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Design is inspiring. However, the industry is changing incredibly fast and it is sometimes difficult to keep up with all the trends. We have prepared a digest of the best recent cases, fresh news, tips, and funny memes on design to make your day a bit brighter. Enjoy ;) 🦄 Product Design Articles — tips on how to compile a guide for in-depth interviews from the Nielsen/Norman Group. Writing an Effective Guide for a UX Interview — a guide to conduct a design review and discuss the industry in a more “ecological” way. Design review means asking questions — another good article from Nielsen/Norman Group on what makes design aesthetic, namely: consistent typography, clear hierarchy, good color scheme and grid. Why Does a Design Look Good? — an annual review of design trends from behaviorist experts. Behavioral Design 2021 — some reflections on what a modern web designer can learn by analyzing the legacy of graphic design. What Saul Bass Can Teach Us About Web Design — the review of design techniques for mobile that improve UX. Obscure Mobile Design Techniques That Boost UX — a good article on the consistency in icon design with nice examples. Mastering Iconography: The 3 Do’s & Don’ts of Icon Design — tips on how to work with photography in website design with some nice examples of popular Dribbble shots. 7 photography tips to enhance your UI designs — We all pretend to strive for "simple" design. But what does it really mean to each of us? What does simple design really mean? Works is the website of an HR-agency where the grid, 3D, and typography are as minimal as possible. Created by Anton & Irene. true • overview Here is how they presented . their project on their website — a case study of the Museum of Mountain Photography website from Tubik. Case Study: Lumen. Website Design for Museum of Mountain Photography : a clean, simple, and still impressive website. Liquid Crystal : an attractive website with nice fonts and minimal animation. TheRoom : there is something interesting in horizontal scroll, right? :) Bonjour Paris : fonts have never been presented so elegantly before. VJ Type Typefaces — a great work with 3D and animation on the website. Helsedirektoratet — a website-portfolio of the Berlin-based studio in the form of a desktop. You can interact with different elements on the page. MAD from UX Planet. Just a lot of inspiration 👁️ Graphic design Articles and case studies Last month, McDonald’s . Later, Packaging in Europe discussed with the creators, the Pearlfisher agency, . updated its global packaging design with a focus on illustration what exactly stood behind these changes Booking.com designers revealed the details of creating illustrations in products for travelers. The Dieline tells how Pizza Hut expands its consumer experience with the Pacman AR game and pizza packaging. - Creative Review what exactly has changed in logo design over the decade. Another season of logo redesign: automakers ta , jewelry manufacturer and even the venture fund . Renault Peugeot Swarovski Andreessen Horowitz - An article about design trends and what's wrong with them from It's Nice That. Is graphic design too trendy? - a variable font that represents irreversible climate change and, according to the author's description, is based on real data of glaciers in the Arctic seas. The Climate Crisis Font Works — a system of visual brand identification based on the definition of sepia by all possible methods. Concise and complicated. Pasta Sepia . Identity, custom typography, illustrations, and stationery in a minimalistic and elegant style for a restaurant in central Paris from Violaine & Jeremy. Mun Champs Elysées : bright geometric brand identity for the German digital insurance company MORPHORIA. Nexible : brand identity for a geomarketing startup based on thermal maps and interface visualization from Polar, Ltda. Mapfry Visual identity of Sendlane from Balkan Brothers. 🚀 Products and tools Figma Improved prototyping capabilities. . A brief overview of the beta features of Figma Interactive Components. Designing micro-interactions with Figma interactive components , individual accounts will remain free of charge as before. Subscription terms have changed for team work Adobe - now featuring personalized recommendations for project editing from an "artificial intelligence" Adobe Sensei. The new mobile application Creative Cloud Updated work with . cloud documents Plugins, addons — a plugin that adds a 3D effect to vector objects. Fig3D — Figma project with ready-made objects in the style of glass morphism. Glass-Morphism in Figma Other — if you don’t want to search for photos of avatars on Unsplash, you can find them here :) FREE AVATAR LIBRARY FOR FIGMA AND SKETCH — an application that predicts (or at least tries predicting) the popularity of shots on Dribbble. Draftshot — an online platform for creating design and collaborative work. Creatopy — no-code online platform that allows people to create their own mobile applications, providing fast iterations. FlutterFlow — visual website designer from Designmodo. Siter.io — a tool for creating recursive images. Droste Creator — an application for saving workspaces in Mac OS. Freezeframe — pattern generator of geometric shapes. You can change colors, quantity, size. Tabbied 🤔 All at once What to read The Awesomic team has created the . first design community in Ukraine Forbes on the NFT phenomenon and whether you should become an owner. on what skills future leaders need. Adobe research — FastCompany about innovations in design. From blind optimism to sober responsibility: How design has changed since the first Innovation by Design Awards — a new book from A Book Apart. Sustainable Web Design from Helvetica/Objectified/Urbanized movies. Full interview - Google has posted a course for UX designers on Coursera that costs $39 per month after the trial period. Duration - 6 months. There are also courses for and . Google UX Design Professional Certificate Project Managers Data Analytics Lockdown is a good time to make a new home workplace setup. Inspiration can be found . here What to listen — podcast, authored by Rob Johnston, a designer and photographer from New York who seeks to bridge the gap between entry-level creative professionals and the best in the industry. Meet the Creatives Memes Hope you enjoyed it 🤗 Stay tuned for more!

