Sienna Tales: Story of a Young Woman in a future shaped by Technology

Its 2030, and this is the story of Sienna, a young woman whose life unfolds in a future shaped by tomorrows technology. This is also a tale of changing of socio-economic mores, attitudes and adoption of novel technology, from the changing face of retail and 3D printing as the primary method of manufacturing. Sienna’s journey across the landscape of the future, gives us a glimpse of the future of mixed reality that brings art closer to medicine than ever and voice assistants help us deal with grief. As the constant struggle of the human race continues across the landscape of the future, this sweet fairy tale also reminds us, to quote the author herself, “how the youth remains, well, the youth!” and may be us humans will remain humans forever, however, influenced we are by technology.

Why Sienna Tales, Author Ekta Rohra Jafri, says

” Sienna Tales is the story of a young woman in 2030. But Sienna Tales is also the story of blockchain, robotics, data security, climate change, nanotechnology, genomics, genetic engineering etc. So technology is another character in Sienna Tales and it manifests all across the story. The story, as most stories are, is all about pathos, socio-economic pathos, generation gap pathos in young people’s lives. It is also about crime, drugs, smuggling and the whole shebang.

Manifestation of tomorrow’s technology today

The main reason why i wrote Sienna Tales is to manifest what we deal with today as technological advances into how they will pan out and integrate well into our lives 10 years from now. So how will voice assistants really assist us in our lives or how block chain will enable social good or socialization in this world or how data security, especially medical data security will function on the basis of digital signatures which are based on logical & physical signatures that our bodies manifest.

I dont think data security is all about biometrics or about retina scans or finger printing. Data security, is all about the unique digital signature that every human being has – the pulse or the blood or the way their heart works, or the way their muscles work, the way their organs work or the way they react to different things. And with ubiquitous scanning, machines will always be able to understand how we are. They will always be able to monitor us and understand wether physiologically are we doing the right thing in our lives or not and be able to course-correct us if we are not.

So when I wrote Sienna Tales, I wanted to create a world, which is very unTolkien-like. For me, Tolkien is a complete fantasy world, where things don’t really need to have a realistic foundation. But for me in Sienna Tales, everything is realistic. Nothing is Fantasy. It is not science fiction. It is not a fantasy. It is a story and it is a prediction of how and what the technology that we are working on today and what we are doing today, will manifest itself in our lives 10 years from now.”

Sienna’s tales give you futuristic insight on how things pan out for us in 2030. Can the TV filter out ads and personalize them for your context? Can the fridge tell you whether you have what you need to address a hangover? Can the mirror suggest what you need to shop for and show you options which you can model in private holographic reality? Can the bathroom medical cabinet mirror tell you if you need to go to the doctor? Read on to find out the answers…

Written By

Ekta Rohra Jafri,
Design Director-Group Manager at IBM Interactive Experience
Ekta is an HFI certified Usability Analyst, IBM Design Thinking Practitioner, Designer & Strategist with expertise in creation of content & products. A story teller who works to translate your vision into a usable, monetizable product. With a stellar 22 yrs of experience out of which 13 yrs in design & user experience of digital entities, she has managed and delivered design projects on platforms from web to mobile to TVs, short form text to 3D reality. An outcome oriented expert who can create, diagnose and repair experiences through research led analysis. She has successfully driven product innovations to drive monetization, guided product strategy to match business goals. Adept in all kinds of the observatory and generative research from contextual studies to traffic or social analysis, she is also a mentor & team builder who has set up & led UX teams for COEs. A Design Thinker who loves to bring people to the same platform in terms of thought and action and a futurist who reimagines the future every time she designs.