Funding Funnel 2

In 2035, a generation from today, Alejandra leaves her house in Glasgow for a day out. Due to increases in social funding, she is able to spend more time in, and engaging with, her community, advancing her own education in whatever way she pleases. Universal basic income (UBI) is a reality, which largely takes care of Scottish residents’ basic needs. Due to the comfort and security that UBI brings, people are able to pursue their own interests beyond just the needs of their careers. Aspirations aren’t solely connected to their capital gains. One of her regular outings is to spend time with some of the older residents in her neighbourhood. As part of a community-funded programme, locals can take time to befriend other residents with fewer regular contacts, such as the elderly and home-bound. Younger generations get a chance to learn about the experiences and lives of older generations, and vice versa.

Alejandra is also an immigrant. With being a new resident to Scotland, she’s using her spare time to learn about the history of her area. Glasgow, yes, but also wider Scottish history. Her ability to learn is shared with the wider population’s abilities to expand their personal growth and knowledge. For example, she is learning a new language (her third), and she seeks these opportunities out of pleasure, as opposed to something necessary for her career. Libraries become a major hub within city communities. In Glasgow, libraries are centrally located, near transport links. This is an explicit effort in redesigned infrastructure to increase access to knowledge, history, information, support, and more, for all who seek it; Residents and visitors alike. Libraries become key epicentres because they are open to everyone, with data access open to all. Information, historical records, artefacts and more are digitally preserved to ensure greater access for generations. There becomes less siloing of knowledge (e.g. behind academic paywalls, behind bureaucracy, behind opacity in discovery). Our world-travelling resident finds digital records about Scotland going back hundreds of years; Not to mention that much of what Alejandra finds is aided by the staff and digital archive formatting which help point her in the right directions; Thus showing her archives she would never have been aware of, if left to her own devices.

To facilitate equity in digital access, everyone in the city is connected with free, good-quality WiFi. Within homes is prioritised, but public access in city and rural spaces is available as well. Greater digital connectivity gives way to new technologies. Alejandra uses virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to visit museums and facilities for historical projects. VR and AR are layered on wearable devices like the old “Google glasses” prototypes. Objects within museums, books, libraries, and random city areas can be scanned. She uses AR overlap when walking around Scotland which allows her to see historical Glasgow reenacted, reconstructed, repurposed, and all with commentary. Such mainstreamed technologies bring more enriching experiences to visually impaired and deaf residents and tourists. In an effort to accommodate such new abilities to be immersed in the past and present simultaneously, at any given time, Glasgow is pedestrianised, particularly city centre. This allows Alejandra to safely walk around with her VR/AR attachments and have these experiences without fear of traffic disruptions.

The same innovations that bring such new VR/AR technologies also bring about universal translators. Alejandra takes notes on a digital notepad that are instantly and accurately converted to text, which can be translated to other languages. Not just verbally (for spoken and written words) but for objects as well. People can use their newly designed wearable devices, spawned from the old smartphone tech, to scan nearly anything and have it translated for them and created into 3D digital files. It started with print, where google translate would roughly translate across most known languages, but it quickly advances into physical translations as well. 3D objects can be scanned and described with fairly accurate detail, to help those with visual impairments, spatial impairments, and anyone wanting to simply learn about an object new to their understanding.

A catalyst to all of these advances is the government’s transformational move to decriminalise most, possibly all, known drugs. They move from the legal realm of ‘illicit’ and deregulated to ‘decriminalised’ and regulated. Regulating all substances subsidises much of the new public services. Such laws are possibly not the same in the rest of the UK, but in Scotland, drugs are now regulated and as a consequence, the very definition of who is and is not a ‘criminal’ is changed. Arrests drop for ‘crimes of want’. And this is two-fold. Not only do the laws no longer consider certain acts as criminal offences, but with the security that comes from UBI, other crime rates lessen. This is due to people no longer needing to work outside the boundaries of the law to feed themselves or their family; No longer suffering from widespread desperation and depression that comes with abject poverty and oppression. Such transformations in social justice leads to safer public existence. This makes Scotland a more attractive place for people to visit, for residents to comfortably walk around in major cities, getting lost in VR/AR experiences, and for most to find new fulfillment in personal adventures and growth.