iFuture - A life by design
In the 22nd century, two intertwined algorithms—iDaily and iFuture—plan people’s lives from birth using genetics and behavior. A family must decide whether to trust the plan, fight it, or walk away.
Technological Context
In the 22nd century, genetic testing technology has become very common, the majority of people have access to their genetic profiles. Genetic profile interpretation services, which are based on machine learning algorithms trained on their customers’ genetic data, are thriving. People adjust their daily habits in different aspects of life according to their genetic profile to live healthy lives.
At the same time, human resources management has become heavily dependent on Artificial Intelligence technologies. The algorithms help suggest the most suitable jobs for job seekers and candidates for employers.
At one point, the government of country A published a protocol of AI-assisted life planners for the people and developed a digital necklace as a sensor for data collection. From then on, the newborn babies and pre-school-aged children will be required to have their genetic test done at their next medical appointment and begin to wear the digital watch 24-7. There are two types of algorithms employed: iDaily for planning out the near future and daily routines; iFuture for making long-term plans and make predictions of their occupations that they are most suitable for. The two algorithms are interconnected such that the iFuture keeps getting new information from how well the child performs his/her daily task assigned by iDaily and updating the prediction, at the same time, iDaily updates short term plans accordingly to maximize the likelihood that the child will succeed in the predicted field.
Theme
The screenplay aims to explore the ethical issues involved in AI-powered ability prediction and life planning for people based on their genetic profiles and behavioral patterns in the future. How does digital planning affect a person’s identity and agency? Is it really healthy to live a perfectly planned life? How can predictions and expectations become indirectly but strongly manipulative?
Characters
Matthew: Anni’s husband, Neo’s father
Anni: Matthew’s wife, Neo’s mother
Neo: Matthew and Anni’ son
Narrative
2121 — Pregnancy
Matthew was a 33-year-old male worker in a factory, whose daily job is to put boxes with scanned the barcodes on the boxes, and make sure they are intact before they are shipped. He felt less and less needed in the factory as most of the processes had been automated and more and more workers had left; the fear of losing the job has been more intense. He gradually realized how disappointed he had become in his career and how regretful he was for not applying for college when he had the chance as a teenager. He married Anni 6 years ago, and recently he felt sorry that Anni had to support their family financially for the most part while his job was at stake. At this time, Anni was pregnant, which suddenly brought a lot of hope into his life. He swore to provide the best education as possible for his kid, to let him/her have the best opportunity to have a successful career in the future, unlike himself.
Anni grew up in a family where her parents saw her education as the most important thing, that they restricted her access to entertainment, the time she could hang out with other kids, and even the certain type of friends she was supposed to make. She barely remembered any fun time in her childhood and teenage years. All she could recall the fear of failing her parents’ expectations in her academic performance and being punished. Eventually, she did make it to college and majored in accounting, and her parents finally were satisfied and stopped controlling her life. However, in college, she realized she had lost all her interest in studying and only wanted it to finish as soon as possible. After graduation, she became an accountant, which most of the people around her said it was such a desirable job, however, she only saw it as a boring task she could not escape from.
She has been married to Matthew for 6 years now, and recently, she found she is pregnant. She has a mixed feeling. She is excited to bring a new life to the world, and also afraid the innocent new life will have the same pressured and boring childhood as she did.
2122 — Newborn baby
A boy was born. Matthew and Anni named him “Neo”. They opted in for the new life planning protocol for the new generation. They had Neo’s genetic testing done and began to let the baby wear the watch. On the watch, there is a little screen, which will have more information to show as the kid grows.
One night, Neo was sleeping, Matthew and Anni both got notifications on their phone saying Neo’s genetic testing results are out, and the very first version of the future prediction was generated. At the same time, the little screen on Neo’s watch was lit, showing an icon of a singer. The parents were both excited. However, Matthew was a little bit worried. “It is not a stable job.” “Doesn’t matter. As long as it is what he loves.” Said hopefully by Anni, as she already began to picture Neo on the stage singing to his audience passionately, and how happy and proud she would be.
2128 — A New Student
- Neo was going to start elementary school. Based on the behavioral data collected from the first 6 years of his life, the algorithms predicted Neo’s ideal future occupation as an architect. Accordingly, iDaily filled Neo’s daily plan with more painting and handicrafting time, and set the near future goal to get a good grade in math at school. When there’s no action, the screen of the watch shows a star. The better Neo completed the daily tasks, the brighter the star became. Neo liked that. Keeping the star bright made him proud. Matthew was excited that finally, his son Neo was on the right track to a bright future.
