2046 - Toronto, Canada

“Wow, I think this is the one.”

That was always the money phrase. I knew even before I brought them here that the view would hook them from the get. “Mr. Dydynski, let’s be honest here, I think your wife has the final say on that.”

Mrs. Dydynski looked up at her husband and grinned teasingly.

2046 - Beijing, China

“The Yellow Dragon has struck again,” said Manager Chow, as he entered our dark, computer screen lit office. “Class two protests are now being tracked in twenty-three cities.” He tapped his tablet, forcing the screens on our computers to switch to live CCTV footage of the national protests. “There, you see. Look at all those troublemakers.”

First, it was punch cards, then it was the iconic mouse and keyboard. The tools and systems we use to engage with computers is what allows us to control and build the world around us in ways unimaginable to our ancestors. We’ve come a long way to be sure, but when it comes to the field of user interface (UI, or the means by which we interact with computer systems), we really haven’t seen anything yet.

Most of you reading this probably remember the humble floppy disk and it's solid 1.44 MB of disk space. Some of you were probably jealous of that one friend when he whipped out the first USB thumb drive, with its monstrous 8MB of space, during a school project. Nowadays, the magic is gone, and we've become jaded. One terabyte of memory comes standard in most 2018 desktops—and Kingston even sells one terabyte USB drives now.

Computers—they're kind of a big deal. But to really appreciate the emerging trends we've hinted at so far in our Future of Computers series, we also need to understand the revolutions sprinting down the computational pipeline, or simply: the future of microchips.

2046 - India, between the cities of Agra and Gwalior

2046 - Southern Khabarovsk Krai, Russia

I let out a deep moan as I stared down at Suyin kneeling in front of me. She knew what I liked, working faster, tightening her lips to collect every last drop. Some days there were others, of course, but when I saw Suyin step off the train all those months ago, I knew I needed to have her.

“Am I finished?” she asked in her broken Russian, always the same question, always avoiding eye contact.

If you’ve read the full Climate Wars series up to this point, you’re probably nearing a stage of moderate to advanced depression. Good! You should feel horrible. It’s your future and if nothing’s done to fight climate change, then it’s going to royally suck.

2045, London, England

“Order! Order!” The Speaker for the House of Commons demanded. “Mr. Brownlow, this is the last bloody time. Calm yourself, man.”

Fine, he wants me to sit back down. Go ahead, call the vote. This is a travesty. A betrayal. The Unionists, damn them, they got bought.

“The ayes to the right, 277. The no’s to the left, 280.SSo the no’s have it. The no’s have it. Unlock!” The tellers took one step backward, then returned to their seats on the Chamber benches. “Point of order, Mr. Stephen Brownlow.”

2046 - Turkey, Sirnak province, Hakkari mountains near the Iraqi border

This land was beautiful once. Snow capped mountains. Lush green valleys. My father, Demir, and I would hike through the Hakkari mountain range almost every winter. Our fellow hikers would regale us with tales of different cultures,spanning the hills of Europe and the Pacific Crest Trail of North America.