Where should I be now

Ye gods… I actually wrote this in between the 21st and the 25th of May, 1998, for year 9 Geography (why we were doing this in geography, I have no idea). I’m guessing the assignment was to consider where you would be over the years. So, without further ado…

Myself over the years…..
2008
Age: 24

Job: Freelance computer specialist
2D & 3D artist
3D graphic designer
Web site creation
Snippets of raw coding

Income: Too little ($40,000 – $250,000 annually I guess)

Car: I wish
Mode of transport: Public transport – bus, train, taxi etc.
Work: Home and clients homes, within 50k of Melbourne
Centre.
Hours: When-I-can-be-bothered to when-I’m-tired (or in the
case of clients, any time that suits them)

Holiday regularity: What’s a holiday?
Possible locations: The corner store? I’d like to visit Bali and the Northern
Territory, but I can’t really see it happening at this time.
Holiday pay: I don’t work, I starve. Cruel but simple.
Transport: Car to NT – hire beefy 4WD – bring back remains of 4WD
drive – ferry to Bali – explore via foot, bike and whatever
is handy – ferry back – train or 4WD slowly back to
Melbourne.

Hobbies: Sleeping, eating, sleeping, surfing, sleeping, bike
riding, sleeping, 4 wheel driving. Oh, and sleeping too.

Exercise: You’re kidding, right?
Exercise (really): Walks around the city, the beach, rollerblading perhaps,

More Miscelaneousdkgoiesdgkj [hate that word] info:

The world in 2008 will probably be similar to todays world. DSL phone connections will be the standard and will offer perfect audio quality when ringing to anywhere in the world and extremely fast internet connections. Microsoft will probably be either several different companies or non existant, cars will have laptops built into the seats and systems for autopilot will be in testing. Our lives will revolve around computers and nearly every job will invovle computing. As such, those without computing skills will still be unemployed and living with their parents. At this time the Doll may not exist, and instead those without jobs are likely to have to do community service to earn small amounts of money from the government.

I expect I’ll work from home, and move around when and where it suits my clients at the time. I don’t think I could handle driving to the office every day and pushing paper. I’d think I would work on little tid-bits of whatever is available, perhaps taking temperate positions in computer-orientated areas of work if times are hard.

I don’t expect I’d have much free time if I’m successful, so travel is pretty much out of the question at this point in my life. Mainly just trying to get as much done as possible so as to enjoy life later. I guess my life at this point will be driven by money, and I imagine my social life will improve to “almost thinking of attempting to think about getting out of the house”. Early mornings and early nights will be my most likely pattern of sleep, as I need to make sure any work I’m doing is up and ready without problems before the rest of the world starts at around 9:00am.

If I can I’ll jump in with some friends and head to the surf, but quite rarely and not half as much as I’d like. I’ll probably bike around Melbourne’s central business district, scavanging whatever I can of electronic value from throw-outs bins and behind shops.

As I see it I will probably be living alone, or perhaps with a room mate of some description. I don’t think I’d be married at this point, as I doubt anyone could put up with me and my mess long enough to actually interact socially in any major way. :)

2018
Age: 34

Job: 3D and 2D graphics
Web site creation and maintanence
Computing technician
Raw coding of appz and gamez
Artist and graphic designer
Perhaps something in the media (backstage involving
computer systems and the general running of the
station, whether it be TV, radio or Internet)

Income: Anywhere between $250,000 and 9 followed by lots &
lots of 0’s

Car: Small car, hatchback, comfy, all the extras, sunroof (and
if it doesn’t come with one, I’ll get out the circular saw).
As fuel efficient as possible.
Mode of transport: Car for long-range jobs, but otherwise bike or on foot.
Work: Home (still) or at a nearby office if I’m lucky enough to
be running my own medium- to large-scale business.
Hours: Very early to very late, with little snippets of sleep
inbetween.

Holiday regularity: Once or twice a year.
Possible locations: Skiing in winter and north to north-western Australia in
Summer, plus the odd one-month-at-least holiday
overseas to some exotic and interesting country.
Holiday pay: None, even if I own my own business.
Transport: Rented car, most likely, along with train and other
forms, perhaps light plane trips to skip the boring parts.

Hobbies: Sleeping and eating and making a mess and generally
just enjoying life.

Exercise: Jogging, gym-work occaisionally and bike riding.
Exercise (really): None.

More Miscelaneousdkgoiesdgkj [hate that word] info:

At this point in time I think that the world will be quite different from the way it is today. By this time most countries in the world will have exausted most, if not all, of their fossil fuels and will be turning to alternative energy sources. Also, it is likely that pollution will be a major problem and the southern polar ice-caps may melt slightly from the ever-depleting ozone layer.

