Nothing is promised, only created. 

Take yourself to a future where mankind returns to its role as the stewards of the earth – without forsaking its advancements. 

Our technologies are no longer obsessive and our efforts are relieved of capital, bringing about a collective epigenetic reset that’s long overdue. 

You’re restored to blissed-out factory settings with a self-stirring cup of tea, glossed with zonal honey. Sigh. What a view. 

The day begins again, and readers wants to know: what’s in your bag?

1. What time are you waking up? 

A. An hour before first light 

B. When the rooster crowns at sunrise 

C. Whenever my body rouses 

D. At the same time every day

2. You’re packing your bag for the day. What snack can’t you forget? 

A. Carbonated electrolyte tablets 

B. Not just snacks for me, but snacks for others too 

C. My personal blend of trail mix 

D. An apple, a banana, and a yogurt

3. Oh my gosh, where’d you get your bag? 

A. It was a gift from a friend :) 

B. I up-cycled it myself! 

C. A tech auction 

D. My local leathersmith makes them

4. What do you look for in your clothing? 

A. Performance and style, baby 

B. If it’s not rugged and sturdy, it’s not gonna make it 

C. Cozy and soft, like I’m wearing blankets or clouds 

D. Casual vibe with a svelte essence

5. Which fabrics are you most drawn towards? 

A. Breathable metallic fabrics and leather 

B. Hardy denim and pima cotton 

C. Gentle cashmere and tasseled pashmina 

D. Golden muga silk and Belgian linen 

6. What are your coworkers like? 

A. They’re a gaggle of goofballs 

B. I mostly work with animals 

C. Solopreneur, right here 

D. Total nerds, but cool nerds 

7. What are you listening to? 

A. I’ve been practicing my instrument 

B. My karaoke playlist 

C. Film soundtracks and ambient 

D. I’m really into podcasts right now

8. Do you make a stop before arriving to work? 

A. Today’s my monthly postcard drop at the post office! 

B. My work space is my living space, so no 

C. I’ll be damned without a local sweet pastry 

D. Sometimes I’ll do a hike 

9. How do you like to feel when you’re focused? 

A. Engaged and creative, usually with music playing 

B. I have a wide scope of awareness, and am often charmed by those around me 

C. Calm and relaxed, providing a grounding vibe 

D. Daring and curious, pushing the outer limits of what I know 

10. It’s your day off, what are you getting up to? 

A. Trying new stock at a friend’s cannabis greenhouse 

B. Cooking with a friend for a dinner party 

C. Camping in the autumnal wood 

D. Yet another trip to the museum

11. The local oracle has several insights for you, but you can only pick one. Which do you choose? 

A. A comforting experience that you forgot about 

B. The things your animal companions say 

C. What an old friend remembers about you 

D. Your very, very first memory

12. Do you keep forgetting something at home? 

A. Extra hydrocolloid bandaids (the soft, gel ones) 

B. No, but I keep forgetting to charge my open-air headphones 

C. Nope 

D. The book my friend lent me 

13. Where would you like to take a class? 

A. The School of Shoemaking & Leather Arts 

B. Arboretum Stewardship Association 

C. The Folk Music Conservatory 

D. Hot & Cold Glassblowing Studio

results 

Tally your results. 

A. E-Bike Mechanic’s Frame Bag 

Your commute to the e-bike shop is a 10 kilometer path with very little tree cover, so you need to beat the sunrise to have the coolest temperature possible for your ride. You buckle your transparent frame bag onto your trad bike, taking care to adjust the top tube bandolier strap stocked with CO² gas cartridges. A swig from your insulated cold brew flask dribbles out the corner of your mouth. It tastes crisp and fresh, prepped just last night before bed, when you filled the built-in mesh filter with fresh coffee grounds.  

Tucked into various zipper and snap button pockets are everything you could need to get through a day of patching tires, cleaning brake pads, and lubricating brittle chains and sprockets. 

Spilling out of the outermost pocket are your custom worn-leather gloves. The gloves feature a gesture-controlled remote for a hovering flashlight that, when all its little illumination jobs are complete, parks itself next to your under seat bag. Within it: a quick-link chain, couple tubes, and CO² adapter. 

Next to an old bamboo toothbrush, that is now exclusively for cleaning your trad bike chain, is your favorite all weather wax and water emulsion bike lube – its formula hasn’t changed in a dozen decades. An extra pair of springy performance socks lay in wait for the end of your day, and it’ll feel like heaven when you change into them.  

You quickly dab a beeswax and avocado oil lip salve across your lips, and slide on your polarized full-face helmet. You secure your wearable hydration pack across your shoulder, pulling on the drinking tube to wash down the remaining cold brew. As you kick into your pedals, you contemplate beating your PR morning commute time. 

B. Duck Farmer’s Up-cycled Denim Banana Bag 

You don’t have a rooster that wakes you up in the morning, because you don’t raise chickens — you raise ducks. But trust, that doesn’t mean your duck hens aren’t waking you up. After all, the early bird gets their human out of bed. You lay in bed for five, maybe ten, more minutes, watching your portable 360-degree coop monitor to see who’s making the most ruckus this morning. Looks like it’s Mallvin and Honks.  

