In my dreams …

My glasses are coated with a surface that generates electricity from light and charges batteries built into the arms and small LEDs in the corners of the frames.  Now, when I am writing, I tap the bridge and I have light on my page.

In my dreams …

All the areas along the roads are planted with vegetables and berries and fruits, with unpaved footpaths meandering through them.  I can pull up carrots and beetroots, dig up some potatoes, pick silverbeet and cos lettuce for my dinner and gather strawberries for my dessert.  Along with everyone else in the neighbourhood, I tend this passage garden each week.  In winter we have chestnuts, walnuts and almonds, apples and pears, and broad beans; in spring it’s peas and cauliflower.

In my dreams …

My clothes generate electricity as I move and they transform sunlight when I’m outside.  When I go to bed, I plug them into the home grid to add to the power generated by the entire outside of the house.

In my dreams …

Once a fortnight I look at propositions put forward by our elected representatives for us to vote on.  I have three days to think about and discuss these with my wife and friends.  We then all vote on them or suggest amendments.  The representatives serve for eight years, with half of them up for election every four years.

In my dreams …

Australia’s states and territories have been dissolved into a single republic and the president is an Aboriginal woman.

In my dreams …

All private ownership of land has been abolished and most people live in three- to five-storey housing in as much space as the present family needs.  If the family grows, more rooms are made available; when it shrinks, rooms are returned to the ‘pool’.  Land not built on is planted with native trees and shrubs or fruit and nut trees, or is used for growing vegetables and berries.

In my dreams …

Most old people live with their children and grandchildren, with home assistance and nursing care available in the home as needed.  Small hospitals and higher-level aged care homes are within walking distance of most residential areas and they adjoin schools.  Students spend some time each day in those care facilities as part of their education.

In my dreams …

Most schooling is taken up with learning about interpersonal relationships, behaviour, ways of thinking and ways of relating to the natural environment.  Numeracy and literacy are taught within this context.  In primary schools most of the teaching involves ‘play’ and in high schools it is mostly along Socratic principles.  Parents spend some hours each week at school with their children.

In my dreams …

When I need to travel further than walking distance, I summon an autonomous electric vehicle with as many seats and carrying capacity as I need.  Part of my journey will probably be on the transit system when I need to be across the city or in another city or town.  I do most of my work at home and seldom need to travel.

In my dreams …

Friends and relatives ‘visit’ me and I ‘visit’ them via holographic projection in each other’s homes.  We hang out together this way and have meals together.  We can share projected entertainment and engage in social and political gatherings in the same way.

In my dreams …

I need to devote only fifteen hours each week to ‘work’ and I can choose what I devote the rest of my time to.  I meditate and play music and teach and spend time in the exercise room in my building and wander through the thousands of hectares of open space with my camera, documenting the return of once-threatened species of insects, birds and frogs.

In my dreams …

All ideas I can dream of I share freely with others.  No-one is given any property rights over ideas, inventions, performances or creative output.  Everyone is free to make use of and benefit from these.  As a consequence, ideas and inventions that benefit society develop at a faster pace than they did in the past, when they were all but stifled by arguments and court cases over ownership and control.

In my dreams and in my life I am not curtailed by the vested interests of others.

© 2012 Daan Spijer

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See more of Daan Spijer’s writing and his photos at Seventh House Communications