Free Write Challenge

“Never before in the history of warfare had there been a continuing explosive; indeed, up to the middle of the twentieth century the only explosives known were combustibles whose explosiveness was due entirely to their instantaneousness; and these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men who used them.”

This is an excerpt from H.G. Wells The World Set Free, in which he predicts not only atomic bombs, but the idea that humans are creating devices designed to harness more and more energy and power. In today’s world, the subject of power and especially energy is all over the news. We may not have flying cars, or cities floating in the sky, but we have instantaneous communication over the vast majority of the entire world, video calls via smartphones and computers, and a great many robots. In a sense, we are living in the future. However, what might the world look like in 100 years? My free-write challenge today is to write about an aspect of what life might be like 100 years from now. Have fun!

Mankind has been struggling ever since the great oil crisis of 2082, where the world’s last supply of oil was used to save the Mars Mission. The colony on mars was only beginning to prosper, but needed additional supplies faster than our modified ion engines could deliver them. Our new united nations had voted to send up rockets with a load of seedlings, oxygen canisters, and medical supplies. This trip would take 12 rockets, using the last 6 tankers of crude pulled from the Pacific Ocean. The oil reserves in China and the Middle East had already been tapped and emptied 2 decades prior, and Alaska had finally been drilled out, the investors leaving not even enough oil for a kerosene lamp. As crude oil was becoming rarer and more expensive, alternate energy sources were sought out. Building on the research of the early 2010’s, countries and factions had been producing windmills, lithium batteries, and dams to lower their reliance on crude oil. But it was not enough. By 2100, the cobalt and silicon mines (used for lithium) were dry, and windmills couldn’t power cars, although Elon Musk was rumored to have a windmill powered yacht. Old gas powered cars filled wasteland dumps all over the world. The remaining cars were an odd assortment of electric cars running on decade-old lithium batteries, and new cars which used a blend of new energy sources. MazX, a Chinese company, was using miniature nuclear reactors in their cars, although the rods had to be swapped out every 250,000 miles. An india car company was using solar panels, but they were running out of silicon to continue mass producing them. Meanwhile, America, a dwindling nation, was back to using coal power motors, albeit with hyper efficient steam engines. Canada, or North Britain, as it is now called, was researching Moon-powered cars, attempting to harness the power of the tides by using a material called “super water” that reacts strongly with the moons gravitational pull. These test cars worked great at full moon, but with a new moon, would hardly get up to 20 miles an hour. Bicycles were back in full production, as were dog sleds, at least among the teens. The landscape however, would be forever scarred. Mass landfills dotted the world. Empty drilling platforms and mines were everywhere. The future had arrived.