The Storm

Ollie wakes naturally as sunlight fills the room, she stretches, rolls out of bed, makes a cup of tea, and stands at the window. Colourful buildings sprawl across the city punctured by green parks and public playgrounds. Grey clouds swirl on the horizon. Ollie taps a wrist band and a dance of light appears to hover in the air.

“Weather,” she says.

“Good morning, Ollie,” a calm voice speaks. “Weather. Currently 28 degrees Celsius. Humidity 78 percent. At 2pm, a category two storm is expected.”

The light reshapes itself to become the image of swirling grey clouds, now within her room, information floats below.

Ollie’s room is comfortable and intimate, and most importantly, private, with no cameras or sensors installed. Most residents in the city have private rooms and Ollie is proud of the private room she owns. Exactly everything I need is here.

Ollie exits into the building’s shared space and heads to the kitchen. Each floor has shared spaces maintained by the body corporate for private residences and city government for public residences. Ollie’s wrist phone beeps when she’s close to the food dispenser.

“Two boiled eggs and medium orange juice,” she says. “Kudos currency.”

“Two points have been deducted from kudos currency,” the calm voice says. “7,977 points remain.”

Ollie watches eggs cook.

“Good morning Ollie,” Ava says. “Did you hear there’s a storm coming?”

Ollie looks up as Ava orders cereal for breakfast.

“Yeah, I did. One of the energy spinners was damaged in the last storm and I was thinking we could fix it today.”

“Add it to the project list. I’m keen to help.”

Ollie and Ava sit down at the table and begin to eat.

“Add project,” Ollie says. “Details. Fix energy spinner, floor five, building 212.”

“Project added,” says the calm voice.

Ava taps her phone screen.

“Ava has joined project,” says the calm voice.

“There are three local co-labs available this morning,” Ava says. “Two public, one private. Looks like they’ve got everything we’ll need. Do you want me to book us in?”

“Yeah, ok. Thanks.”

“Ava has invited you to join a project sprint energy spinner. Building 212. Public Co-Lab 2. 10am.” says the calm voice.

“Accept,” Ollie says.

“That’ll give us some time to access the library collection for information on energy spinners, too,” suggests Ava.

“Jamila has asked to join project sprint energy spinner,” says the calm voice.

Ava taps her phone screen.

“Looks like Jamila is a fabricator. That’s useful.”

“Accept,” says Ollie.

“Accept,” says Ava.

—

At 10am, Ollie, Ava, and Jamila meet in Co-Lab 2. As they’re setting up their workspace a young woman steps through the door.

“Are you the team making the new energy spinner? Can I help?”

“How old are you?” asks Ava.

“16.”

“You’ll have to join the project so we’re covered,” Ollie says.

“Thank you,” says the young woman. “I’m Annie. I want to get better at fabrication.”

“Jamila’s a fabricator,” says Ava. “I’m an engineer, Ollie’s a storyteller.”

“Thanks for the opportunity to collaborate,” Annie says. “I saw you were the original project creators.”

“It was Ollie’s initiative,” says Jamila. “How many spinner projects are going on?”

Ava taps her phone.

“Fourteen across the city at the moment. Ollie you got a few more kudos points, too.”

“How do you get kudos points for making a new energy spinner?” Annie asks.

“Well,” says Ava. “People pitch project ideas that residents across the city can do. If you love a project idea you can show your support by giving kudos. A few people love Ollie’s idea and it got endorsed by a city government official, too, so she got kudos, especially as the originator.”

“Or you can form a team to do the project and help make it happen,” Jamila says. “You might earn a few kudos points today, too, if people like what we make.”

“Ok, that’s cool,” Annie says. “How can I help?”

“We’ve loaded up the design for the energy spinner,” Ollie says. “Ava will make a few modifications to improve the design while still adhering to the design standards for the device on floor five.”

“Yeah. I reckon if we add curved wings we’ll generate more energy,” Ava says.