DVD’s will have fully replaced HVS tapes and the worlds information will be completely digital. Although the world will be opened up, and most of the population of 1st and 2nd world countries connected to the net, there will be masses of work for computer technicians who have to keep the whole mess running.

The worlds media will be broadcast over the Internet 24-hours a day with hundreds of sources (channels, if you like) and it is likely that TV’s will either have Internet-facilities or become obsolete.

At this point in my life I think I will be settling down into a more rythmical way of living, each day become more and more like the last. At the moment I like things to be repetative and predictable, but I can easily handle change on any level. By the year 2018 I think I will depend more and more on my daily schedule and change will become more difficult. I don’t know. I could go the opposite, and get bored of everything being the same and do everything a different way every time, I just don’t know till it happens.

I expect that I will start to get out more and go to more places as my work over the last 15 years will hopefully have saved up several hundreds of thousands of dollars which I can then enjoy while in my 30’s. I’ll still work hard though, and probably still get up at outrageous times in the morning (well, I think there’s nothing wrong with it, but everyone else thinks I’m nuts).

At this point I think I’d like to think about marriage and perhaps settling down. If I have my own business with partners and employees I’d probably start to pull further and further away from the hands-on work and just administrate. I don’t think I’ll end up married before I’m 35 at least, since I think marriage is something you do once you’ve calmed down and you just want to enjoy life, have holidays and relax (of course, that’s without kids). I might attempt a long-term relationship with someone earlier than this, but I don’t see marriage as an option.

As an added bonus, I’ll start putting away towards my “after-retirement” fund. I think that once I hit 60 I will sit back and relax for 20 years, after which time I’ll put myself into a home (using my own money). I just don’t think I should still be trying to work and do normal things at that age, costing the younger generation(s) money to look after me. I don’t know, this is just a personal opinion of myself. I think that once you get to a certain age, you have to think about the possability that you might be becoming a burden to the younger generations and should just sit back and enjoying existing, rather than trying to hang on to old habits of work.

Overall, at this time in my life my lifestyle will change, business and money will become less important and I’ll start to visit more places and go on more holidays. I’ll start to settle down, perhaps have kids, and begin to concentrate more on my health by exercising regularly to keep fit.

2038:
Age: 54

Job: Manager or retired

Income: Steady $200,000 or hopefully more.

Car: The futuristic equivelent of a Commodore.
Mode of transport: Car and walking (no more bike – getting to old)
Work: The office, pushing paper probably.
Hours: 7:00am to 9:00pm I imagine.

Holiday regularity: Once or twice a year.
Possible locations: Probably just places I’ve missed, or places I’ve been to
and enjoyed so much I’d like to go back, which will
probably be everywhere.
Holiday pay: Steady annual income from business.
Transport: Plane, rented car, train and boat.

Hobbies: Just about anything new.

Exercise: Regular jogging, early-morning stretches etc.
Exercise (really): Sleeping and eating.

More Miscelaneousdkgoiesdgkj [hate that word] info:

The world at this point is likely to have many of the inventions that have been surpressed for the last 50-100 years. Solar power, cold fussion and other advanced and probably yet-unknown technologies will help reduce dangerous emissions and produce clean friendly power for the world. Fossil fuels at this point will be as valuable as pure platinum and put on display rather than used for heat and electricity.

In space, leaps forward in Quantum theory will probably lead to the creation of the first leap drive and the terraformation of other planets in our solar system is likely to begin. Space stations will be large and offer holidays to the extremely rich [being famous not neccasary,but it helps] but generally we won’t be walking on other planets without extremely precise suits and equipment.

Unemployment will either jump or fall to roughly 50% or 0% respectively. At this point robitics will play a large part of our lives and the only role for humans will be to supervise and design the systems. Robots around the house may help out with chores, and robots will be used for planatary exploration and to fight fires and things as such.

Truly intelligent computer systems will probably still be a theory at this point. Although robots and computers will emulate an intelligence of sorts, true AI will be quite a long way off. It is ironic that we cannot create AI due to our lack of brain power, while computers could if they had intelligence, which they don’t until we invented AI, thus you get a rather impossible-to-crack infinity loop. Eventually someone will make a breakthrough that wil lead to artificial intelligence, but we won’t see wars against the rebelling robots, only black coffee when you asked for white until you apologise for calling your robotic cook a ‘son of a dishwasher’.

At this point in my life I’ll start to settle down and not take too many chances. I hope I’ll have quite a bit of money invested with which to live on should I retire or be retired. I think at this time I’ll exercise regularly and try lots of new things and sports. Nothing too extreme (do that around my late 20’s), more like squash, tennis, gold, bowling, whatever.

I really can’t hope to predict what I’ll be doing at this point in my life. I think I’ll just sit down, look very carefully upon the world and laugh at the joke.

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