Bakersfield: The Early Return

By Cliff Potts
Bay Bay City, Leyte, Philippines — May 28, 2026

This is a serialized installment from the autobiography of Cliff Potts.

Before Dawn

We left Tucson before dawn.

We always left early when driving long distances. It was cooler and quieter. This time it was my mother driving, my sisters Geri and Lauren, me, a small square fish tank with guppies, and a cat whose name I no longer remember. My father was not with us. That tells me he was still working on Kwajalein.

The fish container was more reinforced bowl than aquarium. It sat in Geri’s lap. Somewhere between Tucson and Los Angeles, the rising sun poured through the car window. The water heated gradually. By the time we realized what was happening, the guppies were dead.

I remember the sunrise more than the fish.

Desert Light

I was four, not yet five, and I saw a desert sunrise unlike any I have seen since. Reds and oranges across a flat horizon. Silence and scale at the same time. It remains one of the clearest visual memories of my early childhood.

The cat became carsick and vomited in my lap. I reacted in kind. Somewhere inside that remarkable sunrise was a miserable cat, a crying boy, and a station wagon heading west.

That was our return to California.

A Project Family

We were not a family that planted roots.

We moved where contracts required — Tucson, Kwajalein, Bakersfield. Stability was provisional. Addresses changed.

My father was gone for extended stretches. Kwajalein Atoll. Defense work. Important work, as it was described. To a small child, the description did not matter. He was simply absent.

When he returned from one of those stretches in Bakersfield, I made a smart remark. I do not remember what I said. I remember being taken into a bedroom and beaten with a belt.

That was discipline as it functioned then. There was no discussion. You obeyed.

Years later, when I had children of my own, I repeated what I had been shown.

Patterns pass forward unless someone interrupts them.

Tucson: Lessons in Independence

By Cliff Potts
Bay Bay City, Leyte, Philippines — May 21, 2026

This is a serialized installment from the autobiography of Cliff Potts.

Too Young for Baseball

There was a city-run youth program of some kind — crafts, games, structured activity without the formal label of school. I was four, perhaps four and a half. Not enrolled in school. No preschool. My mother was not present that day.

I remember the announcement clearly:

“Time for baseball.”

The older children gathered. Two teenage camp leaders conferred briefly, then delivered their decision.

“You’re too young to learn baseball. You should go home.”

There was no modified role, no escort, no accommodation. Simply a dismissal.

I was apparently too young to learn baseball — but not too young to walk home alone across blocks and intersections.

So I walked.

I arrived safely. I never learned childhood baseball in Tucson. Years later, in Chicago, I would play 16-inch clincher softball through Awana — gloves unnecessary, the ball large and soft. It was enjoyable, but it was not the same beginning.

My father favored individual sports such as golf and auto racing. He disliked the way team sports credited one player for collective effort. Baseball never became central in our household.

It remained peripheral — and later, personal.

The BB Rifle

The early 1960s are often described as safer years. My experience complicates that narrative.

One afternoon, Geri and I walked to a small soft-serve stand on a main street. On the way back, we passed a pair of older boys. They watched us. We continued walking.

A sharp impact struck the back of my head.

One of them had fired a pump-action BB rifle.

I do not recall whether I dropped the ice cream cone. I remember crying as we walked home. My mother cleaned the welt and then went, with Geri, to the boy’s house.

His father was a county sheriff.

The conversation was direct. The rifle was taken away. Discipline followed. In that moment, authority functioned as intended.

The early 1960s were not without danger. They were simply managed differently.

The Apricot Tree

Across the street lived an older woman who guarded her apricot trees with vigilance. Pie tins hung in the branches as improvised alarms. She sat nearby with an air-pump BB rifle. When birds descended, she struck a tin with precise aim, and the metallic snap scattered them.

She allowed me to shoot as well.

I was too young for baseball, but apparently old enough to handle a BB rifle under supervision. That contradiction did not occur to me at the time.

Old Tucson

Old Tucson was a movie set converted into a tourist attraction. One ride simulated a haunted gold mine: rail cars, flashing lights, staged explosions. I was unprepared for it.

During the ride I panicked completely. When we emerged into daylight, I declared through tears that I had known God would save me. My sisters laughed.

Later that day I reached for my mother’s hand while crossing a street and grasped the hand of a stranger instead. Realizing the mistake, I ran forward until I found her.

We ended the outing in a saloon-style establishment where I first heard the word “sarsaparilla.” It meant root beer.

The Collapsed Lawn

One afternoon my mother set up a metal sprinkler near the carport and we went inside for a nap. When we returned outside, a large section of lawn had collapsed into a cavity beneath it.

Before city sewage, the house had used a septic tank. When the system was removed, the pit had not been properly filled. Boards had been laid across the opening and sod placed over them. The sprinkler softened the ground, the boards failed, and the lawn gave way.

The situation was repaired, but our time in Tucson was already nearing its end.

My father secured work with General Electric on Kwajalein Atoll, installing generating equipment for the missile test range. He departed first. Not long after, we packed and left Tucson by car, returning to Bakersfield.

The desert chapter concluded as the others had — with departure.

Tucson: The House and the Desert

By Cliff Potts
Bay Bay City, Leyte, Philippines — May 14, 2026

This is a serialized installment from the autobiography of Cliff Potts.

The House Near Davis–Monthan

By the time we settled in Tucson, my father’s work was tied to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base. The house was a typical post-war Southwest stucco structure — single story, compact, functional. In memory it was off-white with a green roof.

Inside details are incomplete. Kitchen to the left, living room to the right, hallway toward bedrooms that no longer hold clear images. I do not remember where I slept or whether I shared a room.

What remains is the exterior.

