Chapter 21 Recall

by Yağmur Ceylan

We love the world with the resources it offers us right now and we exploit it at some point. We despise the future and live today without thinking about future generations. So, will the nature we use be able to withstand us and our unconsciousness? Will the resources be able to provide us with water in infinite time? It’s a little story from the year 2050. About what can happen if we don’t change.

The world, which is estimated to be between 4-5 billion years old, has welcomed us people for 195 thousand years. Such proliferation of urbanization and human population took place in the very near future. We have just reached the half of the 21st century and the world has become unable to handle the human population and its unconsciousness. The year 2020 was just over and the world population had reached 7.8 billion people. According to the predictions of those in the field at that time, it was expected to be 9.7 billion in 2050. The world population could not reach that number. The sharp and harsh population policies that the states started to implement were limited to one child for each family. It was one of many decisions taken when it came to the damage to nature and the insufficiency of natural resources to the existing population. But the real reason was not the explosion of the population. Mankind was deprived of nature. In fact, it was because of the unconscious human race rather than the population growth. Without thinking about tomorrow, we consumed water, built buildings and destroyed trees, concrete, did not restrict plastic production, and our oceans turned into a huge garbage container. As a result, we were deprived of nature and lived in closed boxes. Going out is costly because we cannot breathe outside of our homes without a special artificial oxygen mask. These masks filter the toxic air and allow us to breathe. However, my mother tells that she had been walking around the streets and parks comfortably until 30 years ago and enjoying the summer by entering the seas that are now inaccessible. The air was not poisoned, the sea was not polluted, and the ecosystem was not so disrupted. Especially in the near future, government, industry and human behavior made the Earth, that beautiful blue planet uninhabitable today. Yes, the technology is very advanced. Oil reserves are depleted, water is in tanks and quota, the air is poisoned, the rivers have dried up, the living ecosystem in the seas is completely over and very dirty. All of these have been resolved. Electricity replaced oil, mask replaced clean air. Companies that are ruthless and do not respect their nature have made the world like this and subsequently offered us “compensation” and they are still focusing on making money. Thanks to technology, I can chat with my friend at home with the hologram system without leaving the house, as if they were with me. I don’t even have to go out. If I want to eat something, the artificial food that gives me its taste is served to my plate from a device whenever I want. If you need to go out, transportation is provided by electric vehicles. When we want to learn how to paint, a virtual teacher is right next to us. But are all these compensations enough? Not.

When we look at the first civilizations as well as what my parents told, people who formed civilizations built around water now live in an illusion created by technology. There is no longer a lake where I can go and feel its coolness. There is only a dry cover of soil. There is no forest trail on which I can take a walk with my family or boyfriend on Sunday mornings. There are sights that I only see on TV but that I cannot access and never reach. The health system was very primitive in the early years when nature was disrupted (compared to now), but they also made it very progress. When you enter a cylindrical mechanism, this mechanism immediately detects your disease. State institutions have sufficient equipment for detection, but access to treatment is not that easy. If there is anything going on about the old order, it is that money and power open every door. Maybe even some types of cancer that did not have a cure 40 years ago are very short and painless to treat. But access to this has a structure and material accessible to the upper segment. The lower segment still lives at risk of long-term treatment and failure. The risk of death has decreased significantly compared to the past. As with many things, technology has improved the healthcare industry a lot. In the years when the ecosystem started to deteriorate, many diseases appeared due to lack of water, air pollution and similar reasons. Like many things that were inadequate at first, the health system also gave an alarm. However, the remedies for these were resolved in a very short time and it became easier for people to get used to the “new” world order. Because if someone who lost his cousin 30 years ago from kidney failure is experiencing the same situation now, he can easily avoid death with a bionic kidney produced with bioprints.

But the real problem is not diseases caused by environmental factors that come with our destruction of the Earth. Because solutions to most environmental and physical problems are in our lives. The main problem of today is psychological disorders. Humans, who have been intertwined with nature for years, were able to cope with urbanization and isolation in the early 21st century. He could find friends and make friends with various phone applications, even if he didn’t know his neighbor, his colleagues or virtual friends were enough. He could open a series of movies and forget his loneliness without needing someone to accompany him while he was eating. Even psychologists were effective at this time. But we do not determine the conditions of today. Previous mistakes made us locked in the house. Most businesses can work from home and people are far from socializing. The areas where you can socialize are not the same as before. The fact that my mother, who was 24 years old in 2020, could not see the environment in which she was born and grew up, and the fact that humans have lived with nature since their arrival makes it difficult to adapt to the current world order. It causes psychological depressions in the age group of 40 and over. The return of this situation was the increase in suicide rates. Age groups accustomed to living the virtual or old recorded nature images we see on TV in their old lives are struggling with depression. This situation, which is easier for us, is not easy for individuals over the age of 40-50 who have previously trekked with the sounds of birds, entered the sea, and went to work in the morning in the fresh ferry air.

I built a technology and virtual ecosystem to make this age group feel that they are living (as they call it) to a certain extent. I have a technology company of my own, and I have worked only like other companies to physically improve the life we live in. But I skipped the psychological dimensions of the event. The results of the last 5 years have revealed how much of a psychological depression and nostalgia mentioned age group (40+) experienced. We are now in an irreversible situation. There are two main groups. One of those who were born into this situation. The other one has to adapt to this situation. I don’t remember much because I lived through the transition period in my childhood, but for people who have been with nature for centuries, this situation is hidden somewhere in the subconscious. Depressions in daily life and alienation from the current situation apply to all individuals. The technology, which can be considered as the very advanced level of VR technology, which has found a place in human life in the 1990s, can be called a memory creation. The purpose of this technology is to simulate a section of the user’s previous life (before the Earth has changed and transformed so much). To recreate a memory that the user actually experiences, apart from a clear place-time phenomenon. To enable her/him to experience that sunny summer day when he goes to Lake Abant, the landscape of a plateau in the Black Sea, the crushing of the snow under his feet in Uludağ, with the transfer of feelings, sounds and scents. So a different, special experience for everyone. There is a version developed for individuals who do not have any memories of the past. With various images from old documentaries, TV shows and many other documentable sources, we take people to the shore of a lake, to a vineyard house, to the sea, to the forest road and spend time with the scent of flowers and bird sounds. Those who did not stop the bad course of the old life and continued their industrial activities by not paying attention to the depletion of natural resources and the deterioration of the ecosystem, and those who add value to the value of their companies can still live things about the old life. People who are unaware of most things and who can achieve very little effects with the changes they will make have to live the barren world.

An ancient Injun saying says; ‘When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money’. But it seems that although this situation was experienced, human beings could not get their share from the situation.