, most of the old buildings and cultural traditions have been lost. The world changed quickly and entire urban areas started to disappear to open space for all the new structures that were needed. We don't have cities or countryside as you would know it. People live in communities tailored to be self sustainable. We all have our roles and most of what is required is produced and resourced locally. It can only grow to a size that is sustainable to the local environments resources and considering the impact generated. Most of the repetitive work is mechanised, which freed people to use and develop their mental capacities to their highest potential. We no longer have money or what you would know as an economic market system. Our system is based on social contribution and everyone knows their role is very important in the continued sustainability of our population. Another interesting idea you will have to get used to is that there is no more ownership. Goods are shared according to different people's needs as every single person owning all kinds of goods for limited non regular use was unsustainable for our planet. It works similar to how libraries do in your time to give you a better understanding of the idea.

We have most meals together and instead of a family that is blood related like you are used to, we now have a broader idea, where we are grouped more by our personalities and interests. We still have our personal space but we don't spend a lot of time on our own unless we really want to. We understand it would be impracticable and unsustainable for every single human being to have their own property entirely to themselves. Even shared resources within one family like it is for you, would be of an unthinkable impact to our planet and its resources.

Families and the way we reproduce have also changed a lot. As is known to you, human beings are different than other species as a lot of our brain and development happens after birth in the first few years of our lives. For that reason a lot of regulations and infrastructure was put in place to make sure every new life has its best possible chance of development. Stress and the environment in those early years and during pregnancy was found to have a huge impact in our formation. For that reason traditions like families having to have babies or women being pressured to be mothers no longer exist. We see the act of generating a new life as the most precious thing and for that reason people that decide to dedicate their lives to that task are carefully selected and that becomes their contribution to our society. That's their job as you might say, so we can make sure all needs in the early years are met, like physical, emotional and psychological nurturing. This different way of thinking also helped control the ever growing and unsustainable population that was characteristic of your era.

With the fast development of technology that was so evident at your time, people started to isolate themselves more and more to the point of social collapse. A large percentage of the population was suffering from depression and other mental illnesses as a result of it. As I recall you called it social media, where you would use a device to keep in touch with people. That had a huge impact in people's lives, became an addiction to most human beings that had access to it, almost extinguishing face to face social activities. After years of studies specialists concluded that being part of a real social group improved every part of our lives and little by little the virtual world as you know it died and changed its function. We understand it's part of human nature; the need for contact, compassion and social interaction. It’s the lack of these that makes people become competitive and selfish, ruining the chances of a cooperative fair society. I watched a film from a couple decades prior to your year called The Matrix where that idea is explained in a figurative way. People connected to a virtual reality that didn't really exist but they were unaware.

Physical aspects of the human race in my time also look very different than in yours. I think it’s very intriguing to look at old photographs of how different people’s appearances were. That would have been a very interesting world to live in but I can see how that had its challenging side too.

It's very difficult for us to understand the idea that people had a capacity to form a judgement or opinion of each other based on their appearance. That's not possible now as we have similar looking physical aspects and any traces of peoples cultures and origins are no longer as obvious or existent. Fair white skin slowly disappeared as it couldn't resist the increasing temperatures of the planet. Same with the blue and green eyes, I truly wish I had seen one. I imagine it would be like staring into the ocean or a forest. The different colours and shades of hair are also gone. All these physical changes over generations resulted in largely indistinguishable appearances causing the end of all the beauty related industry. The same happened to clothing, for us it is a lot more about performance and enduring all the different weathers and necessities of our daily lives than what you would call fashion.

Human development took a massive leap forward when the governments of all the nations discussed and decided the only possible way to sustain humanity was making the world one. The imaginary border lines didn't make sense any more. There were constant wars over religion, land, political regimes and power to name a few. It was a very difficult time in history, but one of the most important and brave decisions ever made. The wars and fighting continued for many decades after, but slowly people started to appreciate the fact that they had control over their lives as never before in history. The whole world changed quickly, masses of people started moving to different areas of the globe. Places that had strong economies saw a considerable influx of people. But that didn't last for more than a few years and soon most people realised a better life wasn't really a more comfortable economic situation.

