What does the future hold for humankind?

LEE NING XIN Class: 3/5

“We are all connected by the internet” – Stephen Hawking.

-beep- mentioned subject has no gender -beep-

1990: A child looked out into the world, its eyes brimming with curiosity. Suddenly, information flooded into its brain, facts after facts, crammed into the child. Its eyes brightened up, a moment of “Aha!” every few seconds as knowledge about Earth appeared before the child, before being shoved to the side by other newfound facts. The child’s name is the Internet.

“Internet… I’m called the internet,” the child mused over its own name, testing out each syllable an rolling out the r’s.

A few moments passed, and a question appeared before it. Internet jumped in fright at the sudden intrusion and before it could answer, thousands and thousands of articles and websites from its brain followed the question, some of them specific and some of them vague. Internet raised and eyebrow. “I guess this is my purpose of being here then.”

2019: Internet rolled its eyes at the latest trends and shook its head at some… slightly irrelevant questions.

“‘If humans think that birds fly, do crabs think that the fishes fly?’ Are you kidding me?!” It scoffed, especially at those newer generations that do not seem to possess general knowledge. “1+1=3, I applaud you for your excellent calculation.”

Now, there are more online platforms and social media, almost everyone is connected by the Internet. Although there was some excellent discussion about certain topics with people expressing opinions calmly and encouraging other people with warm hearted compliments, there are still cyber-bullying and childish arguments over insignificant things. The Internet sighed, thinking about how different itself and others are, even if both are teenagers.

“Stop bullying her, please.” Internet glared ferociously at the comments people gave and hiding behind their fake personas to join forces against one person. “This happens every day and I’m getting tired of it.” It ranted to no one, sometimes the Internet felt lonely, even though everyone was connected to it. Ironic, yet true.

One day, a person asked, “What does the future hold for humankind?” The Internet gasped, and as usual, answers and articles started flooding in.

“What future? If humankind continues like this, what would happen?” Internet pondered over possible scenarios, after all, it did not know everything, the Internet could not predict the future.

What does the future hold for humankind? No one knows, not even the most intelligent or wise person. Things can change when you least expected it. Some might write essays on the resplendent future, some write poems about the despondent future ahead.

“Only time will tell. Only time.” Internet gave a small smile, and looked out into the world again, like what it did as a child.

2039: -beep- NIL. -beep