I'm 17. And I often hear us called zoomers, millennials, and sometimes just the lost generation. Because we "never listen to the advice of our elders, read little, are not interested in others, and in general what is happening in the country, we spend a lot on the Internet, are too busy with social networks and online life, following fashion trends, popular music, memes and, in general, do not think at all about our future." And also because often my peers initially dream of going to other countries to build their lives where everything is already debugged and equipped.
Okay, boomers! Let's analyze these myths in order!
Do we dream of something (other than the latest iPhone model)? Do we think what our country will be like in 30-50-70 years? Do we predict where we will find ourselves in twenty to forty years, what we will achieve in our personal capacity, and what kind of country we would like to build and how we will live in it?
Among my friends, classmates, peers, perhaps, there are none who would not make life plans for at least the next decade. Studying at a university, continuing studies in a master's or postgraduate degree, scientific activity, family, children, professional development, career growth, a prestigious company, a good position. And this is normal!
But let's expand the horizon and try to look at what our generation can potentially leave to those who will enter the 22nd century. Let's imagine that a time machine has transported us a hundred years ahead.
(Karamzin or Saltykov-Shchedrin is often credited with the phrase: "If I fall asleep and wake up in a hundred years, and they ask me what is happening in Russia now, I will answer: they drink and steal!" Let's leave the reality of this phrase on the conscience of the "boomers", but isn't it a shame that such a derogatory phrase will be applied to their country and a demotivating characteristic? Whoever said this phrase, I will object)!
So, let's wake up in 2100 and look at my Russia, to the construction of which I also applied my knowledge, strength, aspirations and achievements in my past, the XXI century! What has it become, my country? Where is her place in the world, what is she proud of and what has she given to humanity?
Russia is still the largest country in the world by area. But 80 percent of its territory was not suitable for normal life until recently, because they were in a climatic zone with temperatures below 40 degrees. In addition, huge distances hindered communication, logistics and communications, and in order to solve these problems, state programs were developed to unite the country into a single transport and communication hub connecting not only the east and west of the country, but also became part of the global world system of cargo and passenger transit from Asia and America to Europe and Africa.
The main shipping artery of Russia - the Northern Sea Route is now not just the most convenient communication in Europe and Asia, but also a road connecting the new prestigious cities of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Igarka, Dudinka, Tiksi and Pevek.
According to the Constitution of Russia in 2036, the Fund of the Arctic and Siberia was created, which manages the profit from mining. 25 percent of the profits received during the development of mineral resources in these territories are now used for the development of social infrastructure and direct payments to residents of cities and regions of Siberia. Young people from all over the country, and even from near and far abroad, are eager to move to these polar megacities. Innovation centers and the introduction of the latest technologies have been built here, and dome construction systems in new territories allow you to create a unique microclimate and not conflict with permafrost. Cheap natural energy sources – solar, wind and tidal stations, along with floating nuclear platforms with reactors removed from submarines, provide the opportunity to grow tropical fruits in the huge domed spaces of new cities, create various climatic zones regardless of the time of year.
Convenient transport links with the center of the country and all its regions contributed to the development of the circumpolar zone and Siberia. Proposed at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Russian scientist Boris Weinberg, the project of train movement in a vacuum was finalized in the 21st century already taking into account the experience of magnetic levitation (MagLev) and now cargo and passengers travel huge distances across the country in a matter of hours, at the speed of an airplane. And if people used to go to work by metro, now MagLev allows Muscovites and residents of St. Petersburg to get to their workplace in Yakutsk, Vankor and Dudinka just as cheaply and just as quickly.
The twenty-first century is one of the most fruitful periods for a person coming to an end: from push-button phones, which, who would have thought, were actively used 100 years ago, we came to transparent, ultra-portable smartphones that can do almost any job for us, and cars running on gasoline and gas has been replaced by eco-friendly electric cars and hydrogen-powered cars.
A lot of changes have taken place in heavy industry and energy. Potentially dangerous work for humans in factories and factories is now performed by specially designed robots, which has reduced the percentage of accidents at work to zero.
It should be mentioned that our society, with the assistance of scientists, has made the brightest breakthrough in the field of energy production. By 2072, we have completely abandoned the operation of thermal power plants and stationary nuclear power plants. Since then, the so-called "alternative sources" have been gaining popularity around the world. Over the past quarter century, thousands of wind farms and more than a million solar panels have been built in Russia. Half a century ago, wind farms were considered imperfect replacements for dirtier power plants: noise pollution, low electricity output, potential danger to wildlife, and other factors of their unpopularity.
However, science, like everything in our world, does not stand still. The cheapening of the production of these stations, the installation of protected birds, small animals and people at distances turned the course of the history of world energy. They were the first equal replacements of nuclear and thermal power plants in the world. Unlike these types of electricity generation, wind farms emit absolutely no gases and other types of waste harmful to humans, and, as in the case of nuclear power plants, we do not have to look for places, and also spend a lot of money on the disposal of radioactive waste.
With solar panels, the situation is a little different. Only in the last 20 years have scientists found a way to change the production process of solar panels. Now greenhouse gases, nitrogen trifluoride and sulfur hexafluoride are not released into the environment when they are created. Also, due to the transition from silicon to artificially created materials, the demand for rather dirty silicon mining has decreased, which has become unprofitable due to the high cost and unecologicity of this method of energy production.
The versatility of the work has also become an important aspect. The current solar panels, unlike their predecessors, have enough sunlight reflected from the Moon, which allows them to supply electricity to everything around them also at night…
Someday, when I'm 95, and I become an old grumpy old man criticizing the "non-local" worthless generation (passionate only about flying on portable flying skateboards and dreaming of my own space satellite in orbit), don't be lazy, kick me and remind me by reading this text on the Internet that I was also from the "lost generation", for which there were no hopes.
But our country has been built for a thousand years by the same people as we are and will continue to be built, live and prosper, because as long as we have such non-lost generations, there will be an un-lost Russia. A great country not only by its geographical size, but also by its contribution to world science, culture and civilizational development.