Discovered Journal Entry from a Parent

Entry from Jeremy Smith, J.D. (Born 2016 in Toronto, Ontario), discovered by Colin Babineau

Journal Entry: Parent of a 9th Grade Student in North York

October 2nd, 2065

One month has passed since my child started the 9th grade, there are so many conflicting thoughts and feelings I have as he transitions into the new schooling system. I think we all knew this was coming, with Artificial Intelligence slowly replacing actual instruction, it was not going to be long before it fully took over. Now, several schools are being torn down since attending facilities is optional and teachers who kept their jobs are only there to supervise and help with interpersonal skills and extracurriculars. I guess we were running out of land, but it is still a shame to see. Many parents have even opted to fully homeschool their children to develop interpersonal skills, but I am sending my son to the schools as I don’t want him to end up completely isolated from his peers. Regardless of your opinion on AI instruction, our children need to socialise too. Yes, I understand VR is at a point now where it can basically feel the same as being outdoors and with other people, and this is a great option to have, but can it fully replace reality? It seems that people are colder and quieter now, and I do not want my son to be like that.

A parent in the 2060's with a child exploring Virtual Reality

I cannot say that this is all bad. Thinking back to when my son was just a small child, there was a great sense of hopelessness and I wasn’t sure what his future was going to look like. Air quality became increasingly concerning, population density became so significant that getting around was difficult and land availability was sparse. I am definitely someone who took to VR late, but I noticed that these issues really took a toll on my son’s mental health which caused me to eventually change my mind. The look on his face made me want to cry when I told him that he couldn’t go visit his friends or that we couldn’t go to Canada’s Wonderland due to the high levels of pollution in the air on certain days. Not to mention, just dropping him off at school took ages. Even though we lived around Yonge and Steeles and his school was around Bathurst and Finch, it could take up to an hour to drop him off with all the congestion, basically the same time as walking there. Even taking the TTC could be an issue some days, although the TTC subways have finally advanced, they did not advance quickly enough. If you were there during peak times, good luck getting on without feeling packed like sardines, and that’s after waiting for the fifth train to arrive once you get to the station. It seems we did not learn from our mistakes from building the Eglinton line back in the 2010’s/2020’s, as TTC improvements continued to be at a snail’s pace.

Today, a lot of these issues mentioned have improved. It’s still slow to drop off my son at school, but there is definitely less congestion now that fewer people go outside, so his commute has been reduced by about 20 minutes. People are opting more and more to stay at home to work and play with advanced virtual reality, and even most shopping has been replaced by AI drones making deliveries. When he wants to see his friends or go to the amusement park, experiencing these through VR seems to make him happier than having no options at all. He is even more active now as he plays a lot of virtual sports with his friends. The AI learning experience appears to be positive for my son as well. Previous to this, most of his teachers resisted fully implementing the technology to teach, so he has only experienced so much of this until now. Now, he says that AI teaching really understands how to target his thinking when struggling and it frames problems relative to his life. His grades have even gone up. He has always been an intelligent kid and school has always felt a little slow to him, but at the pace he’s going, he may even graduate high school a year or two early. This is only for my child though, and I am hearing some mixed feelings from kids who are less motivated without a human touch to instruction.

Maybe this system will be okay after all, I at least understand that it may have been a necessary implementation to some extent. What does worry me though is that as much as I would love to see him succeed and graduate early, this means that I have less time to figure out how I’m going to afford his post-secondary education (if he wants to go immediately). You see, I am a lawyer, and I thought that by going into the field would help me secure a great future for myself and my child. I graduated from law school in 2043, but of course, more of what I do became obsolete with the help of AI. I thankfully kept my job and decided I was still in a good enough place to have my son in 2051, but by 2055, my job became more and more of just double-checking and verifying most of the work AI was doing. I barely even speak to my clients now. My hours were reduced, which was great for spending time with my family, but that slashed my earnings significantly as well. With AI taking over, the government decided that we finally need to implement a Universal Basic Income, but it does not make up the difference between what I used to make as a lawyer at all. I am determined to figure out some way to make more money, but my son may have to wait a little longer to go to university if I am to support him financially.

There are many elements of the past I miss and wish my son could experience as I did, but some of these changes may ultimately be necessary if we want to have some semblance of a brighter and more sustainable future.