The Future Is Now

Words by Natasha Chandra

Photos by Lim Dao An & Natasha Chandra

Nestled in the heart of City Hall, the recently refurbished Funan Mall stands out among grey concrete, with an equally exciting interior.

The past decade saw groundbreaking development in the ways we lived our lives, pushing limits as to what the human race could create and do. Our imagination knows no boundaries, and as the future approaches, we may not have noticed the futuristic concepts that have already made their way into our everyday lives.

Since we have arrived in a new decade, the 2020s, it would be nice to examine some futuristic concepts that may have quietly popped up around us.

The recently reopened Funan DigitaLife Mall has been revamped from an Information Technology (IT) mall to a lifestyle mall boasting eateries and retail flagship stores. Having never frequented Funan in the past, its reopening initially failed to pique my interest. The futuristic concept of the mall only dawned on me when I entered the mall.

Upon entering, rows of Instagram-worthy eateries lined the corridor with their eye-catching neon signs; At the atrium, shops were “hanging” overhead, with light emitting diode (LED) banners decorating the pillars instead of the traditional printed banners at other malls. It became clear to me that Funan is centered around elevating the shopping experience for visitors of the lifestyle mall.

In addition, Funan is made up of more than just flagship and concept stores. It also boasts other facilities such as a climbing wall, indoor cycling track and co-living and working spaces for a tangible glimpse into the future of retail and lifestyle shopping.

Love Alarm centers around a mobile application which allows users to know if someone in the vicinity likes them.

The Netflix Korean drama based on a popular webtoon series Love Alarm centers on the simple disruptive technology, the Love Alarm, that alerts users if someone in the vicinity has romantic feelings for them. So, how does it work? The Love Alarm will cause a registered owner’s alarm to ring if someone within a 10m radius has feelings for them, making one’s concept of love reliant on the alarm.

Like many other existing technology concepts that bring convenience to our lives, the Love Alarm makes love confessions easier and less daunting, but also introduces a new social danger: If one’s alarm does not ring, he or she more often than not believes the dangerous notion that they are not loved, and some [spoiler alert!] resort to self-harm due to this belief. This is something to ponder on — if our creations may do more harm than good to the human race, our dreams for a better future may just greatly impact our social interactions and warp our self-perceptions as seen in this Korean romance drama.

American super shoe brand Nike has launched Nike Adapt, which they market as the future of footwear. This is a smart shoe which implements a self-lacing system that can electronically adjust shoes to the size of your feet. Nike Adapt allows users to customize their shoe preferences through the Nike Adapt Application on their smartphone, making it even easier for one to adjust their shoes on the go without the hassle of squatting down to lace up. This concept makes lives easier not only for those whose shoelaces are constantly untied, but also for those who face mobility difficulties. Such handicap-friendly inclusivity initiatives have been gaining traction over the years, and it is interesting to see how concepts like Nike’s can expand in the near future.

Sitting in a hawker center and seeing a robot going around collecting dirty trays? These smart systems are widely used not only at our food courts, but also in restaurants such as Haidilao Hot Pot, where food is served by a robot, as well as at public libraries for users to return browsed books. These machines are programmed to stop when someone stands in their way and are definitely becoming more visibly common in Singapore.

According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), Singapore’s robot density is at 658 robots to every 10,000 human workers in 2018, consistently taking second place for the highest robot-to-human worker density in the world, right behind South Korea. These robot staff are also being used prominently in hospitality industries as hotel room service staff, and even the medical industry as medication dispensers and surgery assistants.

Yet, this development can threaten available jobs, should these robots be able to replace humans for systematic and routine chores. Companies often seek higher productivity, something which they can achieve more efficiently with robots than humans. The question is, will robots remain as assistants to the human workforce or will they one day be able to replace us in the work we do?

While we may not realize it now, look around carefully at our surroundings and we would be able to spot these futuristic concepts subtly popping up around us, with the human imagination present in the very things we create. These concepts, once symbolic of a future we could only dream of, may soon become part and parcel of our lives through baby steps, showing that the future is indeed now.