TECHNUTOPIA 2073
When Technology is the New Nature
22nd of April, 2073
My helicopter landed on the small landing pad of the station. The children ran up to greet me.
“What was that strange bird?” They screeched, unaccustomed to the sight and sounds of a helicopter.
“It’s a helicopter!” I shouted over the the noise of the helicopter. I stepped onto the station ground and stumbled. as the ground swayed beneath me. The children giggled. Walking on this platform was like walking while drunk; the ground swayed beneath me.
One boy in particular caught my eye. He skipped and ran even as the station platform dipped and swayed. I stumbled over to him. He started speaking to me immediately.
“Hello, what brings you here?
“I’m here to find Edna, she takes care of your supply from the continent….”
The boy smiled at me mysteriously.
“I’m Catherine. What’s your name?”
“I’m Nemo.”
“You walk like a natural. Like you own this station”
“They say one day I will be the leader of this place! And I also swim! But I wish I could fly like you. My world is not so big… I can walk it all in one day! How is it beyond the horizon? How many days is your world?”
“Well, my world takes more than a lifetime to traverse”
“I’ve learned in school that your world yearns to explore the sky. My world yearns to explore the ocean.”
This was my first encounter with Nemo, aged 12. He was born on Pacific-1. His parents arrived to the station as environmental refugees with hopes for a second chance. Over subsequent visits, Nemo and I became friends.
For the 50th year anniversary of Technutopia, I am creating a documentary on Pacific-1. I expected to find a disaster. Instead I found hope.
2025 marked the year that global temperatures rose by 2°C. Agreements were not enough to hold off earth’s disintegration. Catastrophes escalated. Immigration tensions mushroomed to unforeseen heights. 2025 marked the year of many firsts. People were born as refugees and died as refugees. Some never touched dry land. Babies were born with no country.
Scientists huddled together and offered the world a clear ultimatum. Either we once again pledge to limit our impact or we increase our control. Thus environmental technological husbandry was born. It was coined Technutopia.
Climate Watch was inaugurated to create Technutopia. Technology would keep the world stitched together. Grids of satellites would monitor the magnitude of storms. They would water parched land and restore the planet to its natural state.
Ocean Chapter was designated the aquatic arm of Climate Watch. Ocean Chapter deployed numerous stations around the earth, one per ocean. Its stated goal was to support humanity, to reduce ocean pollution and to develop deep-sea medical research. Pacific-1 was one of the offshore stations.The station was a paradigm for cities. It was the future.
For a time it worked. The Ocean Chapter was bringing jobs, food and habitat remediation. But two decades later, all stations collapsed. Back on land, immigration tensions climaxed and local wars broke out. Focus shifted from planetary survival to national security. The meager international funds that sustained the Ocean Chapter disintegrated. The program crumbled into obscurity.
All stations were abandoned. But not for long. Slowly these metallic islands started attracting intellectuals, refugees, artists and wild birds. Pacific-1 quickly became the biggest commune of 21st Century.
News of repopulation of the offshore stations did not reach dry land for many years. Decades later, journalists were dispatched to all corners of the earth to document these newly thriving ocean platforms. That’s how I ended up here, on the Pacific-1, to document this thriving bastion of the Pacific.
21st of February, 2074
I arrived at Pacific-1 yesterday. The ocean waves were rough and rocked the station violently. As usual the station dwellers walked normally while I struggled to stand. Nemo was playing soccer on the helicopter landing pad and invited me to show me the station’s pisciculture. Nemo skipped along the station as I walked behind him, stumbling on the swaying ground.
Fish farming was a way of life at this station. Nemo was a natural. He spent every waking moment at his family’s fish farm pods. These pods were circular holes that incubated fish to send back to the mainland. Nemo led me over to them, holding me by the hand. He must have sensed my nervousness.
“Come and see,” he gestured.
