“The human mind is too simple to ever grasp the full range of knowledge necessary to the mastery of our art.” Justin, Second Arcana
Chapter 2
In those days, housing was roughly the same as what they were at the beginning of the twenty-second century. The kind of the home, house or apartment, was tightly linked to the place it was built. Living on one of the planets in the original solar system meant living in one of the huge skyscrapers of over five thousand floors, each one with about a hundred condos – but in some of the more luxurious towers, the apartment covered the entire floor. Stores were located at each floor to allow easier and faster access for residents. The case of Earth, however, was a bit different. As the air on the ground had become unbreathable and toxic over time, killing millions each year at the end of the twenty-third century, and the Earth’s primitive atmosphere having been damaged badly by human activities, the FuturaTech had to artificially recreate it. The company developed a technology able to synthesize all the elements of the Earth’s atmosphere, allowing for a quick rebuilt of healthy life on the original planet. This technology also helped in the colonization process of the other planets of the solar system and globally of the galaxy. But Earth’s soil had already been contaminated too much, forcing the universal government to build “floating” cities, in the air, above the pollution and far from all toxicity. In reality, the towers were maintained by giant pylons taking roots deep into the ground rather than levitating, as this solution, though less costly, was too unstable. Elevators placed into a few of these pylons had been designed to allow scientists to reach the deserted surface of the planet for research purposes. Obviously, these elevators were unknown from the general public. Only a handful of people high up in the administration had knowledge of their existence and, more importantly, of where to find them. This way, no one could ever know what was actually remaining on the Earth’s soil.
On planets located outside of the original solar system, called exo-planets, homes were in two-thousand-floor skyscrapers on most populated planets – generally the local government planet – or in smaller and simpler houses for planets with less population density.
Homes, both houses and apartments, had been completely automated at the beginning of the 2070s. From the automatic kitchen to the intelligent bathroom, human life had become an assistantship of all instants. Such a change in the human way of life had raised several medical issues at the time as residents were less and less leaving their homes, becoming asocial little by little. Moreover, national stats saw the practice of sport literally crash down in a few years. With all the unhealthy consequences these modifications had brought, the FuturaTech decided to reduce the part of automatons in houses as well as incorporate medicines inside automated kitchens. Scientists created nanorobots able to stimulate the minimal physical effort and burn fat in the amount a standard human of the mid twenty-first century used to burn on average. Although the idea was quite brilliant and life-saving at the time and in such a context, it raised strong opposition in discussion groups put in place to watch over the ethics of scientific breakthroughs. But those groups were never listened to by the universal government and any leak to the general public was strictly controlled.
Housing had therefore gone through a rapid computerization. In a few years, it changed from a neutral and inert place to a technology pool at the reach of the general population. All of the house appliances were linked to a central artificial intelligence. At first, inhabitants were able to control everything using their voice: switching on the lights, opening the blinds, changing wall colors, moving walls, reordering furniture in a room, activate cleaning robots, etc. But the simple fact of asking out loud for something was blocking most people from making the switch and actually using the features of these smart homes as it seemed purely ridicule and absurd. Therefore, engineers adapted the mind reading technology to fit home purposes. This way, houses integrated a way to directly be controlled by their owners who could choose between voice and thought. With the years – or rather with the months – many more features and functionalities added up on top of the existing ones to complete the offer. From programming meals for the next days to ordering food, from regulation of temperature, humidity and drafts to the quarantine of the home, it became possible to do everything with a house. Absolutely everything. This idyllic picture of the home stayed and remained for dozens of years as new features were coming in. Safety and security were so impressive that nobody ever succeeded to break through or bypass it. The only break-ins that had been recorded were always due to human mistakes. All these technologies had been developed and marketed by the FuturaTech. With such houses, the FuturaTech could also developed hidden options and commands that could help it watch every move of every citizen equipped with the technology or control anything inside their homes.
As far as food was concerned, everyone agreed not to forget the simple pleasure of cooking a meal and following recipes, as well as taking time to eat. Hence, several types of meals were invented, from the cheapest capsules the consumer just needed to swallow, to the most expensive ones delivered through small cubes which, once put inside a specific machine, was rebuilt as an entire meal following a digital guide and using the ingredients concentrated into the cube. This machine could also be programmed to alter the meal depending on the consumer’s dietary needs such as adding or taking out fat, proteins and vitamins. Once again, security levels put inside the machine were high standards for the FuturaTech as the machine could detect any ounce of poison or misconception in the recipe that could result in intoxication or worst for the consumer. In such cases, all data gathered were directly sent to the food and health branch of the FuturaTech, through which all meals had to go to be validated.
Nearly all of the rooms of a standard home – living room, dining room, bedroom, toilets and lobby – integrated numbers of features which did not bring much improvements to the way of life, but there was one room which, on the contrary, helped people gain a considerable amount of time: the bathroom. The FuturaTech had made it possible to wash, to style hair and to put on make-up in less than ten seconds. An initial fine-tuning of the system was enough to be able to use the technology for years without having to reconfigure it. Then, one only had to enter the “cleaning room” in which lasers got rid of impurities on the user’s body as if they were “cleaning” their skin. However, because the FuturaTech could not refuse customers the pleasure of taking long bath or showers, « old-school » bathroom models were developed, in which people could choose either to use technology or do everything themselves. Max’s parents had adopted the latter style of bathroom and had decorated their house with a touch of the 2100s.
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