Life in 2050 with Albert and Jessica

I was thinking about a future where everything is embedded everywhere, intelligent and sentient. What would a day of my financial life look like in 2050? 2050 is a long way away, but here is the scenario. By 2050:

• currencies have moved from fiat to digital;
• technology has moved from physical devices to integrated with our brains;
• robots – both physical and digital – do everything for us, and so embedded is now meaningless;
• banks still exist, but purely as places you can trust to give you back your money if you ask;
• most people use a range of services from lending to investing that are dealt with bot-to-bot, no human involved;
• government still exists – countries are not going to disappear – but their operations are severely challenged in keeping up with decentralised structures;
• cryptocurrencies are now core to most trading, as they became the embedded enablement of global supply chains;
• bitcoins are now trading at over $15m each, as they have become the backbone of global structures …

… the list goes on. So, here’s a day in my 2050 life:

I wake up with the bed vibrating. I had set the alarm for 06:30 and the bed is linked to my embedded chip inside my arm. The chip links to my networked glasses, controlled by my voice and eye movements. Feeling annoyed, I sit up and find my personal butler Albert standing by the bed.

Albert: “your breakfast, sir”.

He is holding a tray with freshly boiled eggs, toast, orange juice and hot coffee. I love my robot.

“Thanks Albert”, and I devour the breakfast.

Albert: “I selected these for your day today sir”, and he presents me with a nice shirt, jacket and trousers, all grey. “Remember you have a board meeting at 10:00”.

Ah yes, I have to meet my co-founders of the Universal Economic Forum (UEF) to discuss the situation between China and Australia. Albert has ordered me a drone taxi to get to the meeting and so, after showering and shaving, I fly the 20 minute time it takes to get to the office.

You may wonder why, in 2050, people are still gathering in offices. Well, there’s a simple reason: we like to see each other. It takes a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger, and so being together is still important and, more importantly, we like each other.

The air drone is of no consequence by the way. Albert takes care of all of my billing and accounts. I don’t have to think about anything.

Arriving at our office, I think about how my father used to work. He used to go to a permanent place from 9 till 5. Today, our office is just a place that we choose for that day. There is no office building. Our location is chosen by Albert, communicated to my team and we go there just when needed for the hours allocated. Again, all costs covered by me via Albert or, rather, by Albert’s account, funded by me. I don’t care about these things. It’s all about convenience and consideration.

The meeting goes well debating our relationship with the Moon and Mars colonies, the situation in China and we end up talking about banks and finances. There is concern about the risks between nation states and the cryptocurrencies that back them. After the fracturing of the US dollar as a reserve currency and the rise of cryptocurrencies, the balance of the world has changed. Banks have taken over the trading of cryptocurrencies and now JPMorgan has become the core of the global economy. That’s a systemic risk.

Asking my team what that means, they reply that we cannot stop this momentum but propose that the bank should be nationalised. This would not work for UEF. Nevertheless, it is tabled as a discussion for the next Galactic Nations (GN) meeting.

Leaving the meeting, the air drone taxi hovers outside, ready to take me to my lunch meeting with the President of Metacore. The meeting was set up by Albert to talk with the CEO, Maxima Zuckerberg, to discus the situation with JPMorgan which Metacore acquired in 2042.

Arriving at the restaurant in the penthouse tower of the Shard – yes we still have restaurants and skyscrapers – the drone drops me on the platform of the restaurant. Again, I have nothing to think about as all costs – the drone, restaurant, office hire, you name it – is all handled by Albert bot-to-bot. It was called Agentic AI but it’s now invisible, embedded, seamless money.

Maxima and I enjoy a great three course experience but disagree on some fundamentals. I argue that the GEF would not endorse Metacore running more governmental services on behalf of the GN. She argues back that the GN have no power to change their policy as the currencies are networked, connected and unrelated to the GN or GEF’s powers. We agree to disagree.

After lunch, Albert pops up in my lens – did I mention that we all now have virtual lenses with visualisation tools? – and tells me that there is an issue. Apparently my payment for the apartment had not been processed.

These days, we all live in apartments that are rented – no-one can afford to buy a house – and my payment had dropped. Whoops! With a left-eye wink, everything was sorted. But then what amazes me is how everything is sorted with a left-eye wink these days, but that’s because everything is embedded, invisible, everywhere and lightning fast, real-time.

This breakthrough came through in the 2030’s when quantum computing really took off. The integration of quantum with AI and cryptocurrencies changed the world. Add onto this the colonisation of the Moon and Mars and rapidly the old world order of nations collapsed. We now live with a global currency with global currencies powered by quantum, AI and crypto. It is a very different world to my father’s generation.

With all of this in hand, I land back at my apartment where Albert is waiting. I ask where is Jessica? Albert tells me that she has been charging but is available when ready. Jessica is my female partner. She’s not a human partner, but she’s a partner in all senses of the way you think about these things. After all, marriages ended in the 2040s – who wants to be stuck with someone for life? – and we moved into the era where you could choose whoever you wanted to be with.

Alfred brings Jessica to the lounge and, as always, she looks amazing. The only thing that lets her down is the look in her eye, which is never quite real … but hey, I can live with that.

“How was your day”, she asks.

“Pretty cool”, I reply. “We sorted out some issues with JPMorgan, the GEF and GN, and now I’m thinking we should have some fun!”

“Nice”, Jessica replies. “So, what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we should have a day in the stars looking back at Earth”, I reply.

“That would be nice”, Jessica says. She never, ever disagrees with me.

“Albert”, I call. “Can you book us a flight this afternoon on the London Starship?”

Albert says sure and, minutes later, brings us our tickets for two to see the stars on the London Starship. That’s a bit of a step-up from the London Eye. Thing is that I get an alert in my lens saying that the tickets are 2,000 Gcoins more than available in my main account.

It’s not a problem – with an index finger here and left-eye wink there – money was moved in seconds from reserve accounts to the London Starship company. It’s easy-peasy if you know how.

So, Jessica and I are ready to go for an afternoon trip to the stars, Metacore is on alert for more GN and UEF action, and I’ve solved a few problems, although still worried about the frictions between China and Australia.

But, well, that can wait until tomorrow. For now, Jessica and I enjoy the view of Earth. She points and asks me: “what’s that place?” There’s a place that, unlike the rest of Earth, is all black. “Ah, that place”, I say, “used to be …”