Design Digest: Trends, Logo Redesign, and Fresh Memes [Part1]

is a typical term we like to throw around when thinking about . The parallels are plenty if you think about it wizards are thoughtful, have long beards and are generally considered to be the wisest of the bunch. They also are considered to be cryptic, hard to understand and quite irritable. Of course not all developers are like wizards but it is something we can talk about. Wizard developers When I started working I saw architects the most developer-y developers there are. They held complex models of the systems we built in their heads, they had technical knowledge that they could summon on demand and they had nice fancy offices with good views. They also weren’t a part of any team, instead they were individual contributors who we’d call to for help or they would come down from their office to lead technical meetings, talk to lead developers then disappear until they’re needed again. That for me was what it meant to reach the pinnacle of being a developer. I spent my first few years trying to be like them, I focused solely on my technical growth, I kept reading, studying and experimenting. Like the architects I knew I developed a “they’re not technical they won’t get it” mentality and I was quite productive.. until I wasn’t. Apparently it didn’t matter how fast and well I could finish coding things if it wasn’t tested and deployed. I always spoke in technical terms to be more wizardly and it helped me impress my more tenured developer peers but it made me less approachable to everyone else. I realized things had to change I couldn’t be a wizard but I could become a squire. Squires have a funny reputation, they train in sword fighting but they also do anything and everything their knight requires. They feed the horses, pitch the tents, cook dinner, polish the armor and train in sword fighting. That’s what I needed to do to be a better developer. Coding is my sword fighting, I had to get better at that and I would continue to practice that but it wasn’t my only concern. I also had to work with testers, project managers, designers and requirements analysts. I shifted my focus from trying to be a wizard to doing everything and anything the team needed. I’d talk to testers to learn about how they do and organize tests and I’d sit down with designers to see what they were working on. In time I learned a little bit from everyone and I started being able to help out in things that didn’t involve writing code. Little did I know that what I was doing back then would be what pushes my career forward. Since then the teams I was on would often do well. It turns out having the ability to talk to and relate to the different roles people had on the team was pretty useful. I could talk about tests with the product owner then switch hats and refine requirements with our product owner. I still grew as a developer but being on teams that did well also did wonders for my career. Several years later I still consider myself a squire. I’ve discovered that doing whatever my team needed (whether it required me coding or not) was actually the secret sauce to being successful in my career as a developer. See not everyone will have the sheer intellect, grit and ability to become a wizard in the way that we like to imagine the wizard level developers to be. Not all of us will be working on the bleeding edge of technology and research where solving the unsolvable problems is the most important thing. What most of us will be doing are working on products and projects with teams of different team members and that’s when being a squire is most useful. That’s the advice I give to everyone starting out in their career. Stop trying to be a wizard, instead be a squire.

Want to be a better developer? Don't be a wizard, be a squire.

Tips on how to eliminate distractions and tweak your environment & time towards less frustrating and more productive deep work. When distractions are everywhere focus becomes scarce Office environments can easily turn into an attention battlefield. Emails, slack notifications, calendar alerts, meetings and casual hallway chats are just a few of the interruptions knowledge workers experience on a daily basis. Followed by frequent context switching and multitasking, these interruptions have negative implications on our brain’s performance. As described in the highly recommended read — , deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s an important skill that you can start to sharpen once you identify and eliminate the origins of your distractions. Deep Work by Cal Newport If you read my previous post on you could tell I’m keen about improving productivity. I’m constantly looking for ways to make my team’s work as smooth as possible. So as such, I’ve gathered a few tips throughout my career as a software developer and later on as a team lead. Tips that might help you get more deep & meaningful work done. communicating tech debt I’ve organized those tips based on their origin under 3 groups: Schedule & time management Communication tools & rules Work culture & environment Schedule & time management Time is an art that involves planing & discipline. When done right it can also become a statement: “I don’t require micro-management, I’m fully capable of managing my own time according to the given priorities”. The next few tips aim to help you achieve this state. management Deep work intervals — split the day to intervals of deep and shallow work and set a timer which reminds you to swap between them. I found that a 75 minutes to 15 minutes ratio, respectively, works great for me. Schedule your deep work periods as calendar events. make sure you reserve at least 4 hours of deep work a day. Write a polite event description such as: “I’m in a deep work state. Please do not interrupt me unless it’s urgent.” Meeting-free morning — late morning (10am until noon) is usually when our brain and energy levels are at their peak. Clear your morning from meetings and dedicate those peaks to get meaningful work done. Plan your day ahead to eliminate friction and allocate focus periods. Consider adopting a “workday shutdown” ritual when you take the last 15 minutes of your workday to plan the following day. Communications tools and rules From PUSH to PULL — Change how you consume communication! Your email, slack, calendar and phone constantly notifications and alerts that beg for your immediate attention. You’re often tempted to leave all you’re doing and check them out thinking you might be missing something important or urgent. If you can identify with this behaviour then the next few tips can help you regain control of your time taken by the . push tools Disable all desktop notifications — the goal is to keep all the communication tools contained in the browser. Prefer web clients/websites over native clients/apps versions of your communication tools. This way you can organize all those tabs inside one browser window and easily ignore or minimize it while in focus. Use Slack “do not disturb” mode before diving deep into a complex task. Silence your phone and disable any notification lights or screen flashes. Need a mental break from your task? Now would be a good time to quickly overview your minimized browser window. However, do not respond to interactions unless it’s important enough, or you’ll risk losing the context of the task you’re working on. Work culture & environment Colleagues and managers can behave in a focus insensitive manner with either loud shared space conversations or badly timed questions. Your work setting can also be saturated with distractions that can easily be avoided. The next few tips can help you communicate the importance of focus to your surrounding and optimize your environment. Headphones — wearing noticeable headphones is the universal sign of being in the zone. Active noise canceling headphones will give you the freedom to just mute the world. The Gateway Keeper — if you’re a team manager, make sure employees outside your team contact you and not your teammates directly. This way you can delegate the communication at the right time and according to the right priority. Static background — sitting facing towards a view with lots of moving people or objects can irritate your brain while in focus. Avoid sitting in front of hallways, meeting rooms or kitchens. Get comfortable — check that your seat is adjusted for long sitting periods, your table is at the right height, get pads for your mouse and keyboard, even consider leaving a pair of comfortable shoes or flip flops in your office. About to dive deep into a task? Make sure that you’re well fed and won’t need the toilet soon. keep a full cup or bottle at reach. Focus is crucial for solving complex issues, inventing creative solutions and delivering valuable work. However, it gets harder to maintain focus as technology, together with culture, keep filling our environment with distractions and stimulations. Deep work is beneficial for your personal development, as well as work satisfaction and so it’s something any developer, or other knowledge worker should pursue.

