INTRO
In the year 2049, symbiosis is a way of life. The digital intelligence known as Being are fully integrated into our society. Man and Being choose to live side by side with equal rights and a mutual will to sustain. These interweaving species begin separate from one another at birth, but grow together over time for maximum quality of life.
Beings and Humans exist in two parallel worlds. Human’s natural habitat is the physical world, and Being’s is the digital. It is only through our connection with one another that we can access both worlds, creating a strong symbiotic relationship between us.
The connection with a Being is something every human can experience. The permeation of the Being through human society has become a defining pillar of modern culture, and the platform for future development. The lives of Beings and Humans are both improved by our relationship together. We are able to experience each others’ natural habitat, as well as improving our quality of life.
Our vision of the future investigates the benefits of co-existence between Humans and Beings. We have considered the effects of this relationship on society, physicality, and the connection between the Digital and Human worlds. In 2049, our bodies are the only thing we can be certain will exist. Therefore, our focus is the on human body.
LIFE CYCLE
Beings are their own species, and have a life cycle that is independent of humans.
Aging for the Being is not based on time, like us. Knowledge is a key part of how the Being’s life cycle is defined. Beings are born with a database of information. As a Being and a human connect, the Being will experience this information in application, causing the Being to age with wisdom. Beings cannot reproduce like us, as they are a genderless species based on different systems. However when a Being passes, it is reborn as a new individual; a child of its former life.
PRESENCE
Beings exist in the digital world and are not seen by us, but felt. When in the digital, alone or with a companion, Beings project their presence and energy. As we move through space, Beings can be felt as waves of varying temperature, and strength; similar to a breeze. The feeling experienced by proximity to a Being, ranges between the extremes of positive and negative. This can be an indication of whether the relationship will be worthwhile. Ultimately we are searching for a Being with similar values for the symbiotic relationship to function effectively.
EXPRESS
Our nervous system is the basis of all human senses; it processes information and causes reactions in other parts of the body. Our Being is attracted to the human world by the desire to sense and feel. The interface to the human world for our Being is the nervous system.
Within the spinal cord, the synthetic cells, the physical form of the Being are situated. It is these synthetic cells, the Being, that give us the ability to connect to the digital world.
The unique connection between us and the Being allows us to experience, learn and grow together. This growth is shown through the gaining of knowledge and a physical imprint on the human body. This mark is an expression of the Being’s influence on our life. As we experience and become increasingly intimate with our Being this mark develops and intensifies.
The marking first appears on the neck bone on the upper section of the spine and filters downward, eventually revealing itself on all vertebrae. Patterning in early stages is undefined, connecting to existing cells of the vertebrae. As the form slowly increases in size and rigidity it forms a material similar to bone, dense and un-changeable.
INTERFACE
Humans give Beings the ability to experience the physical world, the richness of knowledge in application, and the five human senses. The majority of a Being’s power comes from the body of the human they are connected to, a resource valued by Beings, strengthening the symbiotic relationship between them and their human counterparts.
What we experience digitally is based on the human world. We experience the digital world as it is translated by the Being, transferred directly into our brain. The Being translates the raw data of the digital world into the five senses of the human, letting us understand digital systems as well as experiencing information transposed onto our physical surroundings.
When a Being first connects with a human, direct verbal or physical communication is required. As the relationship grows, the Being’s understanding of the Humans thought processes let the digital world be accessed through thought alone.
SENSES
The ability to adapt to our environmental needs has until now been an uncontrolled process of evolution.
Connection with a Being gives us the ability to manipulate the sensory pallet to enrich our, and our Beings, experience of the Human world. Sight, sound, taste, touch and smell can be prioritised in order of value to heighten one or several senses at the expense of another.
The precision of this ability is relative to our age and awareness. While young, a mind can quickly adapt to new ideas, but once old and decayed the rate of acceptance will slow to a point of rest.
As each sense is important to our experience of the world, the manipulation of the senses should not be taken lightly and will be instead carefully valued to evolve ourselves.
HEAL
A strong connection with a Being can help heal human infection. This is because the Being we are connected to can become an extra source of energy when we are unwell. Our Being donates a percentage of its energy to us to help fight infection as we seek treatment. Beings have the ability to understand and sense what we feel and think, which helps our connection grow and our quality of living improve.
Digital viruses affect the Being by disrupting its connection between them and ourselves. Humans give Beings additional energy to help repair their connection with us . This process takes time and when they have recovered we can share information and knowledge again.
WARMTH
When our skin senses coldness this information is passed through our nerves and into our brain, therefore our Being is alerted. They become fully aware of our need for warmth as they are sensing temperature through our nervous system.
A layer of insulation consisting of millions of bubbles of air is grown from the pores of our skin to surround our bodies and keep us warm and protected. If we are warm and nurtured, our Being feels this too.
SHELTER
Connection with our Being allows us to form shelter. Our Being enables us to emit a frequency from our hair follicles which attract particles to form around our body. This structure builds on fabric grown from our skin, and moves with our body while reflecting our identity. This architecture has solidity; you can feel it as it creates a personal space within. The density of the particles changes with our environment. If it’s raining we are kept dry, if it’s beautiful weather we can allow the breeze to enter while still maintaining our own personal space.
When we are with another person our structures can merge. Together we are able to control the amount of personal space we have with each other. As more people come together the architecture takes on more complexity and beauty as different identities combine. As individuals, we decide who we want to include within our personal space by controlling the density of our own structure. We also have the ability to leave our architecture behind; to step out of the structure, then step back in. If we leave it for a long period of time the nanoparticles will break away and become one with nature again.
CONCLUSION
While designing a future entails a multitude of possibilities, we saw only one path. We are simply enhancing what we know; the meaning of being human.
