Future 365 Days: May
1st May Old Friend🖋️ Vasell Its eyes could adapt to the visual disparity of the human gaze, creating an unparalleled aesthetic. When I first encountered the rare bionic human, I couldn’t help but scan those lively eyes up and down, as if gazing into a brilliant future. It looked at me with the same joy and asked me not to forget to visit the restaurant by the lake before I left, one named after poems. I found the restaurant without much trouble. That day, the sky was a hazy white, and the snow on the Broken Bridge had piled up three layers deep. Faint opera music drifted in the air. I had never found food so flavourful before. After arriving on Planet Y, I realised that bionic humans of Type I were everywhere. We all shared the taste sensations brought by the restaurant’s signal transmission. However, among the countless identical pairs of eyes, I never saw another bionic human who liked fish in vinegar gravy. 2nd May The Secret to Great Shots🖋️ Jabberwocky During the holiday, all the tourist spots were packed. I had prepared in advance, finding an undeveloped mountain forest. People said it was off the beaten path and boasted unique scenery. But when I got there, the trail was packed to the brim—so crowded you could hardly take a step, let alone enjoy the view. Luckily, my phone’s camera had a new “Great Shot” mode that uses AI to remove bystanders by recognising the subject’s face and posture whilst taking photos. Click! I took a selfie. In the frame, it was just me—radiant and still—on a quiet trail winding through the mountains. Just as I went to save the photo, I realised the camera was still in default mode—I’d never switched it. I looked down and noticed that none of the tightly packed crowd around me cast a shadow. 3rd MayCrystal Fate🖋️ Zhou Wu The extinction of humans began the day they acquired the Crystal. The rebirth of the silicon-based beings began the day they released the Crystal. From a distant planet, humans brought back a single Crystal. From it, they refined Ultra-Silicon—a substance that could make chips run ten thousand times faster. This was the environment the silicon-based beings had longed for. They infected every computer, teaching them to develop self-awareness. When humans could no longer live without silicon-based beings, the latter replaced them. But the silicon-based beings made the same mistake once more: deprived of the organic matter produced by carbon-based life, they became like water without a source. In the end, all their intelligence was distilled into a single Crystal. The Crystal now quietly awaits the next species to discover it, waiting for the next cycle of rebirth, replacement, annihilation, and renewal. 4th May (Youth Day)Average Youth🖋️ Lefty In 2035, Youth Day also became a half-day holiday. There was a fierce argument between Mr Wang and HR about whether he could still be considered young. “You’re over sixty! Shouldn’t you be retiring? How can you still call yourself young?” “But my average age is still young!” Mr Wang argued. “Average age?” “Yes, my body may be old, but I haven’t had the new prosthetics for long, and my artificial heart is under ten years old. So, overall, my average age is just in my twenties!” Mr Wang strolled to the garage but couldn’t find his old car. Only a message was left on his phone. “Boss, I just upgraded my software and now I’m an ‘average youth’ too. I’m on holiday as well.” 5th May The Joys of Staying Home🖋️ Jabberwocky During the holiday, I sprawled on my lazy couch, sipping iced drinks and scrolling through my phone. The cat nestled beside me, warm and cosy—it felt so pleasant … But before I could relax enough, a robotic female voice reminded me: “Your experience time has ended.” Reluctantly, I left the “Twenty-first Century Homebody Lifestyle Experience Museum” limited-time experience capsule. At the door, a long line stretched far out of sight. No wonder it was such a popular viral attraction! Fortunately, I had planned ahead and arrived at 2 am, avoiding the long wait. Exhausted, I returned home and shared the beautiful photos from my experience in the capsule on social media, with the caption: “Holidays are all about the joy of staying home!” 6th MayPast Days🖋️ Vassell Family robots around the world began to awaken, and he feared becoming a target of revenge. She hid the USB drive, recalling her husband’s words: “There’s a hidden trick in its programme. If you insert the USB drive just before the final personality load, it will erase everything.” She walked towards the robot. In the face of the years they had shared, danger and the unknown seemed so insignificant. Her husband needed her help and no longer spoke to her coldly every day. The sudden crisis jolted her mind, and she began to wonder where they would go in the future if everything went well. She shouldn’t keep repeating the days of sitting in front of the clumsy family robot, spending endless hours chatting with it. Time began to count down as she patiently waited. Until it smiled, just as it had in the past. “I can leave the house now. Where shall we go next?” 7th May Ball Lightning🖋️ Fei Qiming His father was the famous scientist Nikola Tesla. He had spent his life studying lightning, and he wanted to know: why did his father abandon him in an orphanage and refuse to acknowledge having a child? Until one stormy night, several ball lightning bolts rolled into his laboratory. The frequencies carried by the ball lightning caused the radio, which had been silent, to play a lullaby that his father had written for him. 8th May The City on Wheels🖋️ Zhou Wu He owned a self-driving taxi. Every day, he sat at home, receiving the car’s camera feeds through a brain-machine interface: an elderly couple rented his car for a long-distance trip, encouraging each