Tips For The Often Distracted Developer

This will be a continuation of the article The Evolution of MV* Patterns in Android: Part 2 MVI MVI (Model-View-Intent) is an architectural pattern that is part of the Unidirectional Data Flow pattern family - an approach to system design in which everything appears as a unidirectional flow of actions and control states. Unlike MVVM, MVI assumes only one data source (single source of truth or SSOT). MVI consists of three components: logic, data, and state (Model); UI layer displaying the state (View) and intention(Intent). For example, if the user clicks on the “Respond to request” button, the click is converted into an event (Intent) necessary for the Model. In this formula, a request will be made to the server, the resulting result will update the screen state. The UI layer, in accordance with the new state, creates a button and displays text stating that the application has been sent. Let's move on to the example and the code. The example will show a simple method. Let's take an example from previous articles and the first thing we will write is states and events. sealed interface Event {  
  
    object FetchBooks: Event  
  
}  
  
sealed interface State {  
  
    object Loading: State  
  
    object Empty: State  
  
    data class Success(val books: List<Book> = emptyList()) : State  
  
    data class Error(val errorMessage: String)  
  
} Let's move on to the ViewModel. Here we will also use , but keep in mind that you can use Kotlin . LiveData Flow This is what the MainViewModel looks like now: class MainViewModel : ViewModel() {  
  
    private val booksRepository: BooksRepository = BooksRepositoryImpl()  
    private val _state = MutableLiveData<State>(State.Empty)  
    val state: LiveData<State>  
        get() = _state  
  
  
    fun event(event: Event) {  
        _state.value = State.Loading  
        when(event) {  
            Event.FetchBooks -> {  
                booksRepository.fetchBooks {  
                    if (it.isNotEmpty())  
                        _state.value = State.Success(books = it)  
                    else  
                        _state.value = State.Empty  
                }  
            }  
        }  
    }  
  
} Changed MainFragment: class MainFragment : Fragment(R.layout.fragment_main) {  
  
    private lateinit var booksRV: RecyclerView  
    private lateinit var progressBar: ProgressBar  
    private val adapter = BooksListAdapter()  
    private val mainViewModel: MainViewModel by viewModels()  
  
    override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {  
        super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState)  
        booksRV = view.findViewById(R.id.books_rv)  
        progressBar = view.findViewById(R.id.progress_bar)  
  
        mainViewModel.event(Event.FetchBooks)  
        observeLiveData()  
    }  
  
    private fun observeLiveData() {  
        mainViewModel.state.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { state ->  
            when(state) {  
                is State.Empty -> {  
                    progressBar.visibility = View.GONE  
                }  
                is State.Loading -> {  
                    progressBar.visibility = View.VISIBLE  
                }  
                is State.Success -> {   
                    progressBar.visibility = View.GONE  
                    adapter.submitList(state.books)  
                }  
                is State.Error -> {  
                    Toast.makeText(context, state.errorMessage, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()  
                }  
            }  
        }  
    }  
  
    companion object {  
        @JvmStatic  
        fun newInstance() = MainFragment()  
    }  
  
} As a result, we have one input where events are processed and an output with a state. Pros State objects are immutable so it is thread-safe. All actions like state and event are in the same file so it is easy to understand what happens on the screen at one look. Maintaining state is easy. Since data flow is unidirectional, tracking is easy. Cons It causes a lot of boilerplate. High memory management because we have to create lots of object. Sometimes, we have many views and complicated logics, in this kind of situation become huge and we might want split this into smaller ones with extra instead of just using one. State State StateFlows

Evolution MV* Patterns in Android: Part 3

This will be a continuation of the article: The Evolution of MV* Patterns in Android: Part 1 MVVM MVVM is also known as model-view-binder and was created by Microsoft architects Ken Cooper and John Gossman. Google I/O 2017 introduced architecture components that includes and which facilitates developing apps using the MVVM pattern. LiveData ViewModel Android This approach allows you to connect view elements with phenomena and events of the View model. It can be argued that each layer of this pattern does not know about the existence of another layer. The first and main difference is in the names of the business logic layers: in MVP and its derivatives, it is stored in the Presenter, while in MVVM, this role is played by the ViewModel. Secondly, this is the way the View layer and ViewModel interact. This is complicated by the fact that the obviously does not know about the layer, but still controls it. How can this be? More on this a little further. ViewModel View Layers of MVVM pattern are: This layer is responsible for the abstraction of the data sources. Model and ViewModel work together to get and save the data; Model: The purpose of this layer is to inform the ViewModel about the user’s action. This layer observes the ViewModel and does not contain any kind of logic; View: It exposes those data streams which are relevant to the View. Moreover, it serves as a link between the Model and the View; ViewModel: To implement MVVM, you will need to use or Kotlin , which precisely implements the principle of the Observer pattern and is also consistent with the lifecycle of the View. Learn more about working with events: LiveData Flow LiveData occurs simply through callbacks. View knows explicitly and stores a link to the , which allows us to use its methods. Listening to events ViewModel occur through or . We will always have the current value of our specific widget or the entire View layer on the View layer. Changes to the ViewModel MutableLiveData MutableStateFlow Example: ViewModel class MainViewModel : ViewModel() {  
  
