Dear Diary,

I must confess that I have been apprehensive about writing this post in which I am uncertain of my feelings after visiting The Future Starts Here at the V&A. I have been to it twice now. Thanks to becoming a member I have limitless entries. And yet I am none the wiser of my feelings. Do I trust those that are immediate after leaving the exhibition or those that come after some reflection and discussion with my friends and family?

Both times I left the exhibition feeling down with a heavy heart. If this is the future that is proposed to us, where do I sign up to become a hermit? Every little detail of our lives is threatened to be controlled if not by the government then by an app which somebody else controls which in turn is controlled by an authority. Say goodbye to your personal life now while you still have control over it because later on it will be too late. We are already compromising our personal details through apps like Facebook. Remember that Cambridge Analytica fiasco? What about cookies? And I don’t mean the edibles ones. Granted the technological advancements are great and I am excited to see what engineers come up with in the future for our use, but we shouldn’t compromise on our private life just because it makes our lives faster and easier. I am guilty of this myself. How many times have I reached for my smart phone to google a meaning of a word instead of reaching for the dictionary. Which stands proudly but lonely on the shelf.

An example of this very personal intrusion into someone’s life came in the form of ‘Art’. Artist Miranda July once met an Uber driver in LA, they got talking and Oumarou Idrissa told of his life story. A man from Niger, whom came to America to earn money to support his family. The story is very touching and personal. It touches upon migration for a better life and the strengths of a human being to change, live in a foreign country all alone. July stayed in touch with Oumarou since the long Uber ride, and then she decided to create an installation about human emotions and our interactions with modern social media. It is through the interaction of these apps that we took a glimpse into Oumarou’s life. When would he check Instagram or open WhatsApp to most likely call his family in Niger. Every time this happened, his actions would be translated into a curtain that was hung on a wall, to open or close. What made him agree to do this I do not know, but it was all there for all to see.

Of course there were modern technological items, including one antique. A wearable technology of its time, a metal ring with the addition of a key, which from a distance looks like a decoration but upon closer inspection was something in fact very useful. The ring is so small and obscure you may be forgiven if you’ve missed it, but I do recommend you give it a closer inspection if you visit the exhibition.

The more modern technologies that we already use today, for that is the premise of the exhibition to showcase over 100 items of futuristic objects that we use today, we see straight away upon entry. I big robot that supposedly folds your laundry for you. Time saving? Not so much. There was a video on a tablet to show what was its purpose, otherwise the red robot was just standing motionless. Already a let down so early on, but we only have just begun, let’s give it a chance.

I aught to have begun by describing the ambiance of the entire exhibition. It was unnecessarily dark. Looking back now I do not understand the purpose of it as it was easy to miss something out. Also the flow of it all, in my opinion this could have been curated so much more impressively. When you think of the future, you do not immediately think dark spaces or shady corners. You think minimalist, open white spaces, clean and fresh. Smooth lines like that of the Tesla battery charger that you had to crane your neck to see above you.

A wearable shirt, that also acts as a solar charger. Make your own power to charge your devices.

This image of the t-shirt above with solar batteries attached to the fabric, only skims the surface of its potential. A few years ago I wrote a little fictional snippet of my vision for the future. And I wrote that I saw people walking about their day wearing entire suites made from solar panels that would be seamlessly integrated into the material for comfort.

To the left at eye level, several robots for the home have been added, Google’s Alexa and Jibo. Jibo keeps frantically turning its “head” as it tries to catch a command. A baby seal, that looks more like a soft toy but is actually a robot designed to relieve anxiety, a bit like a FurReal toy, this robot I remember seeing from the robots exhibition at the Science Museum last year. Now that was an impressive exhibition.

Moving further, there is yet another broken, or switched off piece of technology. A mirror that has a censor camera installed inside it, so that when you stand in from of it not only does it give you the weather outside for the day right on the mirror but also recognises your mood. Does it add an inspirational quote for that mood? I don’t remember, but if not it certainly should.