Lawn and Boundary

There was a small patch of grass in front and a white picket fence with a spring-loaded gate that snapped shut behind you. Beyond that fence, the desert began immediately. Not down the block — at the edge of the yard.

My father’s truck sat in a simple carport. One afternoon I dropped pieces of my plastic train set into the round stake holes in the truck bed and became convinced they were lost forever. When I told my mother I had dropped them “down the hole,” she imagined a hole in the yard and nearly panicked. Once she realized I meant the truck bed, she opened the tailgate and retrieved them.

Four-year-old logic operates differently.

The Boat in the Sand

Behind the house ran a long block wall. I walked along it often, scanning the sand beyond for anything of interest. One day I found the bottom half of a plastic bathtub boat lying on the desert surface. It was intact and unburied.

I brought it home.

Days or weeks later — time had little structure then — I found the top half in the same area. I checked to see if anyone was watching and carried it back as well. When the pieces snapped together, the boat was complete.

I never learned how it arrived there. For a child, explanation was less important than possession.

Food and Small Economies

If any food defines Tucson in my memory, it is Cheerios. Plain cereal, heavily sugared by my own hand. The milk turned gray from what settled at the bottom of the bowl. I scraped and ate that too.

Lunch was often tomato soup with bread or peanut butter and jelly. Dinner varied. I disliked lima beans and liver then and still do.

I collected cereal box tops to mail away for a model car kit. When it arrived, I realized I lacked the skill to assemble it. The older boy next door — perhaps eleven or twelve — built it for me after my mother spoke with his mother. Glue marks, mismatched seams, fingerprints in the plastic. It did not matter. It was finished.

He helped without obligation. That remained with me.

Tucson: The Mother’s Knee

By Cliff Potts
Bay Bay City, Leyte, Philippines — May 7, 2026

This is a serialized installment from the autobiography of Cliff Potts.

An Injury Before Memory

I have no memory of my mother’s knee from Tucson. The injury happened years before I was born. What I know came later, in fragments — partial explanations, offhand remarks, and medical facts gathered long after the event itself.

Sometime after my sister Geri was born in 1950 and before my sister Lauren was born in 1955, my mother rose one morning, twisted slightly, and her knee collapsed completely. The joint failed without warning.

The timeline around those years is not perfectly clear. My parents were married in Boise, Idaho. Geri was born in Chicago. The movement between those places was never fully explained to me.

The Bone Man

The doctor who treated her was described as an old-school orthopedic surgeon — direct and unsentimental. The procedure he proposed was experimental. There were no guarantees.

The knee joint was beyond repair. The solution was fusion: bone to bone, permanently fixed. It worked. From that day forward, my mother lived with a leg that did not bend.

The Cause

Decades later, I learned the underlying cause was tuberculosis. The infection had begun in her lungs and migrated to the joint, gradually destroying it from within. By the time the damage was understood, the knee could not be salvaged.

Years later she was told she could consider a knee replacement. She was also told she was “too young.” She did not pursue it again.

Practical. No drama. Adjustment over complaint.

By the time I was born in 1957, the fusion had healed. The straight leg was simply part of who she was.

Tucson: Arrival in the Desert

By Cliff Potts
Bay Bay City, Leyte, Philippines — April 30, 2026

This is a serialized installment from the autobiography of Cliff Potts.

A Bus Somewhere in the Southwest

My first clear memory does not begin in Tucson. It begins on a long-distance bus somewhere in the American Southwest. I was four years old, small enough to sleep folded into positions that would not make sense to an adult body.

I woke up in a stranger’s lap.

He was not my father. I understood that immediately. My mother and my sisters were several rows ahead across the aisle, exhausted from travel. Why this man was the one holding me, I do not know. Perhaps my mother needed help and he offered it.

I was not afraid. I blinked at him, took in the moment, and the world continued.

That is where memory begins.

Entering Tucson

We were headed to Tucson, Arizona — toward heat, dust, and a city tied closely to military infrastructure. We arrived in 1961, between the U-2 incident involving Gary Powers and the Cuban Missile Crisis that would follow the next year. I did not understand those events then, but they formed part of the era’s background.

Tucson was not random. My father had secured work connected to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base. He understood military systems and military structure.

My Father’s Military Years

My father had served in the Army Air Corps during World War II in the Pacific theater. His role was as a cook. It was not glamorous work, but it was necessary. A newspaper clipping once noted that he had won an award for being the best chicken fryer in the United States Army.

After the war, he re-enlisted in the newly formed United States Air Force, made sergeant, and eventually left the service to care for my mother when her knee collapsed completely.

A Life Already in Motion

By the time we reached Tucson, movement was already the family norm. Military service had been followed by civilian heavy-equipment work. Contracts shifted. Locations changed. We adjusted.

The bus ride marked another transition — one of many.

Sa Pagdating ng 2035 Para sa Isang 10 Taóng Gulang Ngayon

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — Abril 29, 2026, 9:05 p.m.

Noong sampung taong gulang ako, totoo talagang naniwala ako na baka mabuhay pa tayo sa Buwan sa loob ng aking buhay.

Hindi iyon kalokohang isipin para sa isang bata noong huling bahagi ng dekada 1960. Ipinagbili sa amin ng mga matatanda ang isang hinaharap na mas malaki kaysa mga subdivision, opisina, at trapik. Sinabi sa amin na nagbubukas na ang kalawakan. Sinabi sa amin na mabilis ang pagsulong ng agham. Sinabi sa amin na ang hinaharap ay magiging malaki, mekanikal, malinis, at matapang. Pero kalaunan, lumiit ang pangarap. Bumaba ang tingin natin sa abot-tanaw. Ang malaking pangako ay naging mas maliliit na screen, mas murang mga gamit, at walang katapusang pagtatalo kung bakit hindi na magagawa ang mas malalaking bagay.