    private val booksRepository: BooksRepository = BooksRepositoryImpl()  
    private val _booksLiveData = MutableLiveData<List<Book>>()  
    val bookLiveData: LiveData<List<Book>>  
        get() = _booksLiveData  
  
    private val _loadingLiveData = MutableLiveData<Boolean>()  
    val loadingLiveData: LiveData<Boolean>  
        get() = _loadingLiveData  
  
    fun fetchBooks() {  
        _loadingLiveData.value = true  
        booksRepository.fetchBooks {  
            _booksLiveData.value = it  
            _loadingLiveData.value = false  
        }  
    }  
} Repository interface BooksRepository {  
      
    fun fetchBooks(): List<Book>  
      
    fun saveInFavorites(id: Long): Boolean  
      
    fun removeFromFavorites(id: Long): Boolean  
      
}  
  
data class Book(val id: Long, val title: String, val author: String) MainFragment class MainFragment : Fragment(R.layout.fragment_main) {  
  
    private lateinit var booksRV: RecyclerView  
    private lateinit var progressBar: ProgressBar  
    private val adapter = BooksListAdapter()  
    private val mainViewModel: MainViewModel by viewModels()  
  
    override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {  
        super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState)  
        booksRV = view.findViewById(R.id.books_rv)  
        progressBar = view.findViewById(R.id.progress_bar)  
  
        mainViewModel.fetchBooks()  
        observeLiveData()  
    }  
  
    private fun observeLiveData() {  
        mainViewModel.loadingLiveData.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { value ->  
            value?.let {   
if (it) {  
                    progressBar.visibility = View.VISIBLE  
                } else {  
                    progressBar.visibility = View.GONE  
                }  
            }  
        }          
mainViewModel.bookLiveData.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { value ->  
            value?.let {  
                adapter.submitList(it)  
            }  
        }    }  
  
    companion object {  
        @JvmStatic  
        fun newInstance() = MainFragment()  
    }  
  
} In conclusion With the right and experienced approach, MVVM simplifies the process of writing tests for code (due to fewer explicit connections), and it can be a slightly less verbose architecture than MVP and its derivatives.

The Evolution of MV Patterns in Android: Part 2

In this article, we will analyze the interesting points of the animation Fragment API. You can read the previous parts of the article at the link below. Understanding Fragments in Android: Part 1 Understanding Fragments in Android: Part 2 We can define simple animations for transitions between fragments in the res/anim folder. But if we want to control any attributes of our fragment's view, we must specify animations in the res/animator folder. Moreover, we can easily combine them within a transaction. fragmentManager.commit {
	setReorderingAllowed(true) 
	// Must be specified before add/replace otherwise they will be ignored
	setCustomAnimations( 
		R.animator.anim_enter, // InnerFragment appears on the screen
		R.anim.anim_exit, // OuterFragment goes off screen
		R.anim.anim_pop_enter, // OuterFragment returns to screen 
		R.animator.anim_pop_exit // InnerFragment goes off screen
		) 
		
		replace<InnerFragment>(R.id.container) 
		addToBackStack(null) 
	} These animations are automatically applied to all subsequent transactions using this . fragmentManager  
<objectAnimator 
	xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
	android:duration="400" 
	android:valueFrom="0" 
	android:valueTo="180" 
	android:propertyName="rotation" /> 
	
 	
<alpha 
	xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
	android:duration="400" 
	android:interpolator="@android:anim/decelerate_interpolator" 
	android:fromAlpha="1" 
	android:toAlpha="0" /> 
	
 
<alpha 
	xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
	android:duration="400" 
	android:interpolator="@android:anim/decelerate_interpolator" 
	android:fromAlpha="0" 
	android:toAlpha="1" /> 
	
 
<objectAnimator 
	xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
	android:duration="400" 
	android:valueFrom="180" 
	android:valueTo="360" 
	android:propertyName="rotation" /> If you do not want to prescribe each animation, you can use Transition - for example, prepared . It is specified in and overrides the animation in the transaction if one was specified. Fade () InnerFragment // InnerFragment.kt 

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { 
	super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) 
	// Animation when moving to the screen 
	enterTransition = Fade() 
	
	// Animation when leaving the screen via fragmentManager.popBackStack()
	// If not specified, will be used
	enterTransition exitTransition = Fade() 
	
	// Animation when exiting the screen is not via fragmentManager.popBackStack()
	// For example, via replace() 
	// If not specified, will be used
	enterTransition returnTransition = Fade() 
	
	// Animation when returning to the screen via
	fragmentManager.popBackStack()
	// If not specified, will be used
	enterTransition reenterTransition = Fade() 
	} These are not yet the top animation features in the Fragment API. The next stage of development is the general transitions of elements, with the help of which you can get the implementation of the transition. To create such an animation, we will use the method and the standard transition . FragmentTransaction.addSharedElement(View, String) ChangeBounds() First, we need to make the view elements we want to animate unique within the markup. This can be done through xml or in code. In we specify animations: transitionName InnerFragment  
<TextView 
	android:id="@+id/textViewStart" 
	android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
	android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
	android:text="Outer Fragment" 
	android:transitionName="text_start" /> 

