Ray Bradbury and E. Lily Yu both dive into a futuristic world where technology is different from the one we have today. Both, “The Pedestrian” and “In the Forests of Memory,” are set in a somewhat sad, slightly dystopian kind of future. There isn’t anything threatening the existence of mankind like killer robots or spaceships but the soul of humanity seems to be dim.
In “The Pedestrian”, Bradbury walks us through a world where absolutely every family and individual is glued to a television screen inside their home. The police force is greatly reduced which is proportional to the amount of crime there is in the world. Is a world with almost non-existent crime a better one at the cost of people losing their will to be outside?
E Lily Yu gives us “In the Forests of Memory,” where the essence of people seem to be recorded in a 3D version at their tombstones with realistic features and responses. Their voices and faces are all pre-recorded but there are still graves which are visited. There’s still forgotten digital memories with no one to talk to even if their next of kin are still living. One might think that the ability to see a loved one who passed away might fill a cemetery more than before but that’s not true.
In both of these stories technology and AI was supposed to bring us closer together and give us free time to do what we wanted. In “The Pedestrian”, the families are all cooped up in their little house with the glare of a screen reflected on their face but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re spending quality meaningful time. Yu’s character is almost a ghost in the modern world due to the empty echoes and interactions it’s filled with.
Today we see ourselves constantly updating technology and giving away “busy” work to computers. We’re behind screens more and more per day and there doesn’t seem to be an end to it. AI and technology do solve many problems and help us advance but there is always a cost.