In the last installment, I talked about some of the influences on fashion design in South’s version of 2032. Now I’ll look at the clothes themselves. In general, I intend to avoid the usual future-styles tropes: jumpsuits (hot and impractical for everyday wear), metallic fabrics, unisex smocks, government-issued uniforms, and…
Enough with the heavy stuff about surveillance and putting the Fourth Amendment through the shredder. Now I’m going to try something truly foolish: figure out what people will be wearing in May 2032 in the Southern California of South. This is foolish because it’s hard enough to predict what will…
Apropos of my four-part series on surveillance in 2032 America comes this, from Gizmag.com: Using an off-the-shelf Emotiv BCI costing only a few hundred dollars, the team has shown that it’s possible to “hack” a human brain and pull things like bank details straight out of your skull. For more…
In Part 1, I outlined the legal foundations of the surveillance state in 2032. In parts 2a and 2b, I listed some of the capabilities law enforcement and intelligence agencies will have to watch where people go and what they do, say or write. So now that you’re all paranoid…
Last time, I reviewed some (but certainly not all) of the surveillance tools available today to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. This time, I’ll talk about a few of the new wrinkles that have appeared in the 2032 of South. These aren’t sci-fi whizbangs; they already exist, just aren’t deployed…
In Part 1, I reviewed the legal state-of-play enabling the surveillance state in South’s 2032 (disturbingly similar to today’s conditions). In this installment and the next, I’ll talk about some of the tools law-enforcement and intelligence agencies have available to monitor people’s activity and communications. Part 3 will talk about…
Most of the point-of-view characters in South are either under surveillance or doing the surveillance. How does surveillance in 2032 differ from what we have now in 2012? The sad and scary answer: not much. Most of the legal and technological plumbing is already in place and already being used….
I needed a topic this time around that wouldn’t turn into a major research paper. I’m on a roll in Act 3 of South and would like to get on with it. How will people pay for things in 2032? The foundations of retail transactions in 2032 are with us…
Okay, back to the “what do people in 2032 look like?” thread. Part 1 talked about how economics may have an impact on our shapes; today I’ll look at fashion. In this case, “fashion” doesn’t mean clothes (that’s another post down the line); it means what people do to their…
I wasn’t going to get into this so soon, but recent events have unfortunately made this discussion timely. I promise to return to the discussion of physical appearance next time. Remember, if you will, the setup for the world in South: In the America of 2032, the Tea Party and…