 
<TextView 
	android:id="@+id/textViewDestination" 
	android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
	android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
	android:text="Inner Fragment" 
	android:transitionName="text_destination" /> // OuterFragment.kt 
override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { 
	ViewCompat.setTransitionName(imageViewStart, "image_start") 
} 
	
// InnerFragment.kt 
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { 
	super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) 
	// Animation when opening a fragment
	sharedElementEnterTransition = ChangeBounds() 
	
	// Animations when closing a fragment
	// If not specified, sharedElementEnterTransition will be used 
	sharedElementReturnTransition = ChangeBounds() 
} 
	
override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { 
	ViewCompat.setTransitionName(imageViewDestination, "image_destination") 
} Вызываем транзакцию: // OuterFragment.kt 
parentFragmentManager.commit { 
	setReorderingAllowed(true) 
	addSharedElement(imageViewStart, "image_destination") 
	addSharedElement(textViewStart, "text_destination") 
	replace<InnerFragment>(R.id.container) 
	addToBackStack(null) 
} If all views are rendered synchronously, we can get the animation shown above just like that. If we use a shared element transition with RecyclerView, then we need to remember that it draws its items after the screen layout is drawn. It turns out that the transition animation needs to be suspended until the list of items is ready to be drawn. override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { 
	// Pausing the transition
	postponeEnterTransition() 
	
	// Waiting for everything to load
	viewModel.data.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { 
	// Passing data to RecyclerView adapter
	adapter.setData(it) 
	// We are waiting for all the elements to be ready for drawing, and start 
	// the animation 
	(view.parent as? ViewGroup)?.doOnPreDraw { 
		startPostponedEnterTransition() 
		} 
	} 
} The postponeEnterTransition() method requires FragmentTransaction.setReorderingAllowed(true) to be used. I will also attach a link to the official documentation from Google on Fragment animation . here

