A Letter to Future Generations

Dear Future Generations

How’s things? I’m writing this letter to you in 2009. My name is Carl and I’m a nineteen year old aspiring writer and would be net-journalist. I wish I could have this conversation with you face to face but the fact is I’m probably dead by now. But I was thinking about you recently and so I decided to write you a letter.

I live in a pretty amazing time. I’ve seen the Internet blossom in an unthinkably massive network of communication and I’ve seen the robotics industry go from mechanical arms to the first stages of humanoid, interactive machines that walk and talk. Oh there’s still a long way to go in that area and in the area of, say, electrical cars but it’s really taking off right here and now. I’m kind of sad that I’ll never get to see these things come to fruition like the Internet.

To be honest with you, though, I’m pretty envious of my grandparents. My grandparents got to see some things even more amazing that what I’ve seen in my short life. They saw TVs first show up in homes and then saw them turn from black and white to colour. They got to see a real human land and walk on the moon. They got to see the fall of the Berlin wall and a country of people reunite in peace. They also got to live through the biggest war this world has ever known. I think I am the most jealous of this. Please don’t misunderstand me – I’m not happy they got to suffer through such a hard time but I am envious that they saw the second world war end. They were lucky enough to be there when there was that one moment of peace in the world and the wave of relief to know that it had come to an end. How fortunate they were.

I have never seen the end of war. I’m beginning to think such an idea is absurd and that war doesn’t actually end. In my life I have only seen war after war begin and they never truly end. This is why I’m envious of my grand-parents who got to experience that fleeting moment of joy when no one was attempting to justify mass murder and invasion.

You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this, aren’t you? Well I wanted you to know that it’s normal to envy those that have come before you. I can only imagine what kind of world you’re in but I can’t imagine it’s very good. An Orwellian dystopia? A wild and beautiful but frightening ruin like in H.G Wells’ ‘Time Machine’? Maybe it’s a genetically alien and unrecognisable world from the golden age of comics? Or maybe, and perhaps most likely, it’s just an irradiated wasteland watching apathetically while humanity whimpers and struggles and takes it’s last painful breaths before dying out completely. I can only imagine what it is you’re suffering as I make vague predictions of the future.