Chapter 2 – A World Apart
Iceland - The Near Future
Gracy Diaz has just finished dining with a client. She realizes there is not much time to waste and she better get on the road to catch her flight out of Iceland. Thank God she can catch a nap on the drive to the airport. As she approaches her car, she sends a signal using her brainwaves to the remote in her pocket. It then instructs the car to unlock and open the door.
Back in 2011, brainwave control is just starting to become reality. But experimental and actual working products are rare and require the subject to wear a helmet. While it is not quite mind control, Gracy can easily learn to produce a certain brainwave fluctuation unique enough to be recognized and programmed for a specific task. In this case, to instruct the remote to signal the car to unlock and open the door. Training is no more difficult than teaching those old cellphones, especially those from first decade of the century, to use the voice activation feature.
She gets into her car and puts on her seat belt, ready for a nap. This car is only a rental, but she has a similar car at home. A Quodous J50. A self-driving electric vehicle packed with extras. Dashboardless display. All displays are on the windshield and can be turned on or off. If turned off, it automatically comes on if there is emergency or urgent message, such as the power running low. As much as she loves this car, it still needs gas for long distance travel. Gas mileage is way better than old cars but gas prices continue to rise. She is eagerly awaiting the new electric car being branded as the Zeus 1. It has an advance battery that can hold a charge for up to 500km. Charging takes only minutes. It’s ready by the time you go to washroom and get your coffee. Gas stocks are sure to fall if that car launches and hits the market successfully.
She turns her windshield into a mirror for few seconds just to look at herself. She still looks fresh even though she has been at a meeting the whole day. It must be the environment also. Her client has chosen a nice place. A famous resort in Iceland. She even gets to relax at the geothermal spa. Although she has thick, long hair, it always looks tidy. The top of her hair looks like waves parting to both sides, curving and flowing down on either side. Her dark brown hair turns dark blond under direct sunlight. Her eyes are gentle but intense at the same time. Her eyebrows are naturally thicker near the temple and thinning outward. Her lips spread out in a heart shape that appears like she is always smiling even when she is holding a neutral facial expression. Her teeth are perfect, making her even more adorable when she laughs. Her fair Spanish skin remains unblemished. Her chest projects a posture that exudes confidence. She is used to men turning their heads, and being whistled at by some less discreet admirers. But her busy work has made her put aside settling down except for a few dates every now and then.
The car starts and taxis out of the parking lot. It does not take long for her to fall asleep. There was a lot of anxiety when the driverless car was first introduced. But it has proven to be safer than a driven car. Gracy once drove in Pennsylvania with a car similar to this one. This one is equipped with thermal imaging sensor. The car detects a deer closeby in the dark of the night and slows down to a speed that allows for sudden brake, calculating for the chance that the deer would run across the street from its current location. Sure enough, the deer tried to run across and the car put on the brakes immediately. It wakes her from her sleep but danger was averted and there is no damage to the car nor injury to her and the deer. This rental car also has a black ice detector. A laser would scan the road ahead for any sign of black ice. Gracy imagined this would be very useful here in Iceland during the winter.
It did not take long for Gracy's car to reach the airport. As the car approaches the airport, a driven car suddenly swerves to cut her car off. Seconds before, her windshield blinks a warning that there is a driven car with no transponder. All cars now have a transponder that also allows the cars to communicate their position and speed with each other. So a sudden brake or collision on a highway are communicated instantly to all cars. But there are a few renegade drivers like this one who refuse to use transponders. Gracy's car automatically calculated increased risk factors upon detecting such cars and was able to stop albeit forcefully to avoid a collision. Gracy cursed under her breath.
She finally arrives at the airport, gets off her car, pulls out her luggage and throws the car's remote in the passenger seat, and then closes the door. She then enters a code in the car's door lock which will automatically drive the car back to the rental place.
She has an hour to kill before her flight leaves. She loves Iceland and she tells herself that she has to come back for a non-business related vacation next time. Iceland has become prosperous despite being one of the few countries who opted out of the Motherland Defence Initiative heavily pushed by U.S. and its allies following the November 11, 2011 attack.
