Blackout

Blackout

… or how would look like the world with ENVIENTA.

This day was just like the other. The alarm clock began to ring painfully, and suddenly I awakened from my deepest dream, trying to be louder than the clock and shouted: “Shut up!” The alarm clock went to silent following my order and I sat up fast in bed. Although I did not want to get up, I knew that if I do not sit up now, I would go back to sleep and the whole torture will start from the beginning. I rubbed my eyes and put on my glasses. Without this I’m almost blind. I was sitting for another one and a half minutes at the edge of the bed before I was completely awakened. There was a warm, nice light between the fringes of a spaghetti curtain which was woven from yarns. I got up and walked out. Outside the sun was sparkling, as always. I loved this sight. The sparkling sand on my feet, and the gently floating, infinite sea that shines in the sun. I could have seen a day, but I was already late, so I quickly washed my face in the spring next to the chalet.

The wooden house on the island is something like a corporate benefit. Every employee gets one. We do not only work together, but we live together for most of the day. Like a village. Or rather a big family. In the house next to me, Ann lives from the marketing department, and on the other side of the “road” lives Andrew, who is fishing at the moment if I’m not mistaken.
- Hey Andrew!
He’s not responding. I guess he is taking a nap again. I’m just getting late. The transport point in the center of the house is blinking. Ready to jump. I walk into the middle of the transport. Just an eyeblink and some flashlight, and I arrived at the conference room.

A reddish light is appearing through the window. Oh, damn, this is the flashy Martian hotel again. Do not get me wrong, I have no problem with Mars, but this room is inside of a trendy asteroid hotel. These hotels are hanging from artificial asteroids above a few kilometers from the surface, and these asteroids are orbiting around the planet. The meeting room is at the top (or bottom, depending on where we look from) level and its floor is completely transparent. In the middle of the room, there is a table, a few chairs, and the dizzying depth is beneath us. Everyone knows that I have acrophobia. They probably chose the location to trick me.
- Hey Leslie!
- Hi! Nice hanging hotel! — I said this with some irony.
- Really? Gabriel answered with a little-wicked smile on his cheek. “It’s a pretty expensive, but the view definitely worth it.”
- Super! I answered with a smile. Although I was distracted by the depth, I tried to conceal it.
“So the topic of today’s meeting …” Gabriel began, but his voice was distorted, and the whole environment was frozen in a moment.
I found myself in my room again.
- Damn, the stupid battery pack again. — I said loud to my room…

The whole thing started on another island, Gran Canaria. At that time I worked as a programmer for an enterprise and I had a hobby project to develop an open source platform. A company took the project, which had only a few programmers. They mostly did the development with external coworkers like me. The full development was open. If someone had an idea, he could throw it off, the others voted, and then, if everyone agreed, they published the assignment. Anyone could apply for this job. There were no job interviews, no fixed team, everything was open and anyone was welcome. The discussions were in a very good mood, so we quickly became friends with the interior developers who invited us to the island. There was a training center on a hillside. The houses were recycled containers, electricity was generated by solar cells and had a huge garden with lots of vegetables, fruits, and a couple of larger fish-filled tanks. Within the buildings, minimalism was the style. 3D printed chairs and cabinets. It was very futuristic, but this was nothing compared to what was later told in the training center. Though they looked like average guys, they seemed to be “Martians” instead.

They talked of new economic systems, cryptocurrencies, self-organizing, autonomous companies, and virtual states of the future. After 1 week that I spent there, I came back as a different person. I really liked the new way of life that was outlined for me. I left my job, sold my apartment in town and ordered a container house for myself. The huge plot where I placed my container house was almost free. A big arable land on the edge of a forest in a small village. Ordering the house itself was like ordering a book. I just chose a webshop and chose some open-source furniture. I’ve also edited a couple of pieces according to my own taste. I can do it, as these are always printed individually based on the order. The already done furniture and a container house were taken by a truck from a local factory. The driver told us that there are many of these plants around the world. The entire production is a franchise model, like McDonald’s. Anyone can apply to be a manufacturer if they comply with the rules.

As well as there was no programmer employed, there were no production lines at the company, anyone could apply for to be a manufacturer as well as a software developer. Some people have assembled my house in one day and I moved in on the next day. I also put together my aquaponics system that I could produce the required amount of food for myself. I’ve been looking for a job that I can do remotely, and it’s enough to work a couple of hours on a day, and as I had everything in the container room, my monthly expenses fell to a minimum. Well, I had to pay for the internet, and sometimes I went to the city for some food if I get bored by my own vegetables. I work at this moment at a fully democratic community company, where all employees are also owners. There is no corporate hierarchy, only people who are democratically elected to lead a project or do some tasks. What is even more interesting is that the company does not pay for the money for the job, but with its own cryptocurrency, which can be exchanged for money if needed, but nowadays it is accepted by many places. I can buy food, tools, almost everything for the cryptocurrency, just like for money. Of course, if we think about it, it’s just money, it’s issued by companies instead of banks and states. There are plenty of such companies exists today. Some of them called to DAOs and others, because of their democratic structure and their own currency, are considered to be no longer companies but complete virtual states. I think it is a pointless attempt to put these new organizations into our old models. It’s not a company, not a virtual state. This is a totally new way of working and living. The old economic system has overcome. This is already the version 2.0 economy.

My place used to be full of lumber. There were pictures on the wall, ornaments, TV, etc. These are all unnecessary now. The fully-fledged, expanded reality system displays everything to me. I don’t care about the color of the wall, there is no TV, no pictures, ornate furniture, nothing. Just the minimum. A bed, a table and a couple of chairs. I do not even have nice dresses because everyone is walking around in his/her AR glasses and they see an outfit which is connected to my profile. So I bought 10 pieces of QR code covered uniforms, I wear them just like everyone else. People pick up their glasses at the beginning of the day and they will not take it off until the end of the day. What they see around is a programmed reality that has been applied to the existing one. So many things become useless, which were valuable in past. A house with a nice view, beautiful furniture, ornaments, dresses, jewelry, trinkets all became worthless jokes. The last status symbol may have been the car, but since everyone rents self-driving cars for travel, it doesn’t make sense anymore. The growing sharing based economy is removing a lot of burden from people’s shoulders. By now, minimalism has become cool. My colleagues and my friends are scattered all over the world. I do not even know where they live. In fact, to be honest, I do not even know how really looks like the island. Hundreds of this kind of islands exist around the world. It is mandatory for companies to maintain their own virtual spaces for their employees. This is better for them they can make a stronger bond with them. At that time, I thought life would be cheaper, because we will produce everything with a 3D printer, so it will be enough to buy the blueprints, buy the software. But now, things have become software. They do not have to print them because we just project them just like the island where I live and the Martian hotel where we held the meeting.

I’m just sitting on the roof of my house. It is beautiful here at the edge of the forest, far from the city. But what is this noise? I think the carrier drone has brought my new battery pack. Probably the smart home system was set up to order another one automatically when it detected that the other one was depleted. Maybe I’ll be back at the end of the meeting. The only problem is that Martian fancy hanging hotel…