Ngayon ay 2026 na. Ako ay 68 taong gulang na. Ang isang batang sampung taong gulang ngayon ay magiging labinsiyam pagsapit ng Hunyo 2035. Hindi ito science fiction. Isa itong totoong tao na naglalakad patungo sa isang totoong kinabukasang itinatayo na ngayon, pansinin man ito ng mga matatanda o hindi.

Ang tanong ay hindi kung magbabago ba ang mundo bago dumating ang panahong iyon. Magbabago talaga ito. Ang tanong ay kung anong klaseng pagbabago ang malamang niyang maranasan.

Ang sagot, batay sa nakikita natin ngayon, ay ito: pagsapit ng Hunyo 2035, ang hinaharap ay malamang na hindi gaanong magmukhang poster ng rocket. Mas magmumukha itong makina na nakabalot sa pang-araw-araw na buhay.

Ang pinakamalalaking pagbabago ay hindi unang darating bilang mga siyudad sa Buwan o mga lumilipad na sasakyan. Darating ang mga ito sa pamamagitan ng mga sistema. Ang artificial intelligence ay malamang maisama na sa pag-aaral, medikal na pagsusuri, paghahanap ng impormasyon, customer service, logistics, pagsasalin ng wika, security screening, at trabaho sa opisina nang napakalalim na maraming kabataan ang halos hindi na makakaalala sa mundong wala pa ito. Hindi ibig sabihin niyan na naging matalino ang mga makina. Ang ibig sabihin lang niyan ay naging normal na sila.

Mahalaga ang pagkakaibang iyan.

Malaking bahagi ng susunod na dekada ang malamang hindi na iikot sa tanong kung umiiral ba ang AI, kundi sa kung gaano kalalim mapipilitang mamuhay ang mga tao kasama nito. Pagsapit ng 2035, maraming batang nasa paaralan pa ngayon ang maaaring turuan, subukin, ituwid, bantayan, at uri-uriin sa pamamagitan ng mga sistemang wala pa noong ipinanganak sila.

Hindi nito awtomatikong gagawing mas malaya sila. Baka pabilisin sila nito. Baka may ilang serbisyong mas madaling maabot. Pero posible ring mas maging mahirap tukuyin kung saan nagtatapos ang tao at saan nagsisimula ang sistema.

Magbabago rin ang trabaho. Ang sampung taong gulang ngayon ay malamang hindi na inihahanda para sa isang matatag na karerang tulad ng iniisip noon ng kanilang mga lolo at lola. Inihahanda sila para sa buhay na puno ng pagbabago, muling pag-aaral, at pakikipagtulungan sa mga kasangkapang kayang gayahin ang bahagi ng gawain ng tao.

Hindi ibig sabihin nito na mawawala na ang trabaho. Ibig sabihin lang nito ay patuloy na gagalaw ang mga patakaran ng trabaho.

May isa pang problemang nakatago sa ilalim ng lahat ng digital na pag-asang ito: kuryente. Hindi lang kapangyarihang pampulitika, bagaman marami niyan, kundi elektrisidad. Napakalaki ng kakaining kuryente ng makinang hinaharap. Pagsapit ng 2035, ang mga kabataang adulto ay maaaring mabuhay sa mundong ang polisiya sa enerhiya ay hindi na lamang usapin ng mga espesyalista. Maaari na itong maging isa sa mga sentral na katotohanan ng makabagong buhay, kasama ng upa, pagkain, at internet access.

Diyan humihinto ang hinaharap sa pagiging abstract.

Kung ang susunod na henerasyon ay mabubuhay sa loob ng mas kompyuterisadong mundo, mas magiging mahalaga ang grid. Mas magiging mahalaga ang mga baterya. Mas magiging mahalaga ang pagiging maaasahan ng suplay. Mas magiging mahalaga kung sino ang makakakuha ng murang kuryente at sino ang hindi. Ang batang lumalaki ngayon ay maaaring umabot sa hustong gulang sa lipunang ang mga debate tungkol sa data centers, solar buildout, nuclear restarts, grid strain, at industrial demand ay hindi na mga niche na paksa. Maaari na silang maging pang-araw-araw na realidad.

Ang medisina ay malamang isa sa mas maliwanag na bahagi ng kuwentong ito, kahit hindi sa mahiwagang paraang karaniwang iniisip ng mga tao. Pagsapit ng 2035, ang ilang sakit na dating parang permanente ay maaaring magamot sa mas direktang paraan kaysa inakala ng mga naunang henerasyon. Idagdag pa ang remote monitoring, mas mahusay na diagnostics, wearable sensors, at AI-assisted screening, at ang karaniwang kabataang adulto ng 2035 ay maaaring mabuhay sa mundong ang medisina ay mas tuloy-tuloy, mas nakakahula, at hindi na gaanong umaasa sa paghihintay hanggang lumala nang husto ang problema.

Tunay na pag-unlad iyan. Hindi iyan imortalidad. Hindi iyan science-fiction na himala. Pero pag-unlad pa rin iyan.

Ang transportasyon ay malamang na mas ebolusyonaryo kaysa rebolusyonaryo. Mas magiging karaniwan ang mga electric vehicle. Mas maraming bahagi ng pagmamaneho, pagsakay, at pag-iiskedyul ang kokontrolin ng software. Mas magiging awtomatiko ang mga bodega. Mas hihigpit, mas masusubaybayan, at mas magiging walang patawad ang delivery systems. Ang ilang lugar ay magmumukhang mabilis na modernisado. Ang iba naman ay mananatiling tagpi-tagpi ng lumang imprastruktura at pag-asa. Dapat talagang sabihin ang hindi pantay na pagdating ng hinaharap, dahil hindi naman ito dumarating nang patas. Hindi pa kailanman.

