(The Tales of Skuld brings together news of anticipation and science fiction: how will the world evolve? What will we eat in 2040, what will we think in 2030, what will we want in 2060?
In order to trace the contours of what is ahead of us — provided we follow current developments, or go beyond them — here is how I imagine the next 10, 20, 30 and more years).
You can read the lexicon used (and invented) here.
The time when we played and interacted with drawn and imaginary characters is long gone. We quickly moved on to avatars of ourselves, in imaginary worlds but where real people act. Acts and morals are judged less today in the real world than in the real world* (augmented reality, dreams lived in reality), and finally, the acts that matter most are judged just as much in these virtual worlds as in “real” life… what’s left of it.
Four worlds share humanity now, the other alternative worlds are more “insignificant”.
Isthmia is the world of relationships: one meets friends, barter, trade, create meetings and associations, discuss and shop. A kind of Facebook/The Good Place/ Amazon in short.
Jotunheim is the more sulfurous and chaotic world: at first, you chase old objects, hijacked or pirated objects, you play with exquisite corpses in multi-dimensions, and you express excessive and negative feelings, because this is the place to, you use it as a personal diary: what is called the Sink. In the chat rooms and on the home page, one finds publications of all kinds, including one’s own bad moments. If you want to launch a petition or gather individuals around a cause that is close to your heart, you can do it here: this is the public space for satire, debate and open questions to challenge the system. There is a dark side to it that is completely accepted: Jotunheim is considered necessary in the globalized world. It is a kind of Reddit/Twitter where there is no censorship.
Taoui is the virtual place on which we create a profile: our serious, social, professional avatar. We create our own world in which people can comment, share, participate. Taoui has two goals: to duplicate and add complexity to the social person that we are “in real life”, and by extension, it is an additional layer to the real world to publish our creations, our talkos* (tasks accomplished collectively in a dimension of service, benevolence and collaboration), and all our personal achievements. It is a kind of showcase that is half professional, half social, half entertaining. You can be a writer in your spare time, an engineer in your working hours, and a game creator in your spare time. Taoui may make you famous because the last game you created is very popular. You can earn Humanity points (via talkos), virtual currency by selling your publications and creations, and privileges if you are recognized around the world. Your social rating may depend on just one of your many qualities: it’s up to you to create the universe that will please the greatest number of people. On Taoui, you make a social network: nothing is intimate or personal, only affinity in the best of cases. Otherwise Taoui remains a simple directory of professionals, amateurs and people with useful skills in a contributory or participative framework. A version of LinkedIn/Medium/Dribble in short.
Finally, Harqist is the platform for international communication: it is the serious media on which you will find news, innovations, calls for tenders for projects of communities and cities, events related to the planet (such as climate phenomena, new construction projects), project-hypotheses being tested in the Matrix, news of colonies on exo-planets, publications of major brands and laboratories, and a little curation of other social platforms. On
Harqist, the only power of contribution is to react to a content, vote to extend and deploy its diffusion, experiment the format if it is an augmented reality documentary, and sometimes comment if the content is open. Publishing content on Harqist is a real recognition on a global scale: the content is true and verified and must imperatively bring added value for knowledge. You can’t pay to publish: only the merit and intelligence of the content is valued.
Most of the content is provided by artificial intelligences for all that concerns findings and facts recorded, measured and analyzed. The more implicit publications will generally be produced by innovators* (a person who manages to harmonize a superior genius fueled by creativity and innovation, the most influential people) or cultivars*( individuals aside, over-connected to everything, but mainly to themselves, they are exacerbated to everything ), as well as emeritus experts recognized in their field.
These four worlds are used for existing everywhere in the world, with everyone and as a proof of social integration. It is nothing more and nothing less than the more thoughtful and controlled deployment of social networks in the 2000s: 50 years later, it is basically the only proof of our worldly* existence (over-connected globalized world citizen), on a global, inter-global, interplanetary scale.
With all the objects connected to each individual, the data collected is exploited in the world in which it is stored. Everyone chooses to broadcast what they want on the platform they want.
