by Petr Kripeit

At the beginning of the 21st century, the world looked chaotic. Some people fled from war and poverty, the decadence of the rich countries had only shrunk briefly. How did we manage to get where we are today, 2100?

A rocky road

Many wrong decisions have cost us years. Problems like climate change still plague us today. We have failed; we have not stopped climate change, sea levels have risen worldwide and have sunk several islands in the Pacific, and many countries have been struggling with it ever since.

Denmark asked for advice from the Netherlands, a country that has always struggled with the situation below sea level. This made the Netherlands an exporter of knowledge for protective water measures, so Denmark was able to protect most of the country from the floods.

It’s not just the water that worries us

The years of lack of rain, dry air and heat have made Africa in the Sahel almost uninhabitable. People fled from there in search of a better home. Not everywhere one met with goodwill. These were challenging times that reminded us not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

The policy of the American continent was more conservative, while Europe could not find a position. This led to the rise of right-wingers, but the left-wing radicals also tried to maintain power. Instead of dealing with globally more important issues, the focus was on driving bans through individual streets and how to win back voters. People increasingly lost confidence in democracy – what they were given as power.

A few years later the time had come

Climate change has been slowed down. Due to state-imposed actions, entire forests were reforested worldwide and nature began to recover. The decree to actively involve students in planting and reforestation projects also laid the foundation for a generation that saw the need and the problem for itself again. Instead of posting sad emojis in social networks because of deforestation, the motivation to do something increased. One knew that one had to actively participate in saving the world.

Science gave us hope

After decades, a vaccine against Alzheimer’s was found in 2019, and in 2025 it became mandatory for everyone. There were only a few opponents of vaccination, and since Alzheimer’s is not contagious, people were ultimately left to do it themselves – those who refused to do so would have to bear the consequences themselves.

Many developments have taken place since then: The use of artificial intelligence has reduced emissions and optimized administration. By 2050, hardly anyone will be working in a town hall. Newborns were registered immediately and all human procedures were automated. When you moved house, you didn’t have to re-register. Through a central register we can now travel around the world, show our identity, and everything is processed automatically. Languages and bureaucracy no longer exist. When you move to another country, all documents are automatically prepared and translated. Many don’t even notice how much the AIs in the background have simplified life.

Agriculture has also developed

Due to rising sea levels, dry zones and the increasing lack of fresh water, people knew that solutions had to be found to avoid losing the precious water. Thus, in rural areas there is now solidarity-based agriculture based on permaculture. Vertical farms have sprung up in the cities. The goal: to minimize the transport of resources and to bring production and consumption to one place.

There was not always understanding for this. It was argued that other countries have more resources, why not act. It was a struggle between regional and global production. According to the motto “no victory without sacrifice”, decisions were forced and trade was severely restricted. Laws have been passed that devices must be delivered repairable and production cycles have been increased. New devices no longer came onto the market every year, but only every 3 years. This has reduced the problem of electronic waste by 90%.

Power consumption is no longer important

In the 2000s it was decided to use solar energy in the Sahara and almost 50 years later this was implemented. Everyone now pays a fixed amount of money to the Ministry for Renewable Energy each year and can therefore obtain unlimited energy. All countries on the Eurasian continent are connected, the power plant in the Sahara belongs to the community, a kind of advanced UN, which has thus solved the problem of clean energy supply.

At night, we obtain heat and energy from solar systems, which concentrate the sun’s rays onto a surface and thus heat it up. At night, the highly heated salt is then used in heat exchangers to make the heat energy usable. However, since this is not enough to cover everything, we have used the largest reservoir in the world: ocean pressure. Due to the pressure in the depth of the sea, large quantities of air can be stored, similar to a dam. If energy is available, the underwater ball storage tanks are pumped empty. When energy is needed, the air is let out under pressure and the energy is recovered by a turbine.

Now we are in the year 2100

I’m already very old for my 106 years, but more and more people are reaching an age of over 100, and without the medical developments and nanomachines that remove cancer from the body, I probably wouldn’t have lasted this long.

I think we did it. Our society has evolved and we have been able to correct the mistakes of the generation before us. I can only hope that one day these lines will come to light and people will remember how precious life and nature are.

Written by Petr Kirpeit, born 17.11.1994. More about Petr you can find here