Ganoon din sa koneksiyon. Mas maraming tao ang magiging online. Mas maraming lugar ang magkakaugnay. Makakatulong ang mga satellite system para bawasan ang ilang coverage gaps. Pero hindi ibig sabihin niyan na pantay ang access, kalidad, o oportunidad. Pagsapit ng 2035, maaaring maabot ng isang kabataan ang network halos kahit saan pero hindi pa rin siya totoong maayos na mapagsilbihan nito. Hindi pareho ang access at kapangyarihan.

At pagkatapos ay nariyan ang kalawakan.

Dito nagtatagpo ang dating pagkadismaya at bagong pagiging makatotohanan.

Ang batang ako noon ay naniwalang ang Buwan ay magiging bahagi na ng ordinaryong buhay ng tao pagsapit ngayon. Hindi iyon nangyari. Bumagsak ang political will. Tinangay ng agos ang publiko. Pinaliit ng kultura ng negosyo ang pangarap hanggang naging kalkulasyon na lang kada quarter at tinawag iyon na pagiging mature. Maraming taong nagsabing ayusin muna natin ang Daigdig ang gumugol naman ng mga sumunod na dekada sa pagtangging ayusin din ito. Iyan ang maruming maliit na lihim ng argumentong iyon. Hindi nila pinili ang pananagutan kaysa pagpapalawak. Kadalasan, ang pinili nila ay pagkatigil laban sa dalawa.

Pero hindi namatay ang kalawakan. Nagbago lang ang anyo nito.

Hindi nito ibig sabihin na may mga bayan na sa Buwan pagsapit ng 2035. Pero posible na ang Buwan ay muling maging bahagi ng buhay na hinaharap imbes na alaala lamang mula sa itim-at-puting telebisyon. Ang sampung taong gulang ngayon ay maaaring umabot sa hustong gulang sa mundong ang tuloy-tuloy na aktibidad sa Buwan ay itinuturing nang normal muli, kung saan nagpapatuloy ang mga robotic at makataong operasyon doon, at kung saan ang ideya ng mas malaking presensya ng tao lampas sa Daigdig ay hindi na mukhang katawa-tawa.

Mas mahalaga iyon kaysa sa iniisip ng ilang tao.

Kailangan ng mga sibilisasyon ng frontiers of purpose, hindi lang frontiers of consumption. Kailangan nila ng mga layuning mas malaki kaysa convenience. Kailangang maramdaman ng mga bata na ang kasaysayan ay gumagalaw pa rin patungo sa isang direksiyon. Kailangan nilang maniwala na may mga matatandang nagtatayo pa rin ng isang bagay na higit sa mas mahusay na ad-targeting engine.

Pagsapit ng Hunyo 2035, ang sampung taong gulang ngayon ay maaaring magmana ng mundong may mas matatalinong makina, mas mahusay na mga medikal na kasangkapan, mas malinis na enerhiya sa ilang rehiyon, mas mahigpit na digital systems, at mas seryosong pagbabalik sa paggalugad sa Buwan. Pero maaari rin silang magmana ng mas mainit na klima, mas maraming surveillance, mas mahihinang institusyon, at labor market na humihingi ng flexibility habang mas kaunti ang ibinabalik na katapatan.

Iyan ang tapat na larawan.

Dumarating pa rin ang hinaharap. Hindi lang ito dumarating sa anyong ipinangako sa amin noon.

Inakala ng henerasyon ko na ang malaking pagbabago ay unang darating sa pamamagitan ng aerospace. Sa loob ng ilang panahon, halos buo kong pinaniwalaan iyon. Pagkatapos ay dumating ang mga computer sa buhay ko, at naging sarili nilang frontier ang mga ito. Ngayon ay nagtatagpo na ang dalawang agos. Binabago ng computing ang lahat. Bumabalik ang kalawakan, dahan-dahan, komersiyal, at hindi pantay ang pagdating. Nagsisimula nang baguhin ng biology ang medisina. Nagiging kapalaran muli ang enerhiya. Ang mundo ng 2035 ay malamang hindi magiging isang makinang na utopia, pero hindi rin ito mananatiling nakatigil.

Kung direkta akong magsasalita sa isang sampung taong gulang sa 2026, hindi ko sasabihing magiging kahanga-hanga ang lahat. Kasinungalingan iyon. Mas gusto kong sabihin ang mas kapaki-pakinabang.

Naglalakad ka patungo sa mundong mas makapangyarihan kaysa sa nakilala ng iyong mga magulang at mas hindi matatag kaysa sa inasahan ng iyong mga lolo at lola. Pag-aralan mo kung paano gumagana ang mga sistema. Pag-aralan mo kung paano ginagawa, inililipat, at pinipresyuhan ang kapangyarihan. Pag-aralan mo kung paano tumutulong ang mga makina at kung paano sila nanlilinlang. Pag-aralan mo ang kaibhan ng totoong pag-unlad at palabas lamang. At kung may matitira mang kahit maliit na bahagi ng lumang pangarap, ito ang panatilihin mo: ang hinaharap ay dapat isang bagay na itinatayo ng sangkatauhan, hindi lamang isang bagay na pinagtitiisan nito.

Kung ang batang iyon ay makarating sa Hunyo 2035 na buo pa rin ang kanyang pagkamausisa, gumagana ang kanyang konsensiya, at may sapat na kaalaman upang hindi madaling malinlang, mauuna na siya sa napakaraming matatanda.

Maaaring hindi iyon ang siyudad sa Buwan na inasahan ko noong ako ay sampung taong gulang.