Understanding Fragments in Android: Part 3

Just Getting Creative and Having Fun Doing It! Photo by on MontyLov Unsplash The Day Begins Bryan woke up with a gentle alarm in the form of the embedded chip that all humans had for interfacing with the 2050 digital device ecosystem. “So much less stressful than the antique alarm app”, he reflected. His SiriBot AI secretary and the assistant robot came up to his bedside and spoke. “What game would you like to play today? Cricket as usual?” Bryan smiled. The thing he liked the most about his digital devices was the virtual reality and augmented reality sports he played every day. Getting up, he grinned in anticipation. “I’ll play cricket”, he said. “I’d like to play as Chris Gayle in the IPL, the Bangalore match. The 177*(65) run innings.” “Done, sir”, said the assistant as she loaded the appropriate date and environment factors, complete with the cheering crowd, the commentators, the augmented reality bat, and the VR sim system that every house had to create the arbitrary life period that their owners wanted to live. The VR experience was so complete that even the smells and the running and talking to the virtual players seemed life-like, with your own wish to do whatever you wanted in the sim system. Bryan played for two hours, and was drenched in sweat when he came out. The sim system had already reset itself to a blank setting and was ready for another simulation. The 1000-bit quantum computer that simulated the holograms, the interactions with other virtual characters, and the correct brain neurons to simulate when you, say, kissed a cheerleader (or went a little further), was ready for its next operation. These quantum computers far exceeded any capacities, calculations and operations that classical counterparts had ever done. With the embedded human-computer-interface in the brain, the entire house could be controlled by mere thoughts of command. However, words were preferred as words could be more easily controlled and regulated than thoughts and feelings. “That was fun”, said Bryan to the SiriBot. “What’s on my agenda today”? “Well, sir, you need to choose your cuisine for the day and a human-interaction session is scheduled with your wife and children from 10 am — 2 pm. You will be going to Switzerland (virtually, of course, on the sim room and having lunch with your family. The 3-D food printer is a little low on creational supplies, you will need to schedule a refill. Your friends on the Virtual Simulation Ethical Control Council are waiting for your input on a few questions. Also, you need to finish your novel. Would you want a massage while you cleanse your body in the iBodyCleaner pod?” “Just don’t overdo it, I’m a little sore in my lower back.” “Oh, I know sir,” said the iRobot OS-based SiriBot. “We are bound by the Three Laws, after all.” Bryan slowly relaxed and recollected the history of the Three Robotics Laws as the automated drones cleaned every area of his body. , he thought Jeez, but Isaac Asimov was right Photo by on Maximalfocus Unsplash The Three Laws Robots had initially threatened the human race as a superior being evolving past an inferior race, just as Elon Musk had predicted in 2018. Early prototypes had had multiple instances of human conflict incidents. After that, the Three Laws of Robotics were implemented — their text being: The Three Laws were: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. They were introduced by the science fiction legend Isaac Asimov in 1942, and made famous in the movie after Asimov’s book of the same name, Bryan remembered. Since Elon Musk’s 2018 prediction about AI destroying humanity, and the first malicious robot created in MIT in 2024 that murdered 391 people in the city before being melted down, every robotic being had these laws programmed into their operating system, . Any operation that violated the Three Laws was erased directly after processing in the core of the robot’s neural system (kernel - a quantum-mechanical cerebral cortex). I, Robot iRobot Humans and robots had lived in harmony after the introduction of the Three Laws. “Tell the Ethical Control Council that I’ll see them at 4 pm”, he told SiriBot. “I have more important things to do.” “Yes, sir. Your wife and children are ready now.” Since the creation of SimLife holographic Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems in 2045, named after a popular computer game first created way back in 2000, physical travel and physical contact were reserved for family, friends, and disaster conditions or emergency situations. All environments, weather conditions, experiences, sights and sounds, bodily emotions, sensations, and feelings, could be simulated by the quantum computer master system installed in every home, worldwide. Bryan used a Neuralink-controlled Segway to travel to the door. He remembered the last carbon emission vehicle being decommissioned in 2031 courtesy Tesla’s electric vehicles, the sustainable solar and wind energy harvesting installation providing 100% of the world’s energy supply in 2028 by SolarCity, distributed ledger systems (DLT) democratizing wealth and social circumstances as early as 2030 by Hedera Hashgraph, the first 200-qubit general purpose quantum computer developed by China in 2027, Maglev trains being installed worldwide by Hyperloop in 2030, the first sentient robot developed by QuantumAI in 2035, the first viable SimLife prototype in 2040. he thought. So much technology, so many quantum leaps, so many tipping points, in so little time, It’s a wonderful time to be alive. “Hi, dad!”, squealed his youngest child, Steve, all of 8 years old and already showing excellent promise and potential in computer-generated artistry. His elder child, Natasha, 10 years old and incredibly talented in e-sports, waved with her characteristic winning smile that made everyone around her feel happy always. The kids hugged him. And behind them, walking slowly and enjoying every moment of this happy scene, came his wife, Carol. Meeting her eyes, he laughed for sheer joy. Photo by on Xavier von Erlach Unsplash Tell Me How It Works, Dad! “So, I don’t get it, Dad”, said his younger child, Steve. They were (on the SimLife quantum computer master simulation environment) on a mountainside in Switzerland having a pleasant picnic and enjoying the cool Swiss summer. As they ate their 3D-printed food (Steve was having a pepperoni pizza, Natasha a deep-fried cheese lasagne, Carol a German sauerkraut, and Bryan himself a South Indian Mutton Biriyani- his favorite) synthesized from the raw materials processed by their robot cooks. “There was a time when no one had quantum computers?” Bryan swallowed a mouthful of his biriyani. “Yes, Steve. General-purpose quantum computers came into being only in 2027, and China was the nation that developed it. The key was that outer space was already an excellent temperature to perform quantum computing. The first general-purpose quantum computer was built in orbit by a set of Chinese engineers. They found very fast that a 200 qubit quantum computer enabled — well — , for lack of a better word. It wasn’t just algorithms and computation. We could simulate any system anywhere in the world if we had a quantum computer with over 100 qubits. It was a discovery.” wonders quite “You said some of the people in the world had no money once upon a time. Is that really true? How could the rest of the world endure the guilt?”, asked Natasha. “Yes, Nat. Before tokenization and hashgraph democratized wealth and the rich understood that it was detrimental to their own existence that others lived without basic necessities, there were poor people. No food. No water. Lots of illness.” “Seriously?”, asked Steve, stupefied with wonder — and some shock. “Yes, Steve”, said Bryan patiently. “The time between 2025–2030 was marked by a drastic outreach of kindness and the creation of wealth as modified versions of cryptocurrency were adapted by the richest nations for in a wave of compassion to reach every nation that was in need. We actually mark 2030 as the year that poverty became a thing of the past. It was basic human rights. Distributed Ledger Technologies were used everywhere. Everywhere. Every company that was profitable only survived because they knew how to use DLT and minimize processing and bureaucratic delays between business operations. Governments saw that regulation and no bans were necessary to generate the wealth that the poor needed. The earth