Terminal: $execute _commun.ties $run _machine.ai $write _fut.ure
Review of “Tales from the Cybersalon” #3 Future Communities (Sept 2021)
By: Wael Elazab
Accomplishing peace today by distorting the past. The founder has maintained that creating fictitious deviants guarantees that no people get hurt.
Alpha-AI avatars are built to banish society’s woes in Jesse Rowell’s The Valens Program. They are called synthetic “deviants” by those that know, and are made in our image, so well made, buffed and polished, that most of the community swear they have lived and grown old with these constructs.
Unlike Jesse’s, your vision of community may centre on the local librARi, healing hive and the nearby skill-school centre.
Today, outings for market-day produce, book swaps and high-street charity stores, are ways to be a part of your community. As is feeding the ducks, nailing 180 kickflips at the law court steps and graffing – or tagging – the town hall walls, each are interactivities with the community.
According to Stephen Oram, all of that will be done in your home. You’ll be fitted with implants, at the cellular level, each implant a biophysical conduit – per person, pet and per anything that encompass your life. This is the future of Gathering Power, “… As she looked out, next door’s kids waved. She switched the panel to one-way and watched them, until she got worried they would appear as day-to-day connections, proximities mixed with her chosen cluster.”
Horizon Scanning through SciFi Stories
Four writers feature their science-fiction in Tales from the Cybersalon #3, future communities. An exclusive panel of experts accompanies them, with insight and opinion of the cooperation, common accord and collective need that is shaping the technology and how we interact. The panellists have been working with the writers for several weeks; their time, knowledge and talent enabled a cohesive, yet pliable model, a basis for the writers to propel into the future of community.
Panellist and Newcastle University Professor, Rachael Armstrong, was extremely unsettled by Gathering Power and The Valens Program, depicting us, “Like we’re all deep in The Matrix, and everybody is taking blue pills. [The characters] are living as though it’s easier to adapt than resist even the most brutal lie,” remarking that everyone’s taken the blue pill, a lá The Matrix, “The concordance … of living a lie.”
The upside, noted by Dean of The London College of Political Technologists, Edward Saperia, is, “Things become more real-time, so there’s locality, with local crowd workers and people who fulfil local services.” Saying that smaller, more intimate equals meaningful, and getting to know people, he continues, “This can be a deep way of having community, smaller with one cab driver, and even develop a niche economy around that.
Nearly here, in 2026, Wendy M Grossman’s Disconnect, portrays the post-pandemic future. The explains the political landscape to the reader, and her uninformed friend, “The government said communities proved their importance during the pandemic — and it allows us to be self-determining by bonding together in [formalised] associations.” However, the association must have one of three imperatives; the community be location-based, or with specified common value, or, it is virtual.
Yen Ooi, councillor at the British Science Fiction Association, pointed to the duality in our experiences, as well as outcomes of the pandemic as having equally positive and negative outcomes for communities, “Physically [the pandemic] separated and isolated us, to self-quarantine. But it created a space online that forced us to come together,” said Yen.
If community is thriving c/o the pandemic, then good. Challenges bring community together, but if there aren’t difficulties beyond our toiletries running out, then what?
A fledgling business tool, writes Liam Hogan, in Accept all Cookies, over time, becomes a sophisticated community AI that is your home, town and life assistant. Seemingly considered, courteous and conscious, “When the AI itself reached out, it was always as a gentle prod, a DM with a suggestion, or a no pressure request.” Says Elaine, the most recent to opt-in. The ‘community net’ enriches, tells of new neighbours; serves, directs you to the garden centre; gathers, knows everything.
So, not dissimilar to today’s internet-activity profile, we must let the clumsy tech-giant in, and then we can contact our clients, order gifts and much more. It may bump into tables, knock over ornaments, perhaps step on the cat, or even fall asleep at the door for days, trapping us with no way to socialise. But, if we keep the tech-giant out, how will we get our toothpaste automatically reordered?
Eva Pascoe (Cybersalon’s Chair) points out to ‘junk-like’ nature of online interactions, with a ‘Like’ here and ‘heart emoji’ there, those are supportive but unsatisfactory gestures that leave us always hungry for more.
Before we go, let’s get back to digital. The online community.
Before the exorcising of demons begins, observe a minute for the 20+ years we’ve been living with online, extremely successfully. “Learn about anything, talk to anyone, find the nichest community about the nichest thing and talk to them 24/7,” remarks Edward, who emphasises, “An important context here is that without online, you can’t do that.”
One such long-standing online community, itself made up of many, is the gaming community. You may resume the demon slaying.
At times appearing as quick to help as they are to hate, endless forums have game walkthroughs, overclocking instructions and advice on replacing motherboards. But, as Digital Artist and Programmer Simon Sarginson puts it, “Communities are made up of people with emotions. If someone with you play with leaves, or starts playing at a different time, or perhaps something you say gets misinterpreted, then the [derogatory] and abusive side of gaming appears.”
The duality of human nature, is clear this example. But, what of payment? Communities now, and hence in the future, do have frauds and fakes.
Financial transactions, asset security and business protocols, will all need bespoke administration and scrutiny.
The Future of Money boots-up next time. Sign up here for the next Horizon Scanning event 30th November.