Pero isa pa rin itong kinabukasang nararapat ipaglaban.

Ang sanaysay na ito ay isinulat ni Cliff Potts, Editor-in-Chief ng WPS News. Aktibo ang WPS News sa isang anyo o iba pa sa internet mula pa noong 2009; para sa karagdagang impormasyon, bisitahin ang https://cliffpotts.org

Kung nakatutulong ang gawaing ito para maunawaan mo ang mga nangyayari, tulungan mo akong ipagpatuloy ito: https://www.patreon.com/cw/WPSNews

APA References

International Energy Agency. (2025). Energy and AI. https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2026). Artemis II. https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Reuters. (2026, Abril 1). NASA launches four astronauts on world’s first crewed lunar mission in half a century.

Stanford Emerging Technology Review. (2026). Executive summary. Hoover Institution, Stanford University. https://setr.stanford.edu/news/executive-summary/2026

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2023, Disyembre 8). FDA approves first gene therapies to treat patients with sickle cell disease. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-gene-therapies-treat-patients-sickle-cell-disease

UNESCO. (2026). Artificial intelligence in education. https://www.unesco.org/en/education/digital/artificial-intelligence

World Economic Forum. (2025). The future of jobs report 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/

Sa Panahon nga Moabot ang Usa ka 10 Anyos sa Tuig 2035

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Pilipinas — Abril 26, 2026, 9:05 sa gabii

Sa dihang 10 anyos pa ko, nagtuo gyud ko nga basin makapuyo pa kita sa Bulan sulod sa akong kinabuhi.

Dili kana binuang nga hunahuna para sa usa ka bata sa ulahing bahin sa dekada 1960. Gibaligya sa mga hamtong kanamo ang usa ka kaugmaon nga mas dako pa kaysa mga subdivision, opisina, ug trapik. Giingnan mi nga nag-abli na ang kawanangan. Giingnan mi nga paspas ang siyensya. Giingnan mi nga ang kaugmaon mahimong dako, mekanikal, limpyo, ug maisugon. Apan kadugayan, nihuot ang damgo. Mipaubos ang atong tan-aw sa unahan. Ang dakong saad nahimong gagmayng screen, mas baratong mga gamit, ug walay kataposang panaglalis kung nganong dili na mahimo ang mas dagkong butang.

Karon 2026 na. Ako 68 na anyos. Ang usa ka bata nga 10 anyos karon mahimong 19 anyos pag-abot sa Hunyo 2035. Dili kini siyensiyang piksiyon. Tinuod kini nga tawo nga naglakaw padulong sa tinuod nga kaugmaon nga gitukod na karon, bisan pa man kung nagtagad ba ang mga hamtong o dili.

Ang pangutana dili kung mausab ba ang kalibotan hangtod ana nga panahona. Mausab gyud. Ang pangutana mao kung unsang klase sa kausaban ang lagmit niyang masinati.

Ang tubag, base sa atong makita karon, mao kini: pag-abot sa Hunyo 2035, ang kaugmaon lagmit dili kaayo murag poster sa rocket. Mas murag makina nga giputos sa adlaw-adlaw nga kinabuhi.

Ang pinakadakong mga kausaban dili una moabot isip mga lungsod sa Bulan o naglupad nga mga sakyanan. Moabot kini pinaagi sa mga sistema. Ang artificial intelligence lagmit mailakip na sa pag-eskwela, medikal nga pagsusi, pagpangita sa impormasyon, customer service, logistics, paghubad sa sinultian, security screening, ug trabaho sa opisina sa ingon ka lawom nga daghang batan-on halos dili na makahinomdom sa kalibotan sa wala pa kini. Dili kana pasabot nga nahimong maalamon ang mga makina. Pasabot lang ana nga nahimo silang normal.

Importante kaayo kana nga kalainan.

Daghang bahin sa sunod nga dekada lagmit dili na mahitungod kung naa ba ang AI, kundili kung unsa ka lawom nga mapugos ang mga tawo nga magkinabuhi uban niini. Pag-abot sa 2035, daghang mga bata nga naa pa karon sa eskuylahan mahimong tudloan, sulayan, usbon, bantayan, ug i-klasipikar pinaagi sa mga sistemang wala pa gani sa dihang natawo sila.

Dili kini awtomatikong makapahimong mas gawasnon nila. Basin mapaspas sila niini. Basin adunay mga serbisyo nga mas dali maabot. Apan posible usab nga mas lisod mailhan kung asa kutob ang tawo ug asa nagsugod ang sistema.

Mausab usab ang trabaho. Ang 10 anyos karon lagmit dili na giandam alang sa usa ka lig-on nga karera nga murag sa gihunahuna sa ilang mga apohan kaniadto. Giandam sila alang sa kinabuhi nga puno sa pagbag-o, pagtuon pag-usab, ug pakig-uban sa mga gamit nga makakopya sa parte sa buhat sa tawo.

Dili kini pasabot nga wala nay trabaho. Pasabot lang nga ang mga lagda sa trabaho sige’g lihok.

Aduna pay laing problema nga nagtago ilawom niining digital nga paglaom: kuryente. Dili lang gahum sa politika, bisan daghan ana, kundili elektrisidad. Daghang kaayong kuryente ang kaonon sa makina nga kaugmaon. Pag-abot sa 2035, ang mga batan-ong hamtong basin mabuhi sa kalibotan diin ang polisiya sa enerhiya dili na lang lalis sa mga espesyalista. Mahimo na kining usa sa sentrong kamatuoran sa modernong kinabuhi, kauban sa abang, pagkaon, ug internet access.

Dinhi na mohunong ang kaugmaon sa pagkahimong abstracto.

