Postdigital Science and Education | 2021
Educational Futures and Postdigital Science
Abstract
In the year 2021, a global pandemic rages. Big Pharma holds the cure. Public protests roil the streets of major metropolises. Social media is used to expose corporate secrets. Organized crime syndicates use computer viruses to protect entrenched interests. The world is split in two, one real and one virtual, both of which run on data and are powered by the Internet. Random video images become non-fungible tokens, valuable commodities for the blockchain data they unlock. This summary seems to capture some of the highlights of our own lived 2021. I also like to think that this was the pitch used to sell the movie Johnny Mnemonic (Longo 1995), written by William Gibson and based on his short story of the same name (Gibson 1986). Starring Keanu Reeves as the title character, the story follows Johnny, whose brain has been augmented by a wet-wired implant that allows him to upload large amounts of data. Working as a data courier, Johnny smuggles data from a pair of scientists in Beijing who need to get the information to Newark, New Jersey. The world is suffering from a pandemic known as Neural Attenuation Syndrome