By Manaswi Saha. “ConserV”
The year is 2070, in a world where the energy sustainability crisis has been dealt with via a futuristic smart-energy-AI tech, ‘ConserV’. Smart meters are everywhere, including formally rural and low-resourced regions. ConserV redistributes energy across the world grid, redirecting excess energy from residential and commercial establishments to areas that need the most at any given time. For example, harvesting excess energy and redistributing to rural areas. Every home is wired on the network with smart meters monitoring the consumption of the smart appliances and wired individuals. All smart personal devices such as watches and body monitors are connected to the world grid, harvesting energy from activities such as jogging and running. Every person can visualize their real-time personal energy usage and their contribution towards ‘energizing’ the world. With a decentralized distribution system, ConserV serves as a successful example of a fruitful multi-organization collaboration between the government-led public sector and the private sector.
As Ms. B, the creator of this revolutionary technology, jogs around her block, she feels a vibration on her wrist followed by a holographic avatar dancing on her watch. The avatar is celebrating her new milestone towards the world energy grid. As soon as she reaches her house, the holographic indicators on the rooftop go into a celebration; she is now the world’s topmost individual contributor. Immediately, her house starts to glow and dance with the extra burst of energy that was supplied to her house as a small reward. A complementary supply of energy was also distributed to an area of need in a rural location. Even though this short burst of extra energy is for a limited time, the neighborhood dulls down during this time to manage the surge. Ms. B has been working for years to find a solution to this challenge. This instability and frugality of energy supply has prompted several protests around the world asking for more control over their own home. As a result, Ms. B has unfortunately been at the other end of threats.
If this wasn’t enough, a former rival from Ms. B’s past, Mr. X, an equally brilliant scientist, has been trying to game the system for decades; riding on the public’s fear that the smart energy network and the associated smart devices will develop a mind of its own. Even though this hasn’t come true, Mr. X is the voice of dissent on the board that Ms. B heads. The board oversees the operation of the world energy grid along with other world leaders from countries and corporations around the globe.
Keeping these worries aside, Ms. B enters her home to enjoy the milestone with her family. Just as she entered her kitchen, she saw her oven pre-baking, setting up for the celebratory cake, nothing super fancy just how she likes it. Just as she was leaving the room to take a shower, she noticed her microwave panel beeping. ‘That’s odd’, she thinks. ‘That has never happened’. Her home is designed in a way that her appliances cannot be controlled by any other device beyond the few devices she owns. The only other way could be that someone within the vicinity of her house is trying to hack into the controller device. As she moves around the kitchen, she sees the same thing happen with the electric kettle, fridge, and her toaster.
Sweat runs down her forehead. She immediately turned off all her controller devices and the glitch seemed to go away. However, this terror peek-a-boo by the perpetrator gave her the fright of her life. The future that Mr. X had been forecasting just showed its face. Worried about what the future holds and the impending shattered decades of trust developed in this impenetrable system, she takes a shower to calm down and enjoy what seems like the last of when her home will be her friend rather than a foe.