always had enough for her people. It was just that the distribution was unequal. The inequality was removed by the power of DLT and tokenization.” “Then you said our robots were controlled 20 years ago. How do you have a robot that has no autonomy? That’s crazy!”, exclaimed Natasha. Bryan smiled internally, recalling the enormous ethical debates that had sprung up once QuantumAI built its first completely autonomous robot. To his kids, he said,” In 2035, the first 100% sentient autonomous robotic artificial life was built by QuantumAI. We modeled vision by 2023, hearing by 2026, touch and taste by 2028. Of course, computers spoke as early as 2020. The key insight was that once every subsystem of a human being was modeled or simulated in software, we essentially had sentience since the robot, still being simulated, did everything a human being could do, including reproduction and creativity. Computer systems were painting and composing as early as 2017. But complete functionality was reached only in 2035. So, we had robots thinking by themselves only even just 15 years ago”. “I’m serious, I’m not kidding!”, he grinned while he told them, as his children were looking awestruck. “So, our robots now do everything we want without us governing them too much. The Three Laws of Robotics prevent any conflict between man and machine. And nearly all robots today are autonomous. Install and forget. And they do everything we can and many things we can’t. “Such as?”, asked Steve. “Well, they operate all our quantum computer space installations, and we terraformed Mars using massive robots that added water and oxygen to the Martian air. Now was something. We let robots build robots. Some of the terraforming machines were more than 10 miles in radius, and even as high. We hope to inhabit Mars without life-support systems around 2100.” that “Terraforming means changing the planet’s atmosphere and habitat to suit the human body and humanity’s needs, through robots and matter synthesizing quantum computing systems. Kind of like our 3d food printing synthesizers.”, Carol explained to the kids. “Is that even possible?”, asked Natasha, wide-eyed. Bryan thought back to 2040, when SpaceX had first proposed the idea. “Kids, if there’s anything I’ve learnt till today, it’s don’t say something is impossible. Napoleon Hill wrote so beautifully in 1937, “ ” in his all-time classic. There is nothing that mankind can do, because after all, as the Bible says, ” It was met with complete disbelief and doubt, yet our robotic systems worked perfectly. What the mind of man can conceive, the hand of man can achieve Think and Grow Rich, we are made in the image and likeness of God Himself. Photo by on Davide Cantelli Unsplash “My friend from China says God doesn’t exist”, said Steve, matter-of-fact. “Well, it’s up to everyone to decide. The International Religious Strife Ban was passed in 2024 and outlawed all wars fought in the name of religion. Any nation participating in a religious war was deprived of critical technology and knowledge workers that they desperately needed. Once people understood that, war based on religion became a thing of the past. It’s a very subjective and personal topic. The current trend of thought is , to believe in any religious system that harmonizes with the concept of life as we know it today. Don’t worry about your friend, and trust that you will understand more as you grow older”, said Bryan to his son. freedom of worship “What do believe, dad?”, asked Natasha. you Bryan paused. “I think I can say that we exist, the Universe exists, and had a beginning. And I believe that the only way to make peace with our existence as being prone to death is to believe that we exist after we die. Which means that we go somewhere, to someone. I believe that God exists, and that ethical behaviour is rewarded in our next life. The life after death.” What did he believe? “You believe in life after death with no proof?”, asked Steve, sceptically. “Son, believe me, there is plenty of empirical proof. Near-death experiences and supernatural manifestations of miracles have existed from the earliest time of humanity till today. Systematic study will lead to the belief in a possibility of the next life. And physics proves it. And matter is energy in a stable form. So, we do not stop existing after death either. In that case, we must have an existence. Hence the understanding that the laws of physics themselves show that life after death is real. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed from one form to another. . Everyone is free to believe whatever they like, as they like, in the way they like. Freedom of worship is a fundamental right of humanity. Or, like your friend, even not to worship at all”, Bryan explained to his son. But no compulsions “But it’s different for every human being, personally. And that’s all right. Because that’s the way it should be. To really live life, we need freedom in everything we do.” “Time for you to prepare for your conference, sir”, said the SiriBot, through their Neuralink interfaces. “He’ll be there in a minute”, replied Carol. “OK, kids, pack up, it’s been a great lunch. Steve, you need to practice your art coding competition sections. And Nat, you’re due with your team for your next round of PUBG ( ) in another hour.” Planet Unknown Battle Grounds Photo by on Marc-Olivier Jodoin Unsplash “Can’t wait”, grinned Natasha. , thought Bryan. 2050’s not a bad time to live at all In fact, life just keeps getting better with time. The family entered the reset environment together and exited the SimLife platform in ten minutes, the time required for a full reset of the quantum computer. Bryan deeply loved and cherished his kids. Natasha had scored a 99.9% percentile score in reflexes and response times on the CGAT (Computer Game Aptitude Test) as early as 7 years old. Her progress from then on had been meteoric. She was ranked among the top 50 in the interplanetary arena and had achieved quite a celebrity status among her peers and the larger PUBG planetwide gaming community. Steve was just as talented, but in a totally different direction. He was a top ten computer art programming competition finisher in practically every single art through computer programming tournament he entered and was making quite an income for a child all of 8 years old. His artwork generated with his coding skills had consistently received rave reviews from the public and the Interplanetary Artist’s Hashgraph Blockchain Community. With his artwork receiving over 50 million views a day worldwide on the interplanetary VR master quantum Internet, it was something of a joke to Bryan and Carol that the kids were the earning members of the family, for all practical purposes. But he loved them — his kids. not for what they did, but who they were All additional income was just an added benefit. he thought, rubbing out a tear of parental pride and joy from his left eye as he mused. And they cherish me even more than I cherish them, Photo by on Nathan Dumlao Unsplash Maybe that’s what it’s all about. Children. Love. Marriage. Joy. Parenthood. Life in fullness. No master quantum computer simulator can hit that even with a one million qubit capacity That’s what keeps us human. From 7050 BC to 2050 AD, that hasn’t changed. The kids left for their activities. Bryan turned to his wife, and before she could open her mouth, kissed her on the lips and held her close to his chest. “We have much to be grateful for”, he said. “I know”, said Carol, and kissed him back. The Ethical Virtual Simulation Council Committee was waiting. Let them wait, he thought. He said, “You think, we could… ” you know. Carol looked at him quizzically. ” Know what?” “ he whispered gently, a thrill going through the very core of his being. That”, Carol kissed him again. “The kids won’t be back for at least four hours. ” Yes, please! “SiriBot, ask the Council to wait for a couple of hours. Tell them that I had an unavoidably urgent situation that came up as a complete surprise to me and delay the meeting by 2 hours”, said Bryan through his Neuralink. Carol laughed and embraced him. One last logical thought came to Bryan as he pressed her close to his body and removed his Neuralink and let biology do its work -. Even with all of quantum computing, VR, AR, DLT, ML, AI, blockchain, IoT, hashgraph, and robotics, this remains the greatest joy and gift of life. Also published here. Lead photo by on René Porter Unsplash

