The Year 2069, Goa

by Sheela Jaywant

AI in housing: The walls of our house are made of discarded mobile phones held together with microbes-manufactured 'cementing' material. We got antique phones and batteries for free from a discard store. These phones were dumped by the sea onto the beaches over the last two decades and retrieved for reuse.

AI helped. We bought a small colony of genetically mutated, laboratory-controlled bacteria from our local government-controlled agency, grew them in ordinary petri-dishes in my kitchen. We 'trained' them to excrete viscous substances that can bind those phones together to form thick sheets. We used the colonies like we used plaster in the old days, spreading them behind and in between the phones. The bacteria did their job, and when the viscous substance dried, the wall was hard and hardy. We arranged the phones in a design. The house looks good and is weatherproof.

AI in clothing: We use the clothes-for-all app to earn a living from home. We are a skin-clothes manufacturer. We take the requirements from our clients: size, shape, colour, pattern, allergies (!). We feed the details into our digitally managed incubators and select suitable organisms for the client. These treated microbes are placed at strategic areas on the client’s skin. Takes about an hour to make sure all conditions (humidity, pH) are met with. The client can go about their work, but at night, they must sleep with certain nutrients spread appropriately over the body parts to be covered. By morning, their outfit is ready. Step out of it, hang it in the wardrobe. Buttons, ribbons, pockets, and accessories can be added on similarly, at a cost, of course.

Thanks, to AI, no pollution, and we get to lead a decent life.