An author researches background facts and yet most students cringe at the word ‘research’ because it means hours of time drained by facts, figures and fundamentals which are as dry as woodchips. Now I am ‘older’ and ‘more mature’ I realise that apart from travel this is the best and perhaps only honest way to get to know our big wide world. My father was an advocate, as was most of my family, for that immortal volume The Dictionary.

Everything was in The Dictionary, well, almost everything you wanted to know was contained in The Dictionary. Of course, newspapers were also a source of information but often lacking in credibility and more on the side of sensationalism than facts. Television was, and still is, a different source of knowledge. Here today I will not venture down the rabbit hole of the World Wide Web, computers, electronic devices and mobile phones, but I will go
‘so last century’.

My family owns big beautiful well-used old dictionaries with faded gilt covers woefully out-of-date, plus a Readers Digest three-dictionary set named in gold lettering ‘Great Encyclopaedic Dictionary A-Z’ and various smaller versions of Australia’s unique Macquarie School Dictionary. No batteries no recharge.

I still like reading what is call ‘non-fiction’ and there is always a dictionary or two on the bookshop shelves, not forgetting our local library, often translated into foreign languages, but naturally the go-to source is now the internet and Google and the ubiquitous AI. Speed or laziness?

Cars, indeed most forms of vehicular transport, will soon drive itself/themselves so likewise there will be no need to carry a drivers licence when you are microchipped.

Yes, I do believe human body microchips will be the next big thing. Officially named BEAM (no relation to ‘beam me up Scotty’) an acronym for Body Electronic Access Management, it will become a burgeoning industry supplying, among other things, microchip eye enhancement. This deal would include a swipe-or-tap bonus pack of wrist (LW) or (RW) microchips for personal data and an optional wrist cover (plastic or tattoo) designed on the style of an old-fashioned watch and intended to protect from bumps. Unfortunately wrist tug-and-swipe and/or kidnapping could become prevalent in some unhealthy countries.

The universal word for wealthy citizens will become Imp short for ‘implant’ and the mega-rich will be the first to go tap-tapping their wrist-chip at the Screen Of Life every morning, indeed throughout their day. For the average citizen (Chippers) there will be an official standard ID microchip in wrist or thumb for daily purchases and regular street screen interactions but these users will have a set daily limit on their chip. Employers will offer a workplace microchip for access, email and payday.

Most living things will be microchipped including The Trees since they are still in decline. Basically every living human in the outrageously wealthy countries of our world will have a microchip. Quite rapidly we will forget how to interact with each other live (as in for-real) and have no need to write or remember anything. Perhaps we can’t or won’t need to do anything, just exist in an artificial Earth version similar to Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. You’ve read my blogosphere version here first, what you predict may be entirely different!
Get writing!

From my window I look at the real world outside, previously a balmy sunshiny subtropical day sinking gracefully into late afternoon and now a soft evening.🌞🌴🌜

To my readers, family and friends Happy New Year 2026!
💗 © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2026