Gracy decides to go the bar to use up her remaining Icelandic krona. While the U.S. and its allies are all now a cashless society, Iceland still prints money.
As she sits down, she hears a heated discussion about recent pressure from the world's “Common Market Consortium” for Iceland to sign on to the common currency trade treaty. One elderly Icelander is gesturing angrily.
“Iceland suffered during the economic crisis of 2008 because our government gave in and deregulated the banking industry. What it did was allowed fraudsters to have their ways, fraudulently borrowing money and manipulating our banks.”
Gracy is not sure how true that claim is, but she decides to move closer and listen in on the
conversation.
“Iceland recovered quicker than others by breaking with established economic tradition and deviating from what international lending agency would consider acceptable practices. We defy the norms of taxpayers bailing out banks and instead let some of those bank went under. We stopped the bank from transferring our money out of the country.”
Another elderly gentleman then questioned the old man. “But don't you think the Netherlands and U.K. borrowers deserves to be paid back since they were also defrauded and enticed with high savings interest? And isn't the Iceland government complicit in not keeping an eye on the banks?”
“Why don't they go after the executives instead of asking Icelanders to bail out the fraudster. Sequester all their assets and offshore wealth. You know, petty criminals are prosecuted more than executives who stole billions of dollars from the people. Some of the executives often just get away with it or get a slap on the hand. They even get to keep their stolen and laundered cash.”
The old man catches his breath, and then continues. “Just like the pressure we are facing now to sign on to the treaty, back then the pressure was about deregulating the bank, which was promoted as a good thing. Company who control billion of dollar of our money don't need supervision is what they are saying. The popular claim is they are just good citizens who provide jobs. We are heading in that direction again. And they want us to sign on and give up our independence in managing our finances? ”
Gracy sees how Iceland’s past experiences are making its citizens wary of getting on board with most of the developed countries.
Aboard the plane, Gracy turns on her rectangular prism computer unit, which looks like a 2 inch high ruler with a built-in projector. It is common for people to project it onto a white wall like the one behind the plane's chair. It also projects a display of a keyboard layout onto the table. She connected to the planes network connection to check her messages. The plane then took off and headed for New York.
Shanghai, China
Meanwhile at the other side of the world, Ray Carter has just finished signing a deal to rent a transponder on a Chinese Satellite. This will be used to broadcast his new network to Asia.
Ray arrives at his newly rented office that houses his Asian coordinators. The space is not big but just adequate for a staff of 5. Ray Carter's star is rising as a millionaire philanthropist.
Dressed casually but looking confident and at ease, his dirty bl
ond hair is as perfectly straight and neat as his clothes are. He has a slightly deep-set blue eyes. His thin pouty lips, long eye lashes and skinny V shape face makes him look young and naive. But there is nothing naive about Ray Carter. Now in his mid-forties, he continues to enjoy entrepreneurial success. His sense of innovation has lead to a continued rise in his fortune starting from when he was 30 years old. But rather than enjoying a lavish lifestyle with his wealth, he continues to find ways to help the marginalized and disadvantaged, spending his money wisely. His current project is the “Crowd-Sourced Net.” A Free-to-Air satellite TV network broadcasting to various parts of the world. While internet is prevalent already, some parts of the world have monopolistic company throttling down on speed and racking up the cost of access, making satellite service still a cost saving option.
But Ray's intent is to share knowledge and what is going on around the world with people in less developed part of the world. His foundation has developed programming to educate about corruption and how to be a smart voter. For Ray, a lot of failures of new democracies are due to voters’ naivety and ignorance about corruption.
Fortunately, it is now more affordable to rent a satellite transponder compared to decades ago. It used to cost tens of thousands per month. Each satellite in orbit carries several transponders that are rented out by the satellite owner. The transponder processes the data signal that is uplinked to the satellite in orbit. It is then downlinked to all satellites dishes on earth. The personal satellite dishes are setup to receive the signal. Since the signals from Ray's network are Free-to-Air (FTA), anybody with the equipment can receive the signals.
