Silence Descends: The End of the Information Age, 2000-2500

Chris Knight is managing editor of the Canadian HR Reporter.

George Case has written a future history; that is, he takes the point of
view of a historian at the end of the 24th century and recounts the
period from the 1990s to the “present,” speculating on where our
glut of information—databases, television, the Internet—might lead.
The tone is optimistic, detailing a world in which we eventually
discover that more information is not necessarily better. Nuclear and
natural disasters convince people of the 21st century that information
cannot adequately transmute human suffering; in the 22nd, teleportation
makes it as easy to move objects as it now is to move data—a neat flip
side to the telegraph, which first allowed data to flow more quickly and
cheaply than corporeal objects. In the future, virtual reality is
supplanted by reality itself.

By the 24th century, the worldwide “Community of Soul” means
citizens “can enjoy the limitless distribution of creativity, sharing
talent unencumbered by physical restraints. Neither culture as a whole
nor individual artists are dependent as they once were upon financial
patronage, political license, or social climate.”

Case sometimes becomes preachy when discussing the 1990s, but he is in
good company: more than 130 years ago, Jules Verne was taking potshots
at his contemporaries from the safety of an imagined 20th century.
Mostly, however, this is a thought-provoking and often exciting vision
of our world, after much stumbling, taking a few steps in a sane
direction. Along the way are a frothy mix of bon mots—some real, from
the likes of Emily Dickinson and Arthur C. Clarke; others spoken by
Ingrid Andersen, Canada’s prime minister of 2018, who promises to
“wean the state from its data gluttony.” Together, they create an
engaging picture of times to come.