Life 4.0

My smartphone woke me up at 5:30 AM. That day I had a work interview in Milan, for which I had to catch the train which leaves Udine at 7:01 AM. This looked as the best option when a couple of days before I booked my ticket on the App of Trenitalia, paying it through my PayPal account linked to my VISA credit card. After a brief recap into my mind of the daily schedule, I paused for a few seconds silently staring and smiling at the barely visible unconscious faces of my wife and our baby, both strikingly beautiful and sound asleep beside me. I switched on the searchlight function of my iPhone and faced it down to find my way out of the pitch-dark bedroom.

As soon as I turned on my car, the crepuscular sensor promptly switched on the headlights. I pushed the media button on the dashboard, and suddenly a shuffle of my music library started playing through the bluetooth connection automatically paired between the car entertainment system and the smartphone. I drove slowly — ECO mode switched on — across the sleeping suburbs, comforted by the dualogic transmission. Every time I needed to stop at the few lightnings not yet converted into far more efficient roundabouts, the engine stopped promptly to restarted as soon as I lifted the foot from the brake pedal.

A parking lot was conveniently placed a hundred meters away from the train station. No entrance bar, no attendants. I parked the car in the almost empty space, reached the ticket machine, added coins up to the estimated return time in the evening, walked back to the car, placed the ticket in a highly visible spot behind the front window, closed the door, walked quietly to the station, stared to the monitor to identify my train, reached my coach and took my seat.

On the train I surfed the web, collecting information on the transition management company where I would have had my appointment in a few hours. Than the ticket inspector came, and he validated my e-ticket by scanning by his tablet the QR code displayed on my retina display. The rest of the morning I relaxed listening to some podcasts of my favorite radio show and occasionally connecting to my web banking platform to check my stocks and to arrange a remittance for my elder child tuition fee.

When I arrived in Milan I plugged-in the earphones and a synthezied voice guided me as I walked through the city towards my destination. I passed by the main cathedral, took a picture and posted it on Facebook: a few minutes later I’ve got a like from a friend living in Bangkok. When I reached the office, my smartphone found a nearby place where to have lunch and kill the waiting time.

After the appointment I logged into Uber to find a car that drove me back to the train station. Being ahead of schedule I checked on my smartphone the possibility to change my train with an earlier one, but the App from Trenitialia informed me that — as I bought a discounted fare — no changing was allowed. I sat at a nearby bar for an aperitif but when I was ready to place my order I’ve been reached by a weather alert on my mobile: there were over 80% of chances of showers within 15 minutes. I moved back to the station just in time to avoid the announced rain starting to pour down.

On the train back to Udine I turned to my Macbook and enjoyed Irrational Man, digitally downloaded via BitTorrent. After that I switched to the Kindle App and went on reading Investing For Dummies, which I bought online on Amazon. I completed the book just a few minutes before my stop in Udine, at 22:05. I walked to the parking lot, sat in my car, drove slowly across the silent suburbs, and reached back home. The house was quiet, I switched on the searchlight function of my iPhone and faced it down to illuminate my way through the pitch-dark bedroom, undressed and enter the bed. I paused for a few seconds silently staring and smiling at the barely visibile unconscious faces of my wife and our baby, both strikingly beautiful and sound asleep beside me. Then I switched to airplane mode and closed my eyes.