What if the future goes wrong? iq2 If speaker and futurologist Ian Pearson has drawn a Dystopian future where technology will only highlight your various failings in a society bereft of human contact…

You begin your day with your loo telling you how bad your diet is (and other impertinent mod cons intervening determined to rectify it). The cat purring around your feet will have a curiously android tone as it is the hub for all of your house’s technologies.

You still have to earn money of course and since robots do almost every job better than a human you are a carer helping to deal with the dramatic rise in the number of cases of extreme stress.

Out clothes shopping after work you are bombarded with advertisements in your res active contact lenses, each one attempting to be more attention grabbing than the last. In the changing room your body is digitally mapped with every imperfection recorded. This data is sold to a plastic surgery company who send a helpfully  personalised advertisements to greet you once you’re back at home.

You try to relax by going to a party but the person who’s cornered you is insufferably dull. Happily you can trigger a more attractive computer simulation to be projected in their place who’s witticisms and interesting conversation keep you endlessly entertained. All you can hope is that your real interlocutor didn’t just do exactly the same thing to you.

Giving up on today you begin the walk home only to be run over by a satellite-targeted bus. The bus company earns money for every person they can up-load onto the net as a virtual person. Don’t worry, it’s not so bad. You will enjoy multiple endless existences, your company will get your labour for free and your children, wrapped up in their own cyber-world, won’t notice any difference.