Ministry of Science and ICT 2022 Future Scenario Contest Award-Winning Works
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] #1. One day in the year 20XX AD. People began to confuse virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) with actual reality. Authorities established regulations requiring a red dot to always be displayed in one corner of VR or AR programs. Additionally, to prevent addiction, a message stating "You are experiencing virtual reality" must be displayed for more than 5 seconds every 30 minutes. Companies selling VR programs harmful to youth due to violence and sexual content sprang up like mushrooms after rain, causing headaches for regulators. Like drugs, the number of people addicted to increasingly stimulating VR experiences also began to rise.
However, there are not only side effects. Through VR, it became easy to learn English from native speakers, and social studies classes became much more enjoyable. Musical instruments and sports could also be learned via VR, and the elderly population’s ability to use smart devices and their reemployment rates significantly increased. The greatest improvement was that safety education for disasters such as fires and drowning could be conducted much more enjoyably, realistically, and effectively through VR. The emergence of programs that recreate deceased individuals has become a new source of controversy. Many people want to meet the deceased through VR, but voices have started to call for restrictions due to the enormous waste of social resources such as time and cost.
#2. Ms. Seo Mi-sook was awakened from her morning sleep by the voice of her smart assistant again today. She received her medicine via drone delivery, and Amy ran a medical program to scan her body and take care of her health. Medical consultations were conducted remotely through holograms, and her attending physician was a robot. Ms. Seo also had a chip implanted containing her personal information. At the hospital, where humanoids were working everywhere, she silently picked up her medicine and left. Having lived busily competing with robots, she was unable to start a family or keep in touch with people, resulting in Disconnection Blue. This depression, which currently affects 46.7% of society, is caused by isolation due to lack of contact and communication between people.
This is the public’s imagination of a future society changing with the advancement of science and technology. It is reflected in some of the award-winning works from the "Future Society Scenario Contest Opened by Science and Technology," held by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the morning of the 12th. The Ministry has been holding this contest since last year to discover public ideas about future technologies and incorporate them into research and development policies so that the public’s imagination can become reality. A total of 458 scenarios were submitted to this contest, confirming the public’s high interest in future technologies. After expert evaluation, 10 works were selected as winners, and the final ranking of these 10 works was determined through a nationwide online survey with 1,079 participants.
The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to conduct an in-depth analysis of the future technologies contained in the 458 submitted works and existing prior research (such as future prediction reports and film/drama analyses) to derive future key technology development areas that reflect public demand. These derived future technology fields will be utilized in science and technology policy formulation through technology concretization, new project planning, and policy support direction derivation.
Kim Bong-su, Director of Basic and Fundamental Research Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "This contest was a great opportunity to directly hear the public’s opinions on how future society will change with the advancement of science and technology," adding, "We will strive to create a better future society through science and technology based on the public’s opinions."
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