Harqist is clearly fundamental and number 1: it is the referent platform — reassuring — that remains the most important to be informed of what is happening in the world. The security of the network is so locked and controlled that individuals have absolute confidence when they are connected to it. It’s a form of virtual republic. The content you read on Harqist, the topics you react to, and those you delete, provide a great deal of information about you and your behavior. Nothing you do is left to chance, everything is well retrieved, analyzed, interpreted and reused. With the passing years, this situation does not cause a problem, it is accepted, with the negative consequences that it can cause: the unknown is no longer and the predictions merge with the true intentions.
Taoui, looks more like an oligarchy, in which the best individuals, the most famous (usually geniuses, cultivars and innovators) exert the most influence, they are recognized as the influencers, the individuals who count in the present world. It is very difficult to make a place for oneself without some form of sponsorship or a helping hand: one must belong to the right group, and work on maintaining one’s notoriety. On Taoui, you can’t access all the worlds and all the universes. Only through the system of sponsorship and testing can one deserve access to these private and exclusive places. A simple worker can be recognized as a brilliant screenwriter and sell his ideas, just as a teenager can create an addictive game and monetize different game modalities, etc. Anyone can gain fame and notoriety on Taoui, as long as they intelligently exploit the platform that offers equal opportunities to all talents and experts.
Jotunheim is a form of anarchy or a profitable place for minorities and “rebels”, the tiny part of oneself that navigates the dark recesses of one’s soul: it is the parallel world, ultimately a little ghetto and mafia, where the problems the world encounters are germinating. It’s hard to say that it’s the network of “bad guys”, because so far, all successful vandalism and hacking attempts have been profitable. The questioning of the system and the destruction seem to give a new lease of life to society, in any case, for every form of claim that has resonated with the public. Hacking is a real industry that offers a way out for the less fortunate. Softwares are accessible to all: low-code, or no-code has flourished over the years, allowing those who have not pushed their studies to realize small programs, small projects and sometimes real businesses.
Isthmia is rather a form of artificial paradise in which everything is possible, everything is achievable, without consequence: it is the virtual place of entertainment, pleasant social relations and leisure. On Isthmia, it doesn’t matter if you want to have an avatar half man half lynx and enjoy the powers of both. Thanks to this world of all possibilities, with (almost) no consequences, you can experience scenarios in which you can climb trees with your bare hands, jump and land on your feet, win an athletics race in a matter of seconds, etc. You earn valuable points that are converted into currency. Money that allows you to buy clothes, material for your avatar, friends, exalted people* (a way to increase, reduce or control your emotions), immersive worlds, games, cultural contents, or robots with qualities that you lack. The robot is very useful for encounters and social relationships: we meet someone, the robot can respond and act in our place, or even do things for us — as long as we pay, barter or pay money. On Isthmia, it’s clearly all about appearance and subjectivity: it’s all about choosing the world to evolve in, getting richer and richer to get more and more advantages and privileged access in realistic worlds* (an augmented reality, dreams lived in reality), and getting by to always be able to afford more and more incredible experiences. The more you are active, i.e. interacting with others, the more you make the whole system work. The personal emotional counter is the most visible part of one’s profile, so the challenge is to be smart enough to get more and more resources and to be able to get the most out of it. On Isthmia, we simply want to be impressive, to arouse strong emotions in others who can see everything we experience and everything we feel.
The youngest are on Isthmia and take the platform as a real playground on which there are no limits. But there is nothing visibly unhealthy on Isthmia. The social network is strictly controlled so as not to allow pornography, gratuitous violence, murder or psychological deviances. This is the strength of Isthmia, which is considered the necessary world to detect disturbing or problematic profiles of individuals. One can approach the limits of Isthmia’s world, provoke the police, while running the risk of being tracked, followed, or even removed from most immersive worlds, social rooms* (virtual rooms where avatars meet), canopies* (personalized real-life space dedicated to shopping by superimposing realities to consume in immersive worlds) and games to avoid any problems or overflows. Today, to steal, hurt, destroy, it is a question of being very smart and very cunning to manage to fool the system, and at this level, these individuals would already be spotted as such and closely monitored. Active participation on one of the platforms feeds the whole system. You are accompanied all your life, and your future developments are expected elsewhere, whether you turn out well or badly.