A global parliament was created and the world was evened up in regards to education, health and infrastructure. That was one of the biggest achievements of humanity. Since that time, people haven’t felt that they have had to flee, or leave their families and friends behind to try to find a better life or even just to survive as I have read about in many books from your era. Those who moved, it was for different reasons, they found some other place on the planet that suited their personalities better or the life style they wanted. As there were no more barriers, passports or citizenships most people realised this was a fair world compared to what came before, where we all have equal opportunities. A persons future is no longer determined by the random fact of where they were born. Every single person has the same opportunities to pursue their dreams, whatever they are.

For some time there was still racism and attacks from more extreme people feeling threatened as they believed there was a need to keep a pure race. Resistance to change is something we work a lot to extinguish within ourselves these days. We understand life and the world is ever changing and nothing will stay stationary for long. We are here for a limited amount of time, our contribution needs to be towards the bettering of the planet and all its inhabitants.

After the global act, slowly as the generations grew up there was after a while not a single person that didn't have a mixed background or someone in their family that they loved and was of a different race or culture. So it became very difficult for the separatists to sustain and defend the idea of a pure race. The change in our physical aspects had a huge impact in our society as we had to learn how to value and get to know each other for other aspects like personality, ideals, intelligence and aspirations.

For many generations it felt like people didn't know exactly what to do now that they could do whatever they wanted. Crime went down, but depression and suicide levels rose. Unfortunately most people didn't know how to dream or have goals to achieve. But with time and a few genius pioneers our planet saw innovations and improvements never dreamt of. Our lives and our homes changed at such a rapid pace, tiring sometimes but most of the time exciting.

Religion lost its appeal for most people as now we all had access to good health systems, education and opportunities. People started seeing that it depended a lot more on themselves to achieve things, no longer down to luck or divine grace. That stopped most of the violence related to religious beliefs. People nowadays are spiritual but more in the sense of working their own minds and feelings not so much related to something external to them. Meditation, yoga, mindfulness and ways to relax the mind and the body are widely practised and we learn these techniques from the day we are born. But most of us don't even know that it all first started as a religious practice. Although I've heard of Buddha being a history fanatic. Some people believe there is something bigger than us, undiscovered but not in a judgemental patriarchal way as most old religions would have you believe. It's more a curiosity and a belief that we can't be the most incredible creatures in existence.

Most of us understand we don't know it all and there is still a lot to be discovered. It would be irresponsible and arrogant to think that what we know now is the absolute truth. An open mind is the way to the future. We learnt lessons from ancient times when people killed the ones that would disagree with the commonly held belief that the earth was a flat plate just because they didn't know any different. Or just sometime after the belief was that the Earth was the centre of the universe. Or not too long before your time people believed cigarettes had health benefits. Just at the right time you will also find out many of the things you believe and had as taken as proven science were incorrect. So the only thing I can say is keep an open mind and don't take anything as fact. Science and the need to test and prove theories will be of incredible help to human development. It still is to this day.

I don't think it would be beneficial to say much about our technology or go into detail about how our lives are nowadays. I believe there is a lot to be gained and learned in the journey to achievements, almost as much as the result itself. That's why still to this day we don't know the exact date we are going to die even though we have the technology and means to be able to determine that. We see how much more important and beneficial it is not to take things for granted. As a society we work a lot on that concept, and we have become a lot better at that but still sometimes we just go on with our routines and forget the bigger picture, however as much as we can, we keep in mind our time here is limited and it will end at some point.

I'd describe this as a hope letter from the future, to give you the strength through this difficult time in our history and let you know all will be ok and will work out for the betterment of all human kind. Even to this day we have the tendency to think and dream a lot about the future ahead of us. With that in mind it's a strange idea for me to grasp that I am what you think about but yet have no idea it is still to come.

In any way your struggle is my pride, and I rest assured we will all look back and feel astonished by all that our civilization has achieved . If I can give one piece of advice that would be to stick together, unite and learn how to live in a world with so many differences. I can guarantee one day you will miss them.