As he gives his presentation, an image of a satellite beaming down on a 3D image of the globe on parts of Asia is projected on a wall screen. It highlights their expected coverage area.
“The Crowd-sourced Net has been broadcasting to the Americas, Europe and Africa. So I am glad to be bringing it to Asia. The advance in digital compression technology means each transponder can now carry many more channels. So one of our top viewed independently made movies and documentaries can be given its own channel that ran 24 hours allowing people to watch them pretty much anytime,” Ray explained to his attentive staff.
“Our user-submitted content is a huge success, and gratuities are pouring in for the creators. The top-voted contents are of very high quality and are keeping our lineups full. With the latest technology, making a good special effect movie has become more affordable for aspiring movie makers. Our system of letting viewers up vote and down vote makes good quality works standout.
Ray has witnessed how the movie and music industry have changed. Quality independent movies have forced big movie studios to lower what they charge for after movie theatres rental. Most have already switched to flat service fee per month. They resisted for a while. Despite the lower overhead cost involved with the switch to digital media, they have tried to stick to a fee of $5 to $6 per movie, claiming it is needed to finance blockbuster movies. But the truth Ray has learned is, if a big budget big studio movie failed at the movie theatres, after-theatre sales are even worse. So either they make it at the release of the movie or not. With the advancement of technology, the digital production cost for after-movie is also pretty much nil.
Movie theatres still exist with innovative technology to offer more a immersive experience. Theatres have many other amenities, making them a famous social gatherings. Some movie makers opt to release their film online at the same time as it is released at the movie theatres, charging the same price as individual movie tickets. Afterwards, it goes to the online repository where people pay a monthly fee to access the whole library of films as old as when movie making first started, and as fresh as recently ended movie run or premiere. Movies that are accessed more often with high ratings are awarded percentage of the monthly earnings. People can also provide gratuities to the creators for work that they really like. Lots of independent filmmakers are skipping third party marketers all together.
The landscape of the music industry has also changed with the rise of independent artist marketing their music directly. The old music industry has diminished influence but still has considerable influence in government. Early 2000 saw the industry struggle to adopt to the new technology. An industry that is used to charging $30 for an album with only a few good songs refused to change their business model. They refused to pass on the savings of what is now zero production cost of digital distribution and try to stick with CD distribution pricing model. They opted instead to lobby for law that increases censorship on the internet and roll back safeguards of civil liberties and privacy. And when they finally started to adopt to the new technology, they insisted on getting paid $1 to $3 per song with excessive restriction and digital lock. For an era of having multiple media devices in bedroom, living room, computer and portable devices, the restriction was considered outrageous and people started boycotting them. Some artists started opting for open licensing and appreciative fans’ direct contribution. Lots of them receive more revenue from the direct payment without sharing revenue and giving up the rights to their works.
While Ray's company does show independent work from artists, the main drive is information and education. Ray finished his presentation about their plans for Asia and switched off the projector. “Part of your job is to gather news here in Asia that is being missed by the main stream media. These will be added to our 'Just Facts' news network. So make sure your news is balanced and unbiased. Give out those cheap portable HD camera to each impoverished village and let them made their own documentary about their lives. Help set up infrastructure by donating some satellite dishes and equipment and provide local villages with television to keep them abreast of development in the world. Also distribute those $10 basic tablets to those villages. Our program would also include education for sustainability and how to be self-sufficient, customized for the needs of various regions.”
“Also, see if there is any unique problem for the region that we can add to our 'anti-corruption and self-sustenance' education channel. Feel free to think of creative programming to empower the people. I have to catch my flight back to New York. But feel free to call me anytime.”
