Days of Future Passed

Orghcropia Glider School campus, August 10, 2172

Dear Diary,

I should probably get used to writing to you, as Professor Madison insists it’s the best method to compare the microeconomics of different universes, and there’s no way I’ll get to play at the Multi-World-Wide-Web Radio Mod Lab before I get my theory right.

Truth be told, she’s excellent at her job and she’s one of the main reasons I actually enjoy theory, even though I still prefer the more hands-on stuff. Anyway, she said I should just write down the things I do during an average day here, and then we’ll listen to a diary entry from another universe in the evening class. After that, we’ll compare people’s everyday experiences in different universes. Multiversal comparative economics, she says, begins at the end, by first understanding the impact economic systems have on the people’s everyday lives.

So let’s start with mine and see where it goes.

I woke up to the sound of music. Ivona, my virtual assistant, identified the optimal time to wake up based on my biomeasurements, and picked a piece of music with a fitting mood and tempo, also taking into account my taste in music. Today it was “Wake Up” by Bass Against. I found that almost ironic. But Ivona always finds music I enjoy, so I wake up with a smile every day!

I then went to the bathroom and relaxed while my care mirror scanned my body and projected my current health measurements on top of my reflection, while UV-ing my teeth. The mirror suggested I should take it easy with sugar today, so there’s that.

I felt like wearing purple today, so I asked Ivona to adjust the colour of my favourite electrospun shirt. It looked fabulous! I put it on and went on to my usual stroll across the campus orchards, and straight to Two Windmills, my favourite cafe. On the way, my pocket portal started vibrating like crazy! Ivona knows my habit of going to that particular cafe, so I just had to be notified of an urgent task that just got posted. The cafe’s carrier bot was on repair mode when they ran out of strawberries, so they needed an urgent delivery from the orchards before the customer who usually orders strawberry shortcake comes in. I love the smell of strawberries, so I would have done it even if it hadn’t been on my way anyway, but those 500 REXP were more than welcome!

Someone had also dropped an empty box by the door of the cafe, so I put it in the instant recycle bin for an extra 170 REXP. Just enough to get a golden community hero badge!

After delivering the wonderfully fragrant strawberries, I ordered coffee. “With a twist this time”, I said and Rozumio, the cafe-bot, knew what I meant. Bots are fine for making regular coffee, but you gotta bring in a human barista if you want creativity. And Jeanine is the best I know! To be honest, I also just needed some human communication. Ok, ok, I also had to gush about this new spice I just learned about that’s perfect for giving coffee a more robust, earthy flavour. After coffee, I decided to stay for lunch as well. The omelettes at Two Windmills are just incredible!

After a few hours of enjoying my time at the cafe, that wake-up song was still stuck in my head. I had a couple hours to spare before class, so I went back home and took out my flash bass to play. I rewired it yesterday for a cleaner sound, and my new amplifier begged for practice. Doing something creative before class helps me focus and learn better, so playing was a good idea for many reasons.

Ok, I think I’ve written everything. I’m not sure how this matters for comparative economics, but I guess I’m about to find out.

EVENING UPDATE

Ok, I just got back from class, and I immediately had to write here again. Professor Madison was right! After asking a couple students to volunteer to read their own diary entries for today, we got to listen to the story of Jason, a philosophy student from Massachusetts, a place on planet Earth, in a universe that seems to have a vastly different economic system. When I heard Jason talking about his taste in music and coffee, I thought the professor chose his diary specifically to mock me! Jason and I are so alike! Which made me a lot sadder to hear the rest of his story.

Jason loved coffee, so he felt lucky to have gotten a job at a cafe, but complained that he had to wake up very early for it every day and stay there for a full 8 hours. I’m not much of a morning person myself, so if there is no urgent task that needs to be completed nearby, I prefer to stay in bed a bit longer. But that’s not the part that really made me sad. He said he had no option than to keep this job if he wanted to afford studying philosophy, even though it wasn’t leaving him enough time or energy to study afterwards. “Afford studying”? What is that? And a full 8 hours? Don’t they have enough people to share the necessary tasks, or technology to take care of tasks that can be automated?

He also mentioned he loved philosophy, but felt that choosing to study what he liked was a compromise, because it wasn’t likely to make him enough money if he worked in that field, so he would have to continue taking other jobs on top of it if he wanted to survive. What is this “money” and why can’t people survive without it? I think I’ve heard of it in history class, but that’s not how I remember it.

And to top it off? He also loved playing music, like me, but he said that after 8 hours at his job and then more hours of studying, he was so exhausted that all he could do was sleep like a rock, until the next morning came and he’d have to do the same thing all over again. Not only did he not have the time or energy to even think about playing music, but he also couldn’t buy an instrument to play, because with his job he barely made enough to eat and pay rent. Buy? Pay? Rent? I don’t understand any of this… Couldn’t he just choose among the available options? What kind of system prevents people from being who they want to be, and for what?

I have so many questions! Well, now I’m really eager to learn more about how things work in different universes and how they affect the everyday lives of people like me! Well played, professor Madison, well played.

I’m also quite excited to experience this whole process of listening to diary entries from other universes and learning as much as possible from them. I have a feeling it can have a positive impact on the multiverse so… This might be what I want to do after school!

Until tomorrow, dear diary…

This diary entry was featured on Season 2, Episode 2 of Future Diaries

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