Next to that there were objects that seemed to be thrown in together because they were of similar theme. Technology that aides the human. Professor Stephen Hawking’s communicator. A special device to help the colourblind see colour (an outdated device in my opinion as there are glasses that you can purchase, that resemble sunglasses but in fact have a very special lens that enables the colourblind to see colour). A specially designed Paralympian running foot, that uses the spring effect to help the runner run more smoothly. A skintight “wetsuit” that has electrodes sawn into the fabric, that according to the plaque can stimulate ageing muscles that of an elderly for example. This option seems far more comfortable than what the robotics are developing at present, for example the HAL (hybrid assistive limb) suit. An exo-scheletal pair of robotic legs that you put on to help with walking.

Walking on through, I’m a bit baffled, is this a decorative installation or part of the 100+ objects? There are several black plinths and stackable chairs. This is part of the future of dining alone. How depressing. Not only is this an insult to humanity that we will loose communication skills between ourselves but it also makes us lonely eaters. Now I’ve eaten alone before, I’m sure most of you reading this have too, but when eating alone we are a far cry from lonely. But looking at the minimal bottle of “food” (an entire meal blended into a drinkable juice) that was standing on top of that so called table, it made me feel lonely indeed. Remember this is also all steeped in darkness. Personally I wouldn’t visit such a restaurant by choice.

Ahead is a “foldable” temporary cabin-like home. Designed as a disaster relief or for the use by refugees it has electricity, small windows and a roof. Really what else do you need? Inside was a prosthetic hand designed for a child whom was badly burned in a house fire. This part of the exhibition was heavily influenced by the refugee crisis and how people are standing together undefeated despite their hardships. An orange flag hangs high to represent that defiance.

Now look above you.

Facebook’s Aquila drone which flies Wi-Fi to remote locations and is powered by the sun.

And I’m just thinking, the drone is impressive, but let’s keep those remote places remote.

Society. Does democracy still work? Ask the curators. A glimpse at how we work as a society. A section on how we form new governing establishments in the face of destruction of old ones, where amid chaos we need leaders to help us climb out of dire circumstances to reach our goals of harmonic cohabiting with one another. Where there is no war only peace, where there is no hate, only love. When does it become OK for us to take on a role of a superhero saviour for the benefit of the people? The “Super Citizen” also known as the ex-mayor of Bogotá, Antanas Mockus, challenged the wrongdoers, standing on the side of justice.

Voting papers, fake disinformation for Brexit, as well as online bots that influence your political thinking on social media. Remember Russia was blamed for that one. A new system of keeping all citizens information in Lithuania on a small chip imbedded into a card the size of a credit card. Good luck restoring your identity should you loose it. How would you prove that you are you if you do? I presume the goal is to get rid of the paper trail that we have now, but doesn’t it also make it more easy to steal someone-elses identity through hacking? I actually know someone who owns such an eID, and they say that the convenience of having it all in one place is very advantageous.

At the top of this mount (for some reason there is a ramp that zig-zags up as you proceed through the exhibition) stands a prototype of a Volkswagen car, a car of the future. Only one of several visualisations of a potential future. This car combines smart technology and assisted driving together, where you can sit in a spacious cabin without having to have your hands at the wheel. In fact I don’t remember seeing a wheel at at all, instead a hypothetical conversation was on loop between a doctor and an AI PA on the doctors way to work.

Then comes the discussion if cities as we know them, are they obsolete, or if they are for everyone. What kind of question is that? Where there are people, there will always be a community, and a community large enough will inadvertently become a city. Cities are fluid, as our needs change so does the surrounding background.

A grand idea can come to life through crowdfunding. People of Rotterdam decided they needed a pedestrian bridge, there was only one snag, the city would not fund it. So the citizens got together, gathered money to hire an architect and between 2011-2015 built the impressive pedestrian bridge. No less impressive is the ambitious project of the city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi, a zero carbon city since 2006.

Passing through social communal living housing, apartments where everything is in one place, is too reminiscent of Communism and therefore feels more like taking a step back instead of forward. Why even bother going out at all?

I skim through the coiled springs of tree social network. Coils of wire wrap around a tree trunk, the tree acts as an amplifier for Wi-Fi through it’s tree route network. Completely harmless to the trees it only aides human communication.