Ray leaves his company's new Asian office and hops on to a rental self-drive car. Ray usually likes to drive car manually. But today, he just wants to sit back and take in the sight of Shanghai. His car has a roof-to-floor see through gas panel that can be tinted if needed. He reclined his seat and relaxed. China had struggled to control the amount of cars in the street. Although the self-drive car has greatly increased the maximum speed and improved traffic efficiency, millions of people driving their own car is still not sustainable. So they have encouraged commuting. Car pooling to public transit system has become a norm. There are also drive and drops where people can rent a car for few dollars and just leave it at the public transport station.
Ray looks to the side of the road and see all roads have bike lanes with a steel bar separating them from the cars zooming by. Right lanes of the road just before the bike lane are for people who choose to drive manually. But they are required by law to have a transponder on board to communicate with all other cars. Lots of pedestrian crossing path have been created that are overpasses or underpasses. One lane is for express. Stair escalators go up and become a moving walkway with a speed faster than escalators and moving walkways of the early 2000. It moves the huge amount of people faster.
He is amazed at how fast China's system of government has changed. There was no revolution. Just the young generation members of their single party system gradually pushing for reform. There was initial resistant from the more senior officials. But with increased economic freedom, yearning for more personal freedom comes naturally.
Ray remembered looking up the history of Korea and noticing that when there used to be two Koreas, the south Korean economic prosperity had lead to their dictatorship giving way to democracy in an orderly fashion. The same had happened in China.
Although one of his young staff have told him about the initial tension between the youth reformist and traditional senior politician. They refuse to use the word democracy for fear of “losing face” and appearing to be capitulating to their old “western power nemesis.” They have settled to keep the name National People's Congress. Although it remains a one party system, all representatives are now elected at the local level. It has lessened opposition from the senior officials paving the way for a full representative system. The mandate of each representative is to consult and inform their constituents. After finally agreeing to the reform, the old timer's lament to the youth about how the Eight Power Allied Forces consisting of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States jointly invaded China. One of Ray's young staffer have related that part of history to him once. “They looted and burned our national treasure, including a lavish Emperor's garden.” She says it sounding like she just lost a priced personal possession. “Women were raped and bayoneted,” she continued. Ray remembers reading a historical account from a U.S. soldier who witnessed such acts committed by some of the allied forces.
Ray had replied to his young Chinese staffer that from what he knows of that part of history, the allied forces were responding to the Boxer rebellion, which had attacked foreigners. His staff replied that the rebels were attacking foreign occupation. Then he went on to tell Ray about the forced Opium trade and the “Unequal Treaty.” He talks about discrimination and being segregated in their own land. There were signs posted in foreign quarters that said 'Dogs and Chinese Not Allowed' in much the same way as signs in U.S. posted back in the days saying “No coloured people allowed.” Such tales of humiliation were carried down from generations to generations of Chinese like a plague of shame.
Ray is amazed at how something that happened in the late 1800s to early 1900s can still carry such resentment and mistrust more than a century after. It is also a potent weapon for politician to rile up nationalist sentiments.
The ride to the airport doesn’t take long. Ray's car automatically parked at the inter-continental express terminal, from where he gets to travel on a spaceship for an express flight back to New York. The spaceship takes off as a shuttle with wings retracted. Unlike the earlier versions of spaceships for space tourists, which only travelled vertically up to the orbit then back down to near launch site, travelling between Asia and North America involves horizontal space travel. About 5 minutes for the boost phase and vertical takeoff. It takes about 2 hours in total from takeoff to horizontal travel and landing. Ray has travelled on these flight only for a couple of times. But he is pretty sure he would never get tired of the view from above.
New York City
Back in New York City, Ray has a hard time sleeping so he decides to go to a famous bar. Classy but not too upper class. While he is seated at a bar, his eyes wander to a lady who has just entered the building. As if sensing his eyes, the lady turns to look at him also. She smiles and decides to go where he is and orders a drink. Ray quickly reaches out to the bartender to pay for her drink. She has an amused look and tilts her head to the right side and smiles. “Thanks,” she says.
“You are very welcome. I am Ray,” reaching out to shake her hand. She smiles and says, “I am Gracy,” and shakes his hands.