BA-BA-BA-Babies

It's August 8th, 2008.
Tonight at 8:08pm the Olympic Torch will be lit and the Games will begin,
and according to Chinese numerology,
the wealth and prosperity should begin to flow.

Already, across China, a rush for marriage certificate applications has swamped government offices, as thousands of couples wish to have their official documentation stamped with this luckiest day of the century.

Two days ago, 2008-08-08 was declared a national holiday giving millions of workers a day to celebrate.

Across the People's Republic of China today, approximately 56,000 babies will be born.

Born on the most prosperous day of the century.

In many ways it is for these babies, and the 20 million others born in 2008, that the work of this project may be most relevant for. It is the world that this generation is being born into that comes under examination. Analyzed for glimpses of the world being planned for their inheritance. Ironically, while this blog attempts to encompass much of the technologies that enliven web 2.0, social interactivity, media sharing, and other wonders of the Internet, it is doubtful that any of the babies born on this fine day will know what a blog is. Indeed, the Futures Images and examinations included here may seem completely false if and when the "ba-ba-ba-babies" and those of their generation decide to investigate the world they were born