I don’t linger at the stock market monitors, moving numbers, small windows of current news in the corners of the screans. I don’t understand a thing. I skim through the map of internet cables under the sea and ocean. I’ve seen this image before it’s vastness is no less impressive. Next to it is a bit coin mining device. Frankly I’m amazed that the bitcoin has lasted that long. It was a bad idea from the start and only is beneficial to the dark web, but how beneficial is the dark web to society? I scoff at the toy panda that supposedly contains documents smuggled out by Edward Snowden. Well that explains the security. Why is that even here?

The next part of the exhibition is dedicated to the science of space. My kind of science. I was expecting to see a grand exhibit dedicated to the great progress made by SpaceX, but was disappointed to see only a small clip and not the best one out there either. That felt incredibly underwhelming. There were other artefacts on display however so I just moved on to observe those instead. There was a prototype of a small satellite built and launched in India, which also claims to be more cost effective to build and launch than most currently built satellites.

A single “leaf” that works as a real life leaf, going through the process of photosynthesis. When I read the description, I was amazed that this even could be possible (insert ‘mind blown’ emoji).

Mars. Will we really witness the colonisation of this planet during our lifetime? How fascinating will that day be, just imagine. As you have probably heard there is already a group of people, of various professional backgrounds, in training to be the first to live on the red planet. If that is at all possible. How much did the movie The Martian predict of that potential? There is one stark difference, in reality this will be a one way trip.

This makes me think of our longevity. With better quality of life in most parts of the world, we now live longer and that average age keeps growing too. I’m not going to go into a debate on how we should organise ourselves so we do not destroy our planet for the sake of living long lives. I will touch on the subject of cryogenics. Since there was a great big cryogenic capsule on display and all the equipment laid out in front for you to see. All the stuff that will be used to prepare your body before they freeze you as preservation of your body, mind you this is after you have already died. All in the hope (for the dead person) that they can be reanimated and be treated with the cure, that by then had been invented and could potentially save the life of that said frozen person. That was long winded, did you understand a single word I just said? Me neither. Oh and you could do this for yourself at a mere cost of $28,000, and that’s at the Cryonics Institute located in Michigan, USA. Please click on the link for further reading on the subject it’s quite interesting. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take photographs of the cryonic vessel that was on display as photographing in this section was forbidden. However of equal importance you can see data chips that are round and clear the size of a 2p coin but which can hold around 360 terabytes of information. Yes you heard or rather read this right. The information can be stored for 13.8 billion years, don’t ask me where they got that number from, and can also withstand high temperatures of up to 1000℃. Developed right here on UK soil at the Southampton University. Isn’t this something quite amazing?

We’re almost at the end I promise. Stay with me. Lastly but not least I will mention the library that was compiled by the curators for this exhibition. This part welcomed you to browse through the books on display. These you could find anywhere really, but that is not the point. What annoyed me the most was how under-apreciated art had been. This library was supposed to represent everything that was important to humanity to rebuild itself should a catastrophe occur. All the books there were worthy to be there, they were vital and valuable in their knowledge. You know there is a ‘but’ coming. Here it is. Art is equally important. It teaches us not only the obvious technique or style but it also puts a visual reference to past history. And if not that, it also teaches us to reason, to feel and express, to think and imagine. That is why in my opinion there should have been at least one general collection of the most influential art works of the world.

Upon exiting you are invited to take a photograph with light reflecting letters which you individually pick out to spell a word. Switch on flash, snap, next. You aim to end the sentence “The Future is …” Insert word. By the end of the exhibition, like I said at the beginning, I left with a heavy heart. I was not inspired, I was not in awe with how far we have reached or exited for inventions yet to come. Needless to say I left without comment. I think what was the cherry on the top for this experience, and of course I am being sarcastic here, was the dome that was erected above your head to imitate a planetarium, only you didn’t see constellations but a sea of satellites. So many, just like stars. And that just slumped my spirits right down. How can you be in awe of all these satellites that orbit around our earth, so many out of service and just junk. When will we do something about clearing those away, when space debris will become a hazard? Isn’t that a bit late?

I’ll end on a happier note. The only reason why I didn’t become an astronaut was because there was no way to have a great cup of coffee up in space. Now Lavazza have saved the day! I can go start my training. See you in space. I’ll be star trekking.