From the author
My name is Maria Sitnikova, I am a third-year student at the RUDN. Patrice Lumumba in the direction of "History". 
We are all interested in the future of our world, which, alas, will most likely not be available to us, and often we seek solace in the genre of science fiction. We read books and comics, watch movies about space, parallel worlds, and unusual inventions. Many works have given me ideas for my story: the Star Wars saga, the Star Trek series, the book "Get Ready for the First Player", and I will not be able to list them all, since this is a whole cultural stratum of humanity, I would even say a special type of thinking.
Also, some ideas were taken from the past: I highly recommend reading about the project of a New type of settlement. It was a truly revolutionary approach to the existence of an entire country. I learned about NER during a tour of the Transport Museum at VDNH. And it made a strong impression on me: non–standard thinking, a desire to improve the lives of others, incredible enthusiasm and love for their work - after all, it seemed to be only a thesis by graduates of the architectural institute, and they made it, one might say, a work of art.
Probably, in this project, a work would look much more advantageous, where it would explain how to defeat disease and death, fix the climate problem, prevent global conflicts, but I think the future, like the present, however, lies in the details. Until some point, people don't even realize that the future, at least one of the stages, has already arrived. For example, we did not notice at all when the global information network appeared, how it entered so tightly into our daily lives that we cannot imagine what happened without it even, say, twenty years ago. 
That is why my work is not focused on solving global problems. It reflects the vision of a teenager accustomed to the world in which he grew up, who could not imagine life almost a century ago. So do many of us. 
I hope that my story will make you think about something that we usually don't even worry about in our daily lives, thinking that this will always be the case. But as time goes on, the world will change. I will be glad if you like it.
 
Nicole looked at the object she didn't understand from all sides. Careful, of course, because she didn't quite "legitimately" take it. But first of all, the father is to blame for what happened: it was not necessary to entrust his daughter with such a responsible task as bringing documents forgotten at home, in the office. In the office, where the overly curious Nicole should not have climbed at any time.
Professor Simonov was a historian. His area of interest was the first half of the twenty-first century. He was also an avid collector of various items from that period. Once Nika, as the girl was called at home, even saw a laptop computer of that time, an incredible value that managed to avoid the then fashionable program of replacing equipment with a new one and further processing. The vintage laptop had huge differences from the surprised girl's "Electronics 7". Bulky, requiring constant recharging, taking a long time to load and with a separate keyboard – Nicole could not even imagine that people could once work with this technique. Dad also talked about American developments, and then how the Russian Skolkovo center improved technology so much that the new "Electronics" became the flagship for the whole world. 
Nika liked the history of inventions, but a technician, like her mother, she was already engaged in robotics at a serious level and had an internship at the local Center for Innovative Technologies. There was a little bit of humanitarian nonsense, in her opinion.
However, now the gaps in knowledge seriously prevented her from understanding what was in front of Nicole. She could remember seeing something similar in the Museum of Modern History, where she went on a school trip. But the books–another exhibit of the past–had a familiar printed text that was easy to read even in the fully computerized year 2103. And here…
The text, if it was him at all, looked very unusual, but the book, if, again, it can be called that, was not old. The records were dated, but it is unclear why.
Initially, Nika could only read numbers, so she began to examine the subject and look for features. Several sheets (as the girl knew, that was the name of the paper pages) were empty at the end. And on the first sheet, on the back of the picture, on some other material different from the other pages, Nicole had great difficulty distinguishing two words. No, not words, but a name. The owner of the book was named Evgenia Nesterova.

- What am I doing? Still, it can be much simpler ... - Nika jumped up from the anti-gravity chair, which, knowing her daughter's love of rocking on a normal schoolboy chair and just restlessness, was bought by a caring mother. 
- Lina, tell me everything you can about this subject, - after scanning the book, Nicole uploaded the data to the cloud for her personal artificial intelligence. After carefully checking that each page was loaded, while waiting for an answer, the girl ran to her father's office, cleaning up the traces of a small crime. When she returned, she looked impatiently at the home AI system that Lina was embedded in.
"This object is a personal diary," a pleasant female voice sounded in the room, not at all like those mechanical recordings from the beginning of the digitalization era that schoolchildren were given to listen to in computer science lessons. – The material dates back to 2017. The diary is kept from February 9, 2018 to August 30, 2021. The recordings are irregular and rather abrupt in nature.…
- But if this is text, - the girl interrupted the artificial intelligence, - then why do the letters look very strange? I saw books from the beginning of the twenty-first century, there was already a modern Russian.
- This text is not printed, the entries were made by hand, using a pen with ink. Your misunderstanding is caused by illegibility of handwriting. "Handwriting is a letter created with the help of a writing tool (pen or pencil) by hand" - a reference from the encyclopedia. Nowadays, no one writes by hand anymore. Nowadays, no one writes by hand anymore. You, Nicole, were born already when paper and pens went out of use, were replaced by computer typing systems. Although this process began already then: paper money was replaced by electronic currency, all documentation was digitized. A hundred years ago, for example, a paper passport was issued in the form of a small book, - an image appeared on the Electro screen, - now the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation is in the Public Services application.
- Wow, - from the influx of information, Nika could not immediately figure out how to ask a question, but... - Can you please decipher this handwriting? I would like to read what happened in those years. Apparently, everything has changed a lot now.
Realizing that she had been standing in excitement for a very long time, Nicole sank into the antigrav.
- Of course, I will translate the text into a form familiar to you and send it to your Electric Library.
"Thank you," the girl exclaimed. And to take my time, I decided to do my homework. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to cancel school in the twenty-second century.