Kung ang sunod nga henerasyon magkinabuhi sulod sa mas kompyuterisado nga kalibotan, mas importante ang grid. Mas importante ang mga baterya. Mas importante ang kasaligan sa suplay. Mas importante kung kinsa ang makakuha og barato nga kuryente ug kinsa ang dili. Ang bata nga nagdako karon basin moabot sa hustong panuigon sa katilingban diin ang mga debate bahin sa data centers, solar buildout, nuclear restarts, grid strain, ug industrial demand dili na niche nga mga hilisgutan. Mahimo na silang adlaw-adlaw nga realidad.

Ang medisina lagmit usa sa mas hayag nga bahin sa istorya, bisan dili sa mahika nga paagi nga kasagaran gihunahuna sa mga tawo. Pag-abot sa 2035, ang pipila ka mga sakit nga kaniadto daw permanente mahimong matambalan sa mas direkta nga paagi kaysa sa gihunahuna sa miaging mga henerasyon. Idugang pa ang remote monitoring, mas maayong diagnostics, wearable sensors, ug AI-assisted screening, ug ang kasagarang batan-ong hamtong sa 2035 basin mabuhi sa kalibotan diin ang medisina mas padayon, mas makatagna, ug dili na kaayo magsalig sa paghulat hangtod grabe na kaayo ang problema.

Tinuod kana nga pag-uswag. Dili kana imortalidad. Dili kana siyensiyang-piksiyon nga milagro. Apan pag-uswag gihapon kana.

Ang transportasyon lagmit mas ebolusyonaryo kaysa rebolusyonaryo. Mas komon na ang mga electric vehicle. Mas daghang parte sa pagdrayb, pagsakay, ug pag-iskedyul ang kontrolado sa software. Mas awtomatiko ang mga bodega. Mas higpit, mas masubay, ug mas walay pasaylo ang delivery systems. Ang ubang mga lugar mopakita og kusog nga modernisasyon. Ang uban magpabiling gitagpi-tagpi sa karaang imprastruktura ug paglaom. Ang dili patas nga pag-abot sa kaugmaon angay gyud isulti, kay wala gayud kini miabot nga patas. Wala pa sukad.

Mao usab kana sa koneksiyon. Mas daghang tawo ang online. Mas daghang lugar ang malink. Makatabang ang satellite systems sa pagminus sa pipila ka coverage gaps. Apan dili kana pasabot nga patas ang access, kalidad, o oportunidad. Pag-abot sa 2035, ang usa ka batan-on basin makaabot sa network bisan asa apan dili gihapon siya tinuod nga maayo og serbisyo. Ang access dili pareho sa gahum.

Ug dayon anaa ang kawanangan.

Dinhi mag-abot ang daang kasagmuyo ug bag-ong pagkamakatinuoron.

Ang bata nga kaniadto ako nagtuo nga ang Bulan mahimong bahin na sa ordinaryong kinabuhi sa tawo karon. Wala kana nahitabo. Nihugno ang political will. Naanod ang publiko. Gipagamay sa kultura sa negosyo ang damgo hangtod nahimo kining kalkulasyon kada quarter ug gitawag kana nila nga pagkahamtong. Daghang mga tawo nga miingon nga ayuhon una nato ang Yuta ang migugol sa sunod nga mga dekada sa dili pag-ayo niini usab. Mao kana ang hugaw nga gamayng sekreto sa maong argumento. Wala nila pilia ang responsibilidad imbes nga ekspansyon. Kasagaran, inertia ang ilang gipili batok sa duha.

Apan wala mamatay ang kawanangan. Nausab lang ang dagway niini.

Dili kini pasabot nga adunay mga lungsod sa Bulan pag-abot sa 2035. Apan posible nga ang Bulan mahimong bahin na usab sa buhing kaugmaon imbes nga handumanan lang sa itom-ug-puti nga telebisyon. Ang 10 anyos karon mahimong moabot sa hustong panuigon sa kalibotan diin ang padayon nga kalihokan sa Bulan giisip na usab nga normal, diin magpadayon ang robotic ug tawhanong operasyon didto, ug diin ang ideya sa mas dako nga presensya sa tawo lapas sa Yuta dili na murag kataw-anan.

Mas importante kana kaysa sa gihunahuna sa pipila ka mga tawo.

Nagkinahanglan ang mga sibilisasyon og frontiers of purpose, dili lang frontiers of consumption. Nagkinahanglan sila og mga tumong nga mas dako kaysa convenience. Ang mga bata kinahanglan makabati nga ang kasaysayan padayon pang nagalihok padulong sa usa ka lugar. Kinahanglan motuo sila nga adunay mga hamtong nga nagtukod pa og butang nga labaw pa sa usa ka mas maayong ad-targeting engine.

Pag-abot sa Hunyo 2035, ang 10 anyos karon mahimong makapanunod og kalibotan nga adunay mas maalamong mga makina, mas maayong medikal nga mga himan, mas limpyo nga enerhiya sa pipila ka mga rehiyon, mas hugot nga digital systems, ug mas seryosong pagbalik sa pagsuhid sa Bulan. Apan posible usab nga makapanunod sila og mas init nga klima, mas daghang surveillance, mas huyang nga mga institusyon, ug labor market nga nagdemand og pagka-flexible samtang mas gamay ang gihatag nga pagkamatinud-anon pabalik.

Mao kana ang matinud-anong hulagway.

Padayon ang pag-abot sa kaugmaon. Dili lang kini moabot sa porma nga gisaaran kanamo kaniadto.