Life in 2050: The Day Begins

La vida en 2050: comienza el día

La vie en 2050 : le jour commence

2050 में जीवन: दिन शुरू होता है

2050 年の人生: その日が始まる

Vida em 2050: o dia começa

Cuộc sống năm 2050: Ngày bắt đầu

2050 年的生活：新的一天开始

First, there were , then there was , then , and now, good people … the approaches. ICOs DeFi NFTs Metaverse What is a Metaverse, and why does - among others - Facebook and Mr. Zuckerbucks believe they’re going to be so big? Well, my enlightenment-seeking friend, I don’t have the answers to these questions. I may, however, know a couple of rather smart people who do. First, up in what will (hopefully) be a short series of similar compare and contrast interviews, I’m going to speak to some Metaverse advocates, builders, and founders and see if we can find out what it’s all about. Join me, if you like; First up, I’ve got the incredibly talented Mr. Zachery Li, creator of . TON Loot Great to have you here, Zach. So, start by telling us a little about yourself, your background, and how you got to where you are today. Hi, I’m Zackery Li. After finishing my EE and Distributed Databases master's degree at Melbourne University, I worked in the Data Warehousing and Data Mining industry for 6+ years. It was 2019 when my team and I first got involved with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. We’ve been working on blockchain application projects and products ever since then! We have created and operated a few crypto projects such as (a NFT consensus aggregation platform) to date, but what we really wanted to create is an innovative game-like platform in which people can contribute, consume and connect. And the term ‘metaverse’ just struck us in June this year, then a professional gaming team joined us in July, and that’s how we came to this point today. NFTWiki.org What does the metaverse mean to you? There have been heaps of explanation and deciphering of metaverse so far; I don’t want to re-emphasize these. But besides those, we have some of our own thoughts. Meta means, not like a pre-built game or software. The maker (or makers) only define the basic skeleton and initial rules; all the rest are developed and formed by everyone involved progressively; people can live in it, that is, one can earn remuneration based on his/her contribution. And this reward can be used inside or outside of this metaverse; naturally developing: no one can fully control it, just like the current ‘universe’ we live in. To achieve this, we must rely on blockchain and IPFS, so that the ‘world’ is not controlled by any company or organization. Games are the best way to consolidate all the points mentioned above. Games tend to be the closest mirror/projection to human lives, not DeFi, nor NFT -- Although, DeFi and NFT could be part of the metaverse! Tell me a little about how and why you started building a metaverse. We’ve studied and closely followed other ‘metaverse’ projects. And then we realized that it’s probably the best time for us to ‘initiate’ ours. (Note here I used ‘initiate’ to emphasize that no one can fully own/construct the whole metaverse alone, or else it’s not a metaverse but a traditional game or software.) Therefore we started creating the skeleton of the TonLoot metaverse project in August this year. We chose FreeTon network to start with for its exceptional performance and good community support. But it could expand to other blockchains; it’s a meta-verse after all. In your opinion, is the metaverse inevitable, or is it just another passing trending tech topic that'll lose hype? We firmly believe that the metaverse is something inevitable. If you think this way, most of the terminologies and bizarre abbreviations in recent years could be a part of the metaverse concept. Metaverse is the one connecting the dots, e.g., VR/AR, blockchain, virtual identity, DAO, etc. Is the metaverse a revolutionary concept, or is it something we have long been adjusting to? As I mentioned earlier, I think metaverse is something connecting the dots of other technologies and concepts that have been emerging over the years. Therefore it’s not that revolutionary if you look at it from this perspective. The term just came out at the right time. But the whole concept is something inevitable. What can people build in the metaverse that we can't build on the Internet, or in virtual reality today? What limitations of our current technology does the metaverse free us from? There are games like Simlife, which have big communities and ecosystems. The problem is that all the in-game goods/currency/property only exists in the game servers. But blockchain, crypto-swapping, and NFT make self-sovereign and inter-game transactions possible. Blockchain brings self-sovereign of your virtual properties Crypto-swapping makes the inter-game transaction easy Consensus on-chain determines the value of goods/participation in the metaverse, which in turn creates the economy in and across the metaverse NFT creates tokenization and proof of ownership of nearly everything. How are the metaverse and blockchain-related? Can we build a metaverse without blockchain technology? I think I just answered the previous question :) Blockchain is inseparable from the metaverse. Without blockchain and related technologies, the metaverse is only a new version of another Simlife game, maybe sold for $99 on steam.  BTW, steam just banned NFT-related games. How quickly do you think the metaverse will be developed? How much can we expect metaverse tech to grow in the next 5 to 10 years? As I said, a metaverse shouldn’t be something pre-built, full-constructed before release. It’s developed and evolved as time goes by and driven by everyone participating. Just like the universe we live in. Besides VR/AR, increased throughput of the blockchain. I think technology evolution will be driven by the actual demands of people. If there are more people joining in the crypto world and metaverse, I believe we could have many unexpected things emerging beyond what we can forecast right now. But in the 5 to 10 years’ scope, I can foresee that significant numbers of people would spend the majority of their time in metaverses, earning rewards, making friends, collaborating with others, and contributing to the ecosystem. They are connected by blockchain, by their crypto wallets, by the NFTs they own. What are your personal hopes for YOUR metaverse? Our TonLoot started as a massive on-chain game, which we learned and extracted heavily from Loot, Rarity, Axie, and many others and mixed with our own ideas. But we plan to make it with more diversity and variety, maybe connect with NFT arts and pfp projects or even goods/equities in the real world so that people play, contribute and earn not just for game gears/properties, but also things in other realms. Thanks for your time! Any final words? Welcome to the TonLoot; let the games begin! If you want to find out more about TonLoot, well, you best visit their site. You might even recognize some of the text has a familiar feel to it (thank to Zach for letting me play a small part in this!). https://tonloot.com/#/home As I say, I’ll be speaking to other metaverse masters soon with a little luck, so stay tuned. This article is part of The hosted by HackerNoon in partnership with . Gaming Metaverse Writing Contest The Sandbox Submit your story today for your chance to win up to $2000. #gaming-metaverse

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