2132 — An Emotional Preteen
Neo was 10. In the past few years, he had been too focused on keeping the star bright. He cried if he failed to do so for even one day. He blamed his friend for asking him to a party in which he accidentally fell from the stairs and broke his leg, causing him to be unable to complete the goals set by iDaily, and the star became dim. He met an adorable cat in the park and played with him after school, and did not watch the videos iDaily suggested him watch that day.
Matthew was worried about Neo’s performance and the deviation from the plans. He rewarded Neo when the star shone, and warned him of failing his life goals when it didn’t.
Anni became concerned about Neo’s mental health after seeing him become sensitive, tense, and irritable. She began to think that following the strict schedule may be ruining Neo’s childhood as her parents did hers. She comforted Neo every time he was down and encouraged him to follow what he really wanted.
2134 — A Teen on Edge
Neo was in middle school. In the past few years, he had been constantly struggling. Part of him wanted to follow the “great plan” and work towards the future that sounds ideal, depicted by the algorithm. However, in real life, on many occasions, the plan prevented him from doing things he really wanted to try out and people he really wanted to hang out with at the moment. Losing spontaneity has made his life tiring, and he does not feel passionate or really look forward to anything at all. As time went by, he became numb to the disappointment from failing the tasks. The more he failed the tasks assigned by iDaily, the more he deviated from the great plan on iFuture. In the most recent update, iFuture predicts he would not be capable of keeping any of the jobs Matthew thought were “decent”; instead, it says Neo is most suitable for a warehouse worker.
Matthew was broken. He completely lost his temper, yelled at Neo using the most hurtful words.
Anni couldn’t stand Neo living this stressful life or Matthew treating Neo as a replacement for himself anymore.
Neo only wanted one thing: to get rid of the system that seemed smart but had taken away all his freedom and emotionally bullied him in a way for his entire life.
Objective (Inner Drives)
Matthew: He projected his dissatisfaction on his son and was obsessed with the idea of letting Neo live the life he didn’t have and make up for his own regrets in life. Instead of making changes to his own life, he transferred the expectations on himself onto Neo. He was willing to take the iFuture predictions rather than Neo’s happiness and freedom as the reality and stubbornly held on to it. Otherwise, he would only have to face his own life.
Anni:She empathizes with Neo a lot and wanted to protect him from the very beginning. However, she wasn’t sure what was right to do. Even though at times she felt the whole prediction and planning thing was completely wrong, when she saw other kids with the shimmering stars on their wrists, she tricked herself that this might actually work. Ultimately, she always wanted a happy childhood for Neo.
Neo: He had been struggling for his entire life. He was trying to find the balance between being an ideal kid as the software planned out and being just himself according to his own thoughts. His core goal is to find the way he should live his life.
Obstacles
In the last scene, the three characters all faced a critical decision for their lives and the destiny of the family.
Matthew was not willing to give up on the whole planning thing, because that would push him to face the reality. He refused to take action to change his own life but was obsessed with pushing Neo onto the ideal track, which brings him some sense of accomplishment as if Neo is a better version of himself that helps him to make his life look better. He didn’t have the courage to do so.
Anni felt sorry for letting Neo suffer for too long, she realized this had to stop. she couldn’t persuade Matthew to give up and face the unpredictability and imperfection of life but she had to stop Matthew and the software from hurting Neo. She had to choose between her son and her husband.
Neo only wanted the planning to stop and to become a normal kid and live in the present. All of his hope was on his mother, and the two of them may have to leave his father at this point to restart the life.
Resolution
Matthew was mad when he heard Neo wanted to get rid of the system and Anni was supportive of her son, he said the most hurtful thing to them. Anni and Neo were determined to stop this manipulated life, even though they may lose by their husband and father. They stepped out of the house, Neo took off the watch and the two of them smashed it. Then they left, and Neo put up a smile, a most genuine one in those years. Matthew suddenly felt something wakening him from the constant lie he was trying to feed himself. He rushed out of the house, seeing Anni and Neo were already far away, the same as the old life he was trying to hold on to.