The Future

Last Friday I was sitting in my office with a cup of coffee and I was looking through the window. It was a cold, rainy day in Montreal, a fierce wind was blowing and people walked quickly in the streets below, hanging on their umbrella for fear of having a bad hair day. Delivery trucks were blocking the few available parking spots. Fast moving grey clouds were caressing the sky, a few fearless birds were attempting to fly through cross-winds. Cold rain sprayed the windows like German machine guns on Juno beach. The whole scene screamed October.

Since it was the last day of the week, it was easy to guess what was going through the people’s mind. I must submit my time sheet before I leave, if not my manager will yell at me. Or Did my boss really notice how hard I worked this week? Or even I wonder if anyone will notice if I leave at 4pm?

It’s sometimes funny to think that a hundred years from now none of this will matter. We’ll add be dead for one thing, unless that crazy guy in Albuquerque manages to clone me for the benefit of future generations. I’ll give him a call after this post.

Some of the trees down below will still be there, some others will have died from old age. All the cars – even the newest ones – will be rotting in a junk yard 25 years from now. Your performance reports will be deleted just like you will be. Everything here is of transient nature, and chances are members who will be walking these streets in 2110 will have no knowledge of those whose feet walked the same sidewalk a century earlier.

Not that it matters really, lessons of the past are largely ignored by everyone. People are so consumed by their materialistic needs and limited view of the world that wisdom is out of fashion. Who has time to read Twain anyway these days? Take a Gen Y person and offer him to choose between a lifetime of wisdom and a PlayStation, you can bet your shirt the world will run out of consoles by lunch.

Or go scan recent comments posted by your Facebook “friends” and you will realize how shallow and empty most people are. I’m so bored right now. The opposite would be a total surprise. I drank way too much last night, you should see my bathroom. Don’t take this the wrong way, but no thanks. I love Lady gaga so much. Slim Whitman, Hank Williams, anyone? I’m having Cheetos right now. Really, how were you able to get those?

This is why I devote my existence to building a corporation that will outlive its annoying members and its pesky shareholders, and profitable growth is the key to the future. Future members might be able to visualize holograms of our 2010 Annual Tour in vivid details, all available in the intranet assuming IE6 does not live through the 22nd century. They’ll remember fondly the cozy college-like atmosphere when CGI was under 500,000 employees. I expect an extreme version of SERA to jack into our member’s brain through a wireless interface so we can monitor billable time by the second. Ah, the future.

For now, hard rain is falling but climatic adversity is just an inspiration for me. Let’s get back to work.