Envision The Future

As he walked along the street, Jose Garcia, an 80 year old man born in 2023 began to suffer from a nosebleed. It was a common occurrence for him, and for anyone who tried to walk outside. The sun was barely beginning to rise now, but the temperature was about 105 degrees. The city he lived in had almost no plant life, except for the occasional, albeit rare, weed that sprang out of the cracks in concrete. This was due to a government mandate that forbade the planting of any flowers or crops by everyday citizens. Due to the rising temperatures, and the drying of the air, plants would essentially become tinder in the summers. This led to not only wildfires that destroyed parks such as Yosemite, but a new phenomenon known as city fires. One such city fire was known as the Los Angeles burn, which, true to its name, destroyed half of L.A.. The government hoped that by outlawing horticulture and botanical gardens, fires could be kept at a bare minimum. In order to keep the populace happy, as well as make a profit, the government came out with a new pair of glasses that would allow one to see, and even interact with any plant life they desired. The glasses were connected to a tiny hard drive placed in the brain that would create sensation and sight where there was none, leading them to adopt the name Vision-less Sight, or VS for short. As Jose continued along he looked at all the skyscrapers, and the factories pumping out smoke into the air. "This sight gets so sad after a while" he said as he put his VS pair on and asked them to show him poppy fields. "Something nostalgic to cheer me up this morning", he thought to himself. Within an instant his vision filled with beautiful, blazing orange poppies. He crouched down to get a better look at their botany. Despite the high temperature outside, in this virtual world everything felt much nicer. Gentle winds cooled him off as moved to a bench nearby. He took in the sights of the birds, the butterflies, the bees, and even a puddle filled with tadpoles next to him. "I wonder if humanity will ever be able to go back to having wonders like this in the world" he wondered. He knew deep down though, that in his lifetime he would never see this in reality. He knew that this type of beauty would be lost to the annals of history for all time.