Justice is mainly the responsibility of robots, condemnations very rarely fall on individuals since the world is largely predictive and neuromorphic chips are used for almost everything nowadays. No one is actually at the head of this whole system but everyone participates in it: like a perpetual motion mechanic, each part must work at a certain rhythm to allow the other parts around it to function properly. The world and the platforms are now built in a kinetic structure where individuals are the transmission parts of the endless motion. If an individual does not act as “intended,” he or she will be “corrected” (influenced or manipulated), if not discarded and replaced. The balance is very fragile, and malwars* (those who seek to destroy the system in order to wake up individuals, their goal is to give back autonomy to individuals too much assisted by the predictive system) have understood this very well.
The case of Isthmia is conducive to leading individuals to act, to consume, always with the fabulous illusion of evolving. We gain points, we are in danger, we find a solution to get out of trouble, we are stimulated, immersed where we want, we meet so many things, so many people, the discoveries seem infinite, and the customizable world seems to anticipate all our requests, but obey the finger and the eye of something much bigger. Few people manage to step back or question anything. This world aspires each person within himself while at the same time sending a reflection of himself back to others. So, we fall in love, make friends, practice sports, cultural or entertaining activities together. We may or may not meet each other.
Two teenagers with a passion for geography can take the same courses, be connected together, work together, set up a project together without ever meeting physically. They can go swimming together and swim in opposite pools: when one prefers to swim in the morning and the other in the evening. On Isthmia, you can be passionate about old movies and enter a virtual cinema, with headphones and a connection with your friends, share a movie without being physically united. Two friends are not at the same level of evolution on the platform, one has more privileged access and the other has more corners, they can exchange or barter to offer the other what he wants. To break up, it’s a formality: a simple checkbox, with an explanation or not. One can also reconcile and change the status of the relationship again. With experience, people choose to refuse the renewed relationship beyond 4 breakups.
Some families function only on Isthmia: parents, children, brothers and sisters. In 2050, some people still find this really shocking, while more and more people of the new generations think that this is probably the future of the family and that it is not a bad thing. Real friendships and relationships exist but are just as connected as virtual ones, which allows not only to have many relationships, to have some, to meet a lot of people, but also to be closer to people who are physically far away than to those with whom one is really by physical “obligation”. With the power to choose one’s relationships, virtual as well as real, it is common to see neighbors who never meet each other, brothers and sisters who ignore each other by never connecting with each other or opting for ghostly statuses. The system loves this type of data: the less time spent in the real world and the majority of experiences in the real world provides infinitely more data about individuals than ever before, and this data provides a much simpler “roadmap” for each person to define. Younger people really feel that they can choose their surroundings and not be subjected to it, because of geography, a common activity or friends of friends.
You follow Harqist very early in his life, but you only enter deeply into his worlds when you progress professionally or broaden your interests. For example, a very intellectual friendship on Isthmia, based on a simple conversation around an excellent reading, will allow you to find publications and news on Harqist: the navigation on Harqist improves as you mature and broaden your curiosity and interests, even if this evolution is spotted in other ecosystems. Once again, the predictive and suggestive worlds seem to be one. One can consult all formats of journalism, documentaries, real-life novels: the facts reported factually have very specific typographical codes that indicate that the source is reliable and that there is no human interpretation or bias: the contents are written in a black on white typography, in Alternative Gothic- just like the first paper newspapers.