Ang akong henerasyon nagtuo nga ang dakong pagbag-o moabot una pinaagi sa aerospace. Sulod sa usa ka panahon, halos tibuok ko nga gituohan kana. Dayon miabot ang mga computer sa akong kinabuhi, ug nahimo silang lain na usab nga frontier. Karon nagtagbo na ang duha ka agos. Ang computing nag-usab sa tanan. Ang kawanangan mibalik, hinay-hinay, komersiyal, ug dili patas ang pag-abot. Ang biology nagsugod na sa pag-usab sa medisina. Ang enerhiya nahimo na usab nga kapalaran. Ang kalibotan sa 2035 lagmit dili mahimong usa ka sinaw nga utopia, apan dili usab kini magpabiling walay lihok.

Kung direkta ko mosulti sa usa ka 10 anyos sa 2026, dili ko moingon nga ang tanan mahimong kahibulongan. Bakak kana. Mas gusto kong isulti ang mas mapuslanon.

Naglakaw ka padulong sa kalibotan nga mas gamhanan kaysa sa nailhan sa imong mga ginikanan ug mas dili lig-on kaysa sa gilaoman sa imong mga apohan. Kat-ona kung giunsa pagtrabaho ang mga sistema. Kat-ona kung giunsa paghimo, pagbalhin, ug pagpresyo sa gahum. Kat-ona kung giunsa sa mga makina ang pagtabang ug paglimbong. Kat-ona ang kalainan sa tinuod nga pag-uswag ug sa pasundayag lang. Ug kung magpabilin man ang bisan gamay nga bahin sa karaang damgo, ipabilin kini: ang kaugmaon kinahanglan usa ka butang nga tukoron sa katawhan, dili lang usa ka butang nga ilahang antuson.

Kung moabot kana nga bata sa Hunyo 2035 nga buhi gihapon ang iyang kuryosidad, adunay konsensiya nga nagtrabaho, ug adunay igo nga kahibalo aron dili dali malimbongan, mas una na siya kaysa daghang hamtong.

Tingali dili kana mao ang lungsod sa Bulan nga akong gilaoman sa dihang 10 anyos pa ko.

Apan usa gihapon kini ka kaugmaon nga angay pakigbisugan.

Kining maong essay gisulat ni Cliff Potts, Editor-in-Chief sa WPS News. Ang WPS News aktibo na sa usa ka porma o lain pa sukad 2009; para sa dugang kasayuran, bisitaha ang https://cliffpotts.org

Kung kini nga trabaho nakatabang kanimo sa pagsabot sa nagakahitabo, tabangi ko sa pagpadayon niini: https://www.patreon.com/cw/WPSNews

APA References

International Energy Agency. (2025). Energy and AI. https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2026). Artemis II. https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Reuters. (2026, Abril 1). NASA launches four astronauts on world’s first crewed lunar mission in half a century.

Stanford Emerging Technology Review. (2026). Executive summary. Hoover Institution, Stanford University. https://setr.stanford.edu/news/executive-summary/2026

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2023, Disyembre 8). FDA approves first gene therapies to treat patients with sickle cell disease. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-gene-therapies-treat-patients-sickle-cell-disease

UNESCO. (2026). Artificial intelligence in education. https://www.unesco.org/en/education/digital/artificial-intelligence

World Economic Forum. (2025). The future of jobs report 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/

When Today’s 10-Year-Old Reaches 2035

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — April 23, 2026, 9:05 p.m.

When I was ten years old, I still thought we might live on the Moon in my lifetime.

That was not a foolish thought for a child in the late 1960s. Adults had sold us a future that looked bigger than suburbs, office parks, and traffic jams. We were told space was opening. We were told science was moving fast. We were told the future would be grand, mechanical, clean, and bold. Then somewhere along the way, the dream narrowed. The horizon came down. The big promise became smaller screens, cheaper gadgets, and endless arguments about why nothing larger could be done.

Now it is 2026. I am 68 years old. A child who is ten right now will be nineteen in June 2035. That is not science fiction. That is a real human being walking toward a real future that is already being built, whether the adults around them are paying attention or not.

The question is not whether the world will change by then. It will. The question is what kind of change that child is likely to see.

The answer, to the best of what we can see from here, is this: by June 2035, the future will probably feel less like a rocket poster and more like a machine wrapped around everyday life.

The biggest changes will not arrive first as moon cities or flying cars. They will arrive through systems. Artificial intelligence will likely be built into schoolwork, medical triage, search, customer service, logistics, translation, security screening, and office labor so thoroughly that many young people will barely remember a world before it. That does not mean the machines will become wise. It means they will become normal.

That distinction matters.

A great deal of the next decade is likely to be defined not by whether AI exists, but by how deeply people are forced to live with it. By 2035, many children now in school may be taught, tested, corrected, monitored, and sorted through systems that did not exist when they were born.

That will not make them freer by itself. It may make them faster. It may make some services more available. It may also make it harder to tell where the child ends and the system begins.

Work will change with it. A ten-year-old today is probably not preparing for one stable career path in the way their grandparents once imagined. They are preparing for a life of adaptation, retraining, and negotiation with tools that can imitate part of what humans do.

That does not mean there will be no work. It means the rules of work will keep moving.

There is another problem hiding underneath all this digital optimism: power. Not political power, though there is plenty of that, but electricity. The machine future eats power. A lot of it. By 2035, young adults may be living in a world where energy policy is no longer a background argument for specialists. It may be one of the central facts of modern life, right alongside rent, food, and internet access.

That is where the future stops being abstract.

If the next generation lives inside a more computerized world, then the grid matters more. Batteries matter more. Reliability matters more. The politics of who gets cheap power and who does not will matter more. A child growing up today may reach adulthood in a society where debates about data centers, solar buildout, nuclear restarts, grid strain, and industrial demand are no longer niche subjects. They may simply be daily reality.

