I’ve always been intrigued by “the future”. Not the future that lies one step ahead of us, grounded in probabilities, and not the one that is so distant that it is no different than a fairytale. I like a good future that sits nearly out of reach.

Mostly because of its ambiguity. This future isn’t reality. It is the imagination of a reality that could be. So it is easy for it to be exciting because you never have to worry about actualities, only possibilities. And that just leaves your mind to prance around in a fun daydream. This space is a playground for ideas.

However, once I found out I was going to be a father this playful imagining turned into a difficult hobby. And when I was able to meet my daughter and fall devastatingly in love with her, the hypotheticals around the future she would inhabit hung over me. What kind of world will be the context and backdrop to her life? What sort of job will she have? How will technology facilitate her interaction with others? Most importantly, what will the health of our home, this planet Earth, the one that has given me so much serenity, that has acted as a muse for my thoughts, gifted me the belief in a greater good, be like for her?

Suddenly I am craving those actualities that do not exist.

We all know that climate change is already changing our world. We all know that there will be detrimental effects moving forward that will lead to more extreme weather events, higher populations of displaced refugees and growing political insecurities. What I want to know is what will this mean for her experience in life. Beyond the unimaginable physical dangers, I shutter at the thought of her missing out on any of the magical beauties that this world has to offer. Or her having to go through an even greater feeling of wondering if her children will experience even less.

When my daughter was born, I was just starting my independent thesis project for my Masters degree. These circulating questions drove me to explore the emerging technologies, social structures, media and values that could manifest themselves into a reality for her. I became incredibly interested in how a growing trend of hyper-personalized experiences affect how we experience the world around us and I used her possible experience as a catalyst to imagine what outcomes this could lead to. I listened to experts’ predictions on the often bleak trajectories ahead of us. I wrote fictional scenarios of what could play out for her. I broadly scoped economical, environmental, societal, geopolitical and technological trends. I hypothesized the outcomes of large-scale personal data collection and its integration into personalized media content. I analyzed how she might experience time itself in the umbrella of technological influences like augmented and virtual realities, quantum computing, biotechnologies and a growing reliance on algorithmic decision making.

More than just the technologies that might play a role in her future, I wanted to know the types of experiences that she might have. I mapped out typologies of personal experiences that can be foreseeably turned into analyzable data and toyed with how each one might alter the way she interacts with the world.

I want to say that I came up with great solutions on how to make her world a better place to live in. But really all I did was further dive into this sticky habit of imagination and continue to ponder about what world my little innocent daughter will wander through as an adult.

I swear I don’t only imagine a dark and scary future world for her. I do think of all the amazing things that she might experience in her lifetime that I could not have. I think of all the ways that technology will allow her to know and connect with things that go deeper than a previous time. I imagine her achieving peace, progress and social justice that will make her cringe at the world that her parents had to live in. I still daydream in that playful jungle gym. But the old tale of a worried parent resides within me and the unfairly limited eyes that leave me only guessing what will come is tough.

All I know is what is in my control. All I can do is influence her world in the capacity that I have. While I can’t promise her the euphoric world I hope for, I can promise to be there for her always when the future context of her life gets hard.