The year is 2034, and I marvel at how different everything is from my parents’ working lives.  Every morning, as my neural notification device gently awakens me to optimal alertness, I'm grateful for our new education system. We each receive a Lifelong Learning Wallet – a personal education budget tied to our Digital Identity that provides ₿10 million (equivalent to $1 million today) for developing skills, or knowledge. Just yesterday, I enrolled in a cutting-edge Disney-Harvard course on Virtual Architectures, joining brilliant minds from across the globe. A programmer from Soweto, an artist from Stockholm, a designer from Seoul, and a neuropharmacologist from São Paulo. Access to the course depends solely on our capability rather than privilege and our achievements are verified instantly. The pressure to keep learning can feel overwhelming but it's a far cry from the crushing student debt of the past, and the lottery of who teaches us.

The work landscape has evolved just as dramatically - gone are the rigid 9-to-5 schedules and 90 minute commutes in polluted traffic. My mornings flow between diverse projects: coding for climate initiatives, designing virtual concert spaces, and mentoring junior developers. Each contribution rewards me with Equity Tokens – bursts of digital ownership dropping into my account. The Work-Matching Platform suggests these projects based on my skills and interests, with uncanny accuracy. Not every project becomes the next Amazon-MIT, Uber-Volkswagen, or, Apple-Samsung, but the opportunity to collaborate is rewarding.

Last week, I collaborated with a team spread across five continents to solve a complex energy storage problem. We formed a temporary company, pooled our skills, and shared the rewards equally. No middlemen, no corporate hierarchy - just pure innovation and some success. What amazes me most is how seamless it all is. The platform handled everything - instantaneous business registration, smart contracts, tax calculations, equity distribution.

This new system is built on a foundation of fair contribution through the Public Fund. This fund pays for all the public goods that our society needs, from health to transport to carbon capture mechanisms.  My platform automatically calculates payments based on revenue and AI usage – no more complicated tax codes. The more I leverage public AI infrastructure, the more I contribute back. Even my current climate project tracks its AI usage and productivity gains, calculating micro-payments in real-time. Moving to the Public Fund was a difficult transition for many Cities, but those that had access to AI capabilities and could articulate the benefits to their citizens flourished. 

The human element hasn't been forgotten. My friend Myra exemplifies this – she receives a Basic Income while caring for her elderly mother, recognition that care work carries as much value as any other contribution.

I sometimes think back to what I learned about the history of work - from the factories to the cubicles to remote-work (now known as just work) in the 2020s. Reliable jobs, salaries, and pensions had served its purpose for many. Globalisation was a double-edged sword. Yes, it lifted hundred of millions out of poverty in China, and the Global South, but it also squeezed worker wages in the West. Technology was unbundling everything - whole industries, skill sets, the very notion of employment itself.

The real change came when politics finally caught up with reality. The platforms we use now are public utilities, governed by users like me. Sure, we still have disputes - we're human after all - but the Voting Systems for resolving them are elegant, fair, and swift. Talent-matching algorithms are open-source, transparent, and have gained our trust through years of success.  I love how employers now focus purely on capability matches. My cousin, who struggles to speak due to a neurological condition, gets opportunities that would have been denied to her a decade ago. If the algorithm shows a 98% skills match, that's what matters.

The old digital landlords who hoarded job candidate data are gone. In their place, we have flourishing global communities of skilled professionals, forming and reforming like schools of fish, moving together toward whatever challenges need solving.

Being able to work so much more effectively helped us to solve some of the wicked problems that our societies had. We responded to crises - pandemics, hyper-inflation and adapting to global warming.  We were working on solutions within hours, not months. Looking back, it seems obvious that we needed to rethink benefit distribution as machines generated more value. 

Anyway, another day of learning, leisure, and work projects awaits tomorrow. Or am I dreaming?

Reporting from 2034,

Andy