i had this dream about the future. in the future they have flying cars and buildings have thousands of floors starting deep in the ground and rising high into the sky. the people of the future cross walkways hundreds of feet in the air to get to their jobs only they don't have to work so hard because the automation takes care of most things. in the future there are automaton assistants and automatic transports and endless electricity, and people in the future talk about how hard it must've been to live life in the 21st century. the people in the future can be anywhere at once. they use hologram screens and astral projection to communicate with eachother and so they never misunderstand, no-one ever misses anyone. people there smile more than here. they're more connected to friends and loved ones. when they talk to eachother it's like they're not just talking, they're seeing through eachother's eyes. you should see their cities. spires and lights and colossal statues rise up on the horizon like wonders of the ancient world. the way the sun catches them is beautiful, this perfect light, the best you'll ever see. the people in the city move on tubes and tramways faster than you could run. they go about their business mostly just for fun, they don't really need to work. i saw one man selling picture postcards, views of the city. i saw a woman dancing in her window, dressed as a beauty pageant winner. in the future they dance with endless energy, eyes wide. people of the future still visit picture houses. amongst all their technologies they honour rituals of watching flat images and sound projected onto screens. first dates, friends and popcorn. but the film of tomorrow isn't like the film of today. the directors who make them are making films of their lives, putting their diaries on the screen. i went to see an ensemble production, 7 minds on the screen together. it was striking how different they were, how deep down we're not all the same. it was a real adventure seeing someone else's dreams. we're not all alike deep down, it's nothing so reductive. when people of the future go to the picture house they know the producer, they're seeing a friend's film. they don't run for long but that's sort of the point. in the future there's peace. you can live hundreds of years before time overtakes you. i met a man from our time who reminded me of you, face all crows feet and one good eye not eclipsed by a moon coloured cataract. his old dog wagged it's tail as it walked a few paces towards me and they looked at eachother the way old dogs do. sound of seagulls through the window and three ships. he told me that things were just starting, and if he'd known through the bad times how he'd feel one day in the future, he'd never have wasted so much time worrying himself sick. he said when everyone tells you the world's going wrong it goes wrong. he said no-one ever warns you about the good surprises. he said that everything was projection, someone else's dream, and he asked me to come back down to tell you.

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