The time has come for you to ritually sling on your up-cycled denim banana bag, made from your grandfather’s overalls. Some edges are frayed, some holes have been darned, and you can tell which decorative embroidery was stitched before and after the up-cycle. 

Sure, there’s a semi-permanent lining of hay and farm dust coating the bottom, but ever since you made the switch from chickens to ducks, you don’t need to wash the bag as often. That’s because duck eggs are more durable, and less likely to break and burst during the journey from nest bowl to front yard neighborhood pantry.  

The once-bib pocket has been pierced with grommets from which locking carabiners dangle, and within said bib pocket is your ancestral farm tool pocket blade. Your family name has been delicately etched into the handle, in a timeless font in your mother tongue. It’s more of a good luck charm though, and so just lays next to your tool library membership card and the pocket blade you actually use. 

The morning is dewy and damp, and you can’t count on the sun’s warmth for another few hours. You remember your battery-operated pocket warmers (hamdulilah) and you feel their warmth just moments after shoving them in your chest and back pockets. You deftly twirl and tangle your hair up into a recycled acetate claw clip, its coil just tight enough to let a few comfortable strands of hair fall forward. 

You spread sunscreen, sanitizer, and hand balm on yourself in choreographed sweeps, all a little chilled from sitting out on the counter. Your pocket warmers ease the shift as you’re met with the thought: “Did I lock up the coop last night?”. 

C. Tea Monk E-Cargo Bike 

Your day could literally begin anywhere, and due to your nomadic lifestyle, it has begun in many, many places. This life, though adventurous and spontaneous, is nothing without its habits. You consistently and comfortably rouse from slumber a good hour and a half before the Origami Pavilion opens. 

Each settlement has its own Origami Pavilion, which functions like a piazza or marketplace boulevard, where vendors and performers lay their footprints and pitch their booths. From the central Origami Pavilion, you take an elevated footpath to your designated venue, the Tea Monk Stage. The reason for its separation lies in the nature of your work: providing a space of contemplation, reprieve, comfort, and calm.  

You approach on your e-cargo bike, which converts into a geodesic dome tent with a 7-meter diameter. This e-bike charges using kinetic energy, and is slightly less laborious to pedal than a traditional bike without any cargo. You fear no hill. 

The Tea Monk Stage, like all public pavillions, comes equipped with solar roof panels and filtered rainwater reservoirs. The rainwater is exactly what you tap for your teas, a feature that was introduced the generation before yours. Let’s just say it was a game-changer for your line of work. 

You lift the accordion door of your carriage to reveal an apothecary’s cabinet. You slide open a slender drawer, where a synth kettle tray is waiting to be reassembled for today’s work. The tray comes with 12 individual removable kettles, each with the capacity to hold 24 fluid ounces of a single brew. You bypass its auto-features, and prefer to manually scan your herbs of choice, adjust steep times, and maintain specific temperatures for an optimal tea experience. Once a brew is completed, each kettle sings its own song, sometimes harmonizing with its neighbors. 

Though your presence in each settlement is transitory, you still accrue regulars. Believe it or not, some people are just as transient as you are, and you cross paths more often than you’d expect. For these special folk, you like to share one of three ceramic tea pets: a piglet, a puffer fish, or a dragon. 

Your stage is set, and you with it. You look over the top of your pink-tinted sunglasses at your first visitors of the day –  and one of them has brought your favorite, nuttiest baklava to trade. 

D. Physics Professor’s Backpack 

10:00am, on the dot, every single morning. That is when you start your day. It may seem like a late start, but you’re a night owl-type of academic. You’ve taught classes, worked in labs, and have been a principle investigator enough times to merit making your own schedule. You revel in knowing that your fellow night owls are your best students. The miracles of a proper sleep schedule. 

The book you just finished was lent to you by one such student, currently in your 400-level climate physics class. You slide it into your svelte backpack that has followed you throughout three academic degrees and an Erasmus. The interior of the backpack is made of reclaimed dacron, once part of racing boat sails. The exterior is a detachable mycelium leather; you’ve taken it to the leathersmith only a handful of times since buying it, and every time it’s been returned to you better than new. 

The modular pocket system has needed a few modifications over the years, in that the compartments have gotten smaller and smaller. The laptop you once lugged around in undergrad has now shrunken to a LabChip, which is essentially an operating system, database, and personal computer the size of your fingernail. The LabChip can be universally jacked into any interactive-display device, now available in every room and desk across campus. It has become the ideal center of any problem-solving seminar or collaborative outdoor salon. 

A pair of university-standard AR Glasses complement these efforts, especially when all students remember to bring theirs. They can be used to overlay simulations onto the room. The glasses have access to an archive of particle paths, dynamic systems, and other scientific visualizations, made by technical 3D artists. You’ve always had an easier time understanding concepts visually, and the glasses help you do just that. 

Before setting off for your day you set your kettle to brew the custom blend made by the traveling Tea Monk. The blend is specifically for bookish types that need to remember they live in a body. You turn a heavy pyrite sphere in your hand, another totem that keeps you grounded in a world of thought, as the tea blossoms its earthen pigments into the hot water. A thought flowers just as well, and you jot it down into your field journal. Your fountain stylus that is sometimes used to write formulas and sometimes used to copy lines of Octavia Butler, is now being used to write a reminder: “sign up for faculty planisphere retreat.”