Medicine is likely to be one of the brighter parts of the story, though not in the magical way people often imagine. By 2035, some diseases that once sounded permanent may be treated more directly than previous generations thought possible. Add to that remote monitoring, better diagnostics, wearable sensors, and AI-assisted screening, and the average young adult of 2035 may live in a world where medicine is more continuous, more predictive, and less centered on waiting until something goes badly wrong.

That is real progress. It is not immortality. It is not a science-fiction cure-all. But it is progress.

Transportation will probably look more evolutionary than revolutionary. Electric vehicles are likely to be more common. Software will control more of what people drive, ride, and schedule. Warehouses will be more automated. Delivery systems will be tighter, more tracked, and less forgiving. Some places will feel sharply modernized. Others will still be patched together with old infrastructure and wishful thinking. That unevenness is worth saying out loud, because the future does not arrive evenly. It never has.

The same is true of connectivity. More people will be online. More places will be linked. Satellite systems will help close some coverage gaps. But that does not mean equal access, equal quality, or equal opportunity. By 2035, a young person may be able to reach the network from almost anywhere and still not be well served by it. Access is not the same thing as power.

And then there is space.

This is where old disappointment and new realism meet.

The child I used to be thought the Moon would be part of ordinary human life by now. That did not happen. The political will collapsed. The public drifted. Business culture shrank the dream down to quarterly logic and called that maturity. A great many people who said we should fix the Earth first then spent the next decades refusing to fix the Earth, either. That is the dirty little secret of the argument. They did not choose responsibility over expansion. Too often, they chose inertia over both.

Still, space did not die. It just changed shape.

That does not mean moon towns by 2035. It does mean that the Moon may once again become part of the living future instead of a memory from black-and-white television. A ten-year-old today could plausibly reach adulthood in a world where sustained lunar activity is again treated as normal, where robotic and human operations around the Moon continue, and where the idea of a larger human presence beyond Earth no longer sounds absurd.

That matters more than some people think.

Civilizations need frontiers of purpose, not just frontiers of consumption. They need goals bigger than convenience. Children need to feel that history still moves somewhere. They need to believe adults are building something besides a better ad-targeting engine.

By June 2035, the ten-year-old of today may inherit a world with smarter machines, better medical tools, cleaner energy in some regions, tighter digital systems, and a more serious return to lunar exploration. They may also inherit a hotter climate, more surveillance, more fragile institutions, and a labor market that expects flexibility while offering less loyalty in return.

That is the honest picture.

The future is still coming. It is just not arriving in the form many of us were promised.

My generation thought the great transformation would come through aerospace first. For a while, I believed that almost completely. Then computers arrived in my life, and they became their own frontier. Now the two streams are meeting. Computing is reshaping everything. Space is returning, slowly, commercially, and unevenly. Biology is beginning to change medicine. Energy is becoming destiny again. The world of 2035 is not likely to be a shiny utopia, but it will not be static either.

If I were speaking directly to a ten-year-old in 2026, I would not tell them that everything is going to be wonderful. That would be a lie. I would tell them something more useful.

You are walking into a world that will be more powerful than the one your parents knew and less stable than the one your grandparents expected. Learn how systems work. Learn how power is made, moved, and priced. Learn how machines help and how they deceive. Learn how to tell the difference between progress and spectacle. And if you keep any part of the old dream alive, keep this one: the future should still be something humanity builds, not something it merely survives.

If that child reaches June 2035 with curiosity intact, a functioning conscience, and enough knowledge to resist manipulation, they will already be ahead of a great many adults.

That may not be the Moon city I expected when I was ten.

But it is still a future worth fighting for.

This essay is written by Cliff Potts, Editor-in-Chief of WPS News. WPS News has been active in one form or another on the internet since 2009; for more information, visit https://cliffpotts.org

If this work helps you understand what’s happening, help me keep it going: https://www.patreon.com/cw/WPSNews

APA References

International Energy Agency. (2025). Energy and AI. https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2026). Artemis II. https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Reuters. (2026, April 1). NASA launches four astronauts on world’s first crewed lunar mission in half a century.

Stanford Emerging Technology Review. (2026). Executive summary. Hoover Institution, Stanford University. https://setr.stanford.edu/news/executive-summary/2026

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2023, December 8). FDA approves first gene therapies to treat patients with sickle cell disease. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-gene-therapies-treat-patients-sickle-cell-disease

UNESCO. (2026). Artificial intelligence in education. https://www.unesco.org/en/education/digital/artificial-intelligence

World Economic Forum. (2025). The future of jobs report 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/

Return Without Echo

By Cliff Potts
Bay Bay City, Leyte, Philippines — April 23, 2026

This is a serialized installment from the autobiography of Cliff Potts.

A Visit at Twenty-Five

I returned to San Rafael once, on my twenty-fifth birthday. At the time, I was working in San Francisco in the production department of Jews for Jesus. A couple of friends drove me across the bridge so I could see the house where I had been born.

I did not knock on the door.

The Structure

I stood outside and looked at it. There was no emotional recognition. It was a house — four walls and a roof. The fact of my birth had occurred there, but nothing in the structure carried memory for me.

The visit required no ceremony.

California’s Mark

By 1968, my parents’ California chapter was effectively closed. What California left behind was not nostalgia but pattern: movement, machinery, practicality, adaptation.

San Rafael did not leave fingerprints. It established direction — forward.

Mr. Made-For-TV hippie man here from "San Francisco International" (the answer my friend is "blow it out your ass") also had a role in "Silent Running" which was one of the inspirations for a TV show called "Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Red Jumpsuits ARE the future, my dudes. #mst3k #cliffpotts