And here in the Electrical Library, called the reader for simplification, the cherished file. Nicole was surprised and scared: this girl lived a long time ago, dreamed of something, lived, wrote down her thoughts in a diary. And now a completely different person will read about her personal life, what she may have been hiding or thinking about. For a moment, Nika felt ashamed to so brazenly break into the life of a hundred years ago, but in the end, curiosity overcame her.
"Today is February 9th, 2018 – my fifteenth birthday. But I won't have a gift, at least not right now. Mom promised that she would make a surprise in the summer. But at least I can sit with my friends in a cafe tomorrow. Lena will even come specially from Kirov, she will have to spend the whole night on the train..."
- Lina, why go all night? It's not like going to Mars. There is a teleport where movement is instantaneous," Nika was surprised, "And the Sibstream is much faster than described.
- The Sibstream project was implemented only in 2067, although the idea itself appeared back in 1961. The settlement channel (as the authors originally called the main railway) was to become the basis of the NER project, a new element of settlement. However, this was abandoned. In 2003, at the City 2100 competition, the same architects presented a project of the Sibstream that you already know. Of course, there was no linear city according to the authors' idea, but an improved railway appeared in the country much later. Now you can get from Moscow to Lake Baikal in just three hours by train. Teleportation was introduced into the transport system in general relatively recently, in 2082. The project was created at the Russian Quantum Center together with Chinese colleagues.
- We are usually told about various research in the field of space technology in our lessons, and, it turns out, there are a lot of interesting finds on Earth in everyday terms, - Nicole was amazed at her lack of foresight.
However, for all her thoughts, she did not forget one remarkable detail about the gift. Deciding that she would read the whole thing later, Nika scrolled through to the summer notes and found:
"Today is June 24th, 2018. I just found out about my gift from February! Although, as it turned out, he has been lying since last September. The whole family is going to the match of the 1/8 finals of the FIFA World Cup, which is being held here in Russia this time. Our national team and Spain will play. Unfortunately, many people say that we will not be able to win. I hope they are wrong.
I am still shocked that I will see such a large-scale event with my own eyes. There is an incredible excitement in Moscow, crowds of fans from different countries. I wish I could know different languages and talk to them..."
- Lina, but big sporting events cannot be hosted by one country, there are always two or three. And about languages: Russian is one of the international languages, used on a par with French and Chinese. Wasn't that the case then? – I wanted to make a joke of Nick, but I already realized that I was saying something wrong.
- Previously, only one country hosted global sporting events, such as the Olympic Games or the World Championships. In the 2030s, due to climate change, sports officials realized that only some northern countries would be able to host the Winter Olympics in the near future, for obvious reasons, which contradicted the principles of equality. Then it was decided to "separate" the events. Now, after solving the problem, it has become a tradition of international cooperation," the artificial intelligence replied and continued another topic. – In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, there was the hegemony of the English language. At the same time, Russian was one of the working languages of the United Nations. Nowadays, due to innovative technologies in the field of education, people can speak many languages, but at that time only translation specialists knew foreign languages at a good level. All this made communication between the countries difficult. Since Russia is now a leader in science and technology, the prestige of our language has grown significantly.
- It's interesting, I didn't even think that a hundred years ago it could have been different, - the girl replied and scrolled through the recordings to the end. – Why did she leave the diary? Let's see what the last entry was like. 
"Today is August 30th, 2021. Tomorrow I won't have time for a diary anymore, I don't even know if I'll be able to find time later.… I entered the first year of law school. They say it's difficult to study there, you need to cram a lot. I would not say that I am not interested in this field at all, but a lawyer is clearly not my dream profession. I wish I could go back to my childhood now, choosing myself as a director or screenwriter again. But the exam has been passed, the documents have been submitted, the application has been accepted. But lawyers get good salaries. And I can always write for myself, on the table…
I also need to learn independence: childhood has passed, and I still depend too much on my parents. We should at least learn how to cook, despite previous unsuccessful attempts..."
There was silence in the room. Probably the only thing that hasn't changed in a century is the problem of choosing your own path. And Nika would also have to figure out who she wanted to be, but right now she was enjoying school and the illusion of adult remoteness. She did not want to break out of this warm world of childish carelessness, realizing that this was a losing path in advance. Zhenya acted the same way, and the transition to reality came as a shock to her. Dreams were forgotten, life began. And, apparently, in this adulthood there was no place for childhood memories, so they remained in a forgotten unfinished diary. 
"At least now you don't have to cook," Nicole drawled, all in her own sad thoughts. – There is a replicator, you can ask for anything. And cooking is more of an entertainment, a hobby…
The voice trailed off, but Lina, catching the notes of completely different thoughts, did not dare to comment. After all, this is only a human choice, and even artificial intelligence, no matter how advanced it was, could not go their way for people.
 
Afterword
It is very difficult to fit your vision of the future into one short story, because it is clear that absolutely all spheres of human life will undergo changes. Also, we cannot say with certainty that any one opinion is correct, because we do not know where humanity is heading. We can only build our theories based on the analysis and experience of the past. 
In my work, the works of Soviet science fiction played an important role in shaping my ideas about the twenty-second century. I remember some stories, novellas and novels in detail (like, for example, the works of Kir Bulychev - Alice probably gave Nicole many character traits), some vaguely, but they remained alive in the subconscious and created a vivid picture of the future.
Fiction in the field of cinematography has a particularly great cultural heritage: the "Star Wars", "Star Trek" and many other films and TV series that I have already mentioned. Some points are also reflected in the work.
Currently, in my opinion, a negative vision of the future of humanity prevails: the exhaustion of non-renewable resources of the Earth, wars for material goods, and an increase in the role of social stratification. But I hope for the reasonableness of humanity, which is obliged to prevent this.