Voiceover for Montage - Draft

On our increasingly dependent relationship on technology used for communication.

Mark Twain said that the mid to late 1800s was the guiled age. An age of great technological wonder while the poor are ignored and modernism takes hold. The global economy started to become a reality. Mineral resources were used to trade instead of plants and animals and so extensive mining begins. Britain, The US, France and Germany become economically dominant. The industrial revolution gives birth to machines to replace labour, spread information but also to kill.

The 1900’s saw people’s faith in modernity failing especially after the massive butchery of World War 2. Wars started to be fought for resources and as the earth showed signs of wear and tear and minerals started running out, especially those used to generate power. The rise of the internet saw money being made digitally through foreign stock exchanges. As Oppenheimer discovered the A-bomb, Hoffman discovered LSD. Along with material and digital mass production, these elements gave rise to a cultural shift.

Andy Hargreaves said

"Introspection is a disappearing act. Faced with moments alone in their cars, on the street or at supermarket checkouts. More and more people do not collect their thoughts, but scan their mobile phones for some shred of evidence that someone somewhere may need or want them."

And so into the age of information and postmodernity. Around a quarter of the world’s population is connected to the web. Smartphones allow us to be connected while on the move, new technology means smart phones could be used to augment reality. Internet transactions are becoming more normal. More of the world’s wealth controlled by fewer people. America continues to secure oil by invading the middle east. Terrorism is declining but the media tell us its rising. Software audio and video are all available to download free and this is harder the law to control. Diseases are thriving because of global warming. CO2 is at an all-time high and the spread of information is unstoppable, as if it has a consciousness of itself.

By 2020 people become increasing desensitized and distanced from other people with communication being mostly done virtually. As money is transferred virtually, local businesses and high street shops shut. International focus groups more easily converse and troubleshoot world problems as climate problems become dire. Advertising is now totally personal. Virtual reality that stimulates all the senses is a reality. Government try to control information on a global scale. Either nuclear power becomes the norm or we will find that we can get enough from solar power, tidal power and geothermal energy.

Using virtual or augmented reality, the majority of the world could be plugged into a sea of information by the year 2100. Others will be left to die. Our bodies are used as additional power sources for the machines, fed enough to keep our brains alive and healthy while machines maintained themselves. We are living contentedly in a world of our own construct. Food is grown by machines efficiently and minimally. Weather machines control and regulate the atmosphere for our benefit and the rest of the planets. A massive culture shift is necessary; we become freethinking and collaborative as a universal consciousness. A utopia. But rogue consciousness develops giving lead to consciousness terrorism, without the individual being totally universally sacrificed; oppositions are formed, leading to an all new kind of warfare. We put total trust into a group few to start the program and then plug themselves in afterwards. But did they? Are we free? Or are we slaves?