I followed him and looked into a pod. It was simple and ingenious. A net held the fish from escaping out into the sea. The pods were pristine as ocean water cycled rapidly through the nets. Plants surrounded each pod as miniature mangroves to filter the water. Unlike the dirty fish farms that we once had back on land.
“I like to play and hunt sea-gulls among the mangroves,” Nemo told me. “Look! Migratory birds started taking refuge here.” He pointed at birds resting at some pods further on.
Nemo ran towards them and jumped into a pod. He pulled grains from his pocket and threw some in the water. Sea-bass flocked to his side.
I walked over to him in shock.
“How did you learn to swim?” I asked.
“I was 4. My dad pushed me in the water because I broke a net. I saw the fishes and I moved like them. I envy them for moving so fast. Now I can swim with them, see!”
Nemo moved his body from side to side like one of the fish to demonstrate.
22nd of February, 2074
Nemo’s dad is cooking for us tonight. Nemo picks me up from my lodgings and takes me to his home. On his way he went to the community locker and dropped off a massive container that he had tied to himself.
Nemo spoke to me as he walked to his home.
“I had to empty my mom’s dinghy this morning. She spent the night by the plastic continent chipping away at it. Do you know where this comes from?”
“From us…” Sighed Catherine.
“Someone threw that in the water… Are they planning to buy it back?”
“I guess…”
“That’s absurd!” Nemo exclaimed.
I felt embarrassed. Nemo was so happy in this world and everyone seemed so unhappy in my world. Even though we had everything and he had nothing. My world seemed wasteful and absurd.
3rd of June, 2074
This is my first trip back in several months. Nemo has agreed to show me the station laboratory. Pacific-1 has fully equipped labs on the station’s sublevel. These labs were linked to observation spheres at the bottom of the ocean.
In the lab the light is dim and red. Creatures swim around in tall cylindrical aquariums. Temperature and pressure are carefully acclimated to the creature’s needs. Thomas, the head of the station lab introduces himself and tells us proteins are being extracted and tested here.
“Our team will find a way to strengthen human bones to prevent osteoporosis.” Nemo’s eyes widen as he listens.
“I want to do this in the future.” Nemo says, still wide eyed. “But my dad tells me he needs someone in the farm.”
Nemo pulled out a book of sea creatures and flipped a page.
“These are called benthos and only appear very deep. Thomas once showed me a sample under his microscope lenses. He knows about all the species in the ocean and told me that he finds a new one everyday.”
3rd of June, 2074
Later that day in the lab an announcement sounded.
“It-is-now-three-pee-mm-wind-blows-at-ten-mm-pee-hh-sky-is-clear-wind-will-lower-in-the-evening” said an automated voice.
This announcement announced the time of day. It was time to meet Thomas and descend to the bottom of the ocean. He took Nemo and I down in small pods. The long descent was worth the wait.
Deep sea was absolute darkness. The hydrothermal vents were incredible and gave birth to a plethora of life. Life down here came in extraordinary shapes and colors. The vents were comprised of deposits of gold, silver and copper.
I was glad these vents were still intact in contrast to our decaying world back on land and the water above. Many had already been destroyed for the metal deposits that surrounded them. Locations have been omitted from this documentary to protect these rare life forms.
During the entire trip Nemo kept his nose pressed against the wind shield. We saw mountains, canyons and vents. Colorful creatures floated around us. These creatures pressed up against our the wind shield curious at our bright lights in the canyon of darkness. The water was peppered with grains of plastic.
“Do you see this beauty? Nemo shouted, I can’t let it be destroyed. I hope your land is not as dirty as this ocean.”
After this undersea journey I was left with the feeling of profound failure. We had not invested enough in our heralded Technutopia. It was supposed to be our savior. And here I was looking at the plastic residues from the plastic continents that had filtered down to the bottom of the ocean. Pacific-1 and its sister stations were our last beacons of hope. Pacific-1 was a paradigm for cities. It remains the future.