Technology and Society Writing Prompts

The year is 2038 and net neutrality has been dead for almost two decades. But a rebellious group managed to travel back to 2017...

When you’re 28, science discovers a drug that stops all effects of aging, creating immortality. Your government decides to give the drug to all citizens under 26, but you and the rest of the “Lost Generations” are deemed too high-risk. When you’re 85, the side effects are finally discovered.

Microsoft Water, Google Earth, Amazon Fire, Apple Air. Long ago, the four corporations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when Amazon attacked store-based retailers. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished.

Everyone with the same name shares knowledge. If one Bob gets a degree in electrical engineering, then all Bob's have this knowledge readily available. Soon, everyone starts naming their kids similar names until factions form. Your parents rebelled and named you something original.

When you reach 18, you get put in a database which ranks you in different categories (ex. 207,145th in the world for most bug kills) You lived on a ranch and never used tech. You had to go into town after your 18th birthday. Everyone is staring at you. You finally decide to check the database.

In the future, illiteracy is the norm and implanted digital assistants convert text to audio. A child, who had his implant temporarily deactivated, learns to read. When the implant is reactivated, he realizes that what it reads to him is drastically different than what the text actually says.

Aliens have invaded to conquer and enslave humanity, however "slavery" to them involves only working the equivalent of 12 hours a week while having healthy food, shelter, and means of entertainment taken care of so the human resistance is having trouble with defectors preferring to be slaves.

In the near future, all the world's superpowers switch to AI to make their military more efficient. The AIs do the unthinkable: They negotiate world peace.

One morning everyone in the world wakes up in their 18-year old body, memories intact. Society tries to continue as normal despite the change, but a world full of energetic adolescents certainly has its quirks.

In most of the galaxy wars are often just shows of strength with fighting as a last resort. As such weapons are designed to be elaborate and flashy. Turns out humans, whose weapons are built with efficiency in mind, have a different understanding of war.

Aliens don't invade earth for our resources. After a civilization achieves utopia some of it's citizens get bored and fly off to other planets to enjoy primitive thrills like violence, drugs, money and fame.

With total war as a concept alien to the rest of our galaxy, All saw humans as negotiators and peacemakers, soft and weak. Today is the day when the galaxy discovers why being so good at finding ways to avoid war was a survival mechanism.

You were born into a society where permanent augmented reality contact lenses are fused onto every newborn's eyes. You're unaware of this until one day, a lens falls into your left hand.

Humanity discovers that supernatural creatures such as vampires and werewolves exist. Instead of attempting to exterminate them, some countries attempt to offer them lucrative jobs that they could do better than a human.

You jokingly ask your boss if your labor position could be replaced by a robot. He chuckles nervously, and continues to look over your A.I. manual.

Is the year 2090 and everyone carries an ear device that instantly translates any language. You married an amazing foreign woman & decide to learn her mother tongue as an act of love, then discover you didn't fall in love with her personality, but with the ear device get-along editing feature.

It's the year 2079. Elderly people becoming minor social media celebrities is common. People love seeing them post their stitchwork and minecraft servers. If they stop posting, their followers do their best to check up on them.

Aliens take over the Earth. They then announce that they will be forcing the humans to work a "tyrannical" 4 hours a day 4 days a week in exchange for basic rights like housing. Needless to say they are very confused when the humans celebrate their new alien overlords.

“When the Old Gods returned, they were surprised how easy it was to amass an army of followers. Turned out all they had to do was offer fair wages and good benefits, with reasonable deadlines and working conditions”

You're a Warlock. But instead of drawing power from a higher being, people can choose to donate a portion of their magical power to you. In exchange, they can scry on your adventures and can send telepathic messages to you, as well as make requests. It can get annoying, but you make it work.

People now gain immortality by transferring their consciousness to robots, by purchase or lease. The poor rent; the poorest live from paycheck to paycheck. You work for a conglomerate as a repossessor. To not feel like a murderer, you started storing people's consciousness on your old computer.

Physicists create a machine to travel into the future. The wealthy elite travel 100 years into the future to capitalize on long-term investments and access better technology. But in the century they are gone, society changes dramatically.

Aliens arrive and inform the world they have a century to fix their collective shit or die. Humanity put their issues aside and unified. Not because the aliens told them to, but because they are petty and pissed and are planning to go to war when they return.

Other alien species have warriorcasts with selected members of their society who can kill, a rare feature. Humans have military and soldiers, and today the aliens learn that any human can join the military.

After Earth was declared a galactic safe haven, anti-xenoterrestrial sentiment began to rise. You, a second generation immigrant from another planet, calmly walk down the street when a voice yells at you "Go back to Mars!" You snap back "I was born in Chicago!"

In an age where gaming is widespread, militaries all over the world swiftly (and successfully) adapt by drafting gamers and assigning them into units and roles based on mandatory tracking of their most played genre and overall gametime. You just got your draft letter.

You have been abducted by a UFO. After you slowly regained your senses, you thought that the alien would dissect, torture or experiment on you, instead they are talking about saving you and others from that oppressive and hellish planet called Earth.

Turns out most of the humanity in Modern Era is so nihilistic that even most evil supernatural entitites such as demons are now horrified by them

Brain chips have arrived, making the whole world an augmented reality! It is really *THOUGHT REDACTED*. That's weird, I forgot what I was about to say.

Eel-punk. Eels generate 98% of the power required by the world. Megacorps manage breeding programs and sell sterile eels. Today, Joe the Fisher caught a fish that could change everything.