As for the other contents, with human subjectivity, that is, an opinion or expressed opinion, a bias, an emotional turn, a rhetorical or argumentative tone, they appear in a typography called Pitch *(contents with human opinion): whole sentences can be seen suddenly in Hyperoxymuriatic*(contents with a rhetorical tone trying to persuade to follow a bias), a word in Forisfamiliating*(contents recognizable for the personal style of an author), whole articles in Electromagnetism*(contents with bias and prejudices), contrasted in colors. The more human the content will be, the more it will be distinguished as such in the body of the text, the more it will have a scope of influence or induction, the more it will be distinguished with contrasting and aggressive colors. The same applies to videos or audio recordings. Sharp monitoring of broadcast content allows filters to be placed to distinguish between contents: everything is said and everything is also revealed thanks to these forms of alerts self-generated by artificial intelligence. Harqist is the platform tool par excellence, from which there is no direct interaction between individuals, only reactions, confirmations, information, refutations, nuances. Play and gamification are purely intellectual and conceptual.
Finally, Jotunheim, the ghetto network, sulfurous in name, appearance, content and avatars, allows moral testing, to challenge oneself, to express one’s anger, one’s frustrations. One can fight, in any way, one can lie by preaching the false in order to obtain the true, one can humiliate, one can cross limits: it is allowed, and it is perceived as naturally human. Our avatar chooses his mood, defines the super powers he would like to have, and deposits his problem, his question in order to interact “outside the codes”. So you can find your best friend who suffers from shyness displaying his Embarrassed avatar, asking for a challenge to overcome his state. He can authorize all kinds of “abuse” up to a certain level using cursors, he can give permission to a number of contacts to access his emotional data, and give them the power to challenge him. Meeting them will give him points, winning them allows him to convert them into corners. He then receives untimely notifications that ask him to take action, he receives pledges and challenges that he has to film and share. This can happen in fictional worlds, but also in real life. He still has to film himself taking action. Of course, you have to imagine all the possible situations that can stimulate a community to get someone to act and watch them do or fail…. Platform of voyeurism, the limits are almost non-existent, but once again it is accepted, because the place is made for it. Even the worst actions can be acceptable with a public vote and a “ransom”: a minimum of 200,000 voters are required to pay back all the money in their virtual account and submit a public plea. It is only forbidden to touch fascias, life and death. Winning back the money is of course a delirium that attracts. Jotunheim has its hidden worlds, where insanities are realized, because a community that pays is a part of Humanity that endorses… This platform, which remains necessary to the dark side of humanity, brings together cultivars, rebels, anti-something, pro-something, teenagers in search of identity, resigned, adrenaline junkies, artists, obsessionals..: human beings in short… Events can be totally private in circles of friends or groups of profiles suggested as having common correspondences: when they are public, they are intended to create a buzz.
In other words, the existence of Jotunheim, has made it possible to considerably reduce violence, criminality, and the removal of deranged personalities. Offenses in the world almost no longer exist since most things are automated, autonomous and under machine control. “Offenses” are reserved for certain Kenopsia*(huge places dedicated to experience, entertainment and distraction ), in virtual games and certain real-life worlds: Jotunheim is often the source of them. Justice is then part of the rules of the game, their non-respect leads to elimination and a penalty in case of willfully serious act.
A new form of control hovers over the world thanks to these spaces of expression, the virtual dimension makes it possible to “tolerate” acts considered as serious or extreme.
And since the creation of the Matrix*(center of globalism), the new generation that opened the era of the hypothesis has offered this overpowering space to be, to enjoy its dark side: “and if I were like this, what would be the consequences?”.
Nothing is erased, but it is allowed to fail in this dimension: the condemnation of failure does not exist in the real world, making the idea softer to accept: nothing is erased, but everything can be replayed. The real, which has become almost insignificant, carries less gravity because it is less frequented.
Individuals can then finally be heroes of whatever they wish… but some evils that have disappeared have given way to new ones…
°0 Skuld’s Tale Lexicon
°1 Identity Games
°2 Kenopsia and theme cities
°3 Bookstores or the modern profession of story seller
°4 Care and Beauty in 2049
°5 Food and future sensory pleasures.
°6 Society in 2049 and modern citizenship
°7 City, Planning and Transportation in 2049
8 The Matrix, the apogee of the era of the Hypothesis
°9 The episode of The Cabin
°10 Family, memory and inheritance in 2049