“You can help me with the print and cast, Annie”, says Jamila. “Grab some items from the refuse bin, and we’ll recycle it into new stock.”

Annie joins the project and collects random items to recycle, including the juice bottle from Ollie’s breakfast. The team loads this into the shredder and new filament is extruded into the fabrication machine. Ava loads in the improved design and the team watches as it prints.

“How does an energy spinner work?” asks Annie.

“Spinners sit in grooves along the building and when wind flows through they spin and convert wind energy to energy that we use to power the city. People were once scared of storms, taping windows, bunkering down, but now we get excited for the opportunity to harness massive amounts of power. Hence fixing the spinner.”

“Making them better!” pipes in Ava. “Our design is going to be better.”

“Print’s done,” says Jamila. “What density alloy do we need?”

Jamila loads the printed energy spinner into the casting machine and a cast is made from metal alloy powder. The team is interrupted by a group of people knocking on the door.

“Hello. We’ve got the co-lab booked for 1pm.”

“Yep,” says Ava. “We’re just finishing up. What are you making?”

“We have an idea for a new toy. What project are you working on?”

“A better energy spinner for our building. The one on floor five is broken.”

“That’ll get you some kudos.”

—

The team huddles in the corridor of floor five in building 212, [regional city name]. Ollie presses a panel on the wall which folds in to reveal a weathered energy spinner, she swaps this spinner with the new spinner and the panel closes.

“I love adaptable buildings!” says Jamila.

“Look at this,” says Ava. “The wings are broken on the old spinner.”

“I’ll put it in the co-lab’s refuse bin,” says Annie. “Then let’s meet on the top floor lounge and watch the storm.”

—

Later that week, Ollie, Jamila, Ava, and Annie are sitting in the public lounge of building 212, playing a game of scrabble. Ava taps her phone.

“Hey team, a commercial organisation has just acquired the fifth iteration of our spinner. There were 24 new designs based on our original design and they went with the fifth — looks like the team added tiny ridges to the wings and a grill to protect wildlife from harm. Smart.”

“What’s the commercial organisation’s sustainability ranking?” asks Jamila.

“Pretty high.”

Ollie taps a wrist band and an image of the energy spinner forms in the air, including a logo of a company and a few numbers: Royalties 0.007% per unit sold. Dollar economy.

“Accept,” says Ollie.

“How are royalties calculated?” Annie asks.

“Project iterations are tracked through blockchain,” says Ollie. “So the business knows that I submitted the original project for this energy spinner and our team implemented the original design, but the team that made the fifth iteration created more value. And the business probably makes its money from being able to scale and implement the new spinner in buildings across the city.”

“And you get more kudos points?” asks Annie.

“No, royalties pay out in dollars. Kudos currency is used to improve social living and the environment, although you can use it to buy certain things like groceries, and dollars are pretty much for anything else. It’s nice getting kudos, though, people know you’re helping make life better. Nice getting dollars, too.”

Annie taps on her phone.

“Hey!” she exclaims. “I get royalties, too. 0.002 percent per unit sold! Cool. Accept!”

Ollie looks at the warm smile on the young woman’s face.

“Give kudos. Annie Dunkard. 10 points.”

“Ten points have been deducted from kudos currency,” the calm voice says. “9,011 points remain.”

“Thanks, Ollie,” says Annie.

“Isn’t it your birthday this weekend, Ollie?”, asks Jamila.

“Yep, I’m turning 26. I’ve booked the cinema and we’ll have a games night. My parents are coming and you’re all invited, too.”

Ava taps her phone.

“Public or private cinema?”

“Public.”

“There’s a few projects on the go to improve the public cinema in building 212. Someone has an idea for an automatic popcorn dispenser delivered straight to a patron’s chair. A bottomless cup of popcorn! Fantastic! Oh, they’re in the co-lab now! Gotta go!”

Ollie watches Ava enter the elevator, then looks around the public lounge. Residents are enjoying their day, Jamila is describing something to Annie as they explore images on a screen, and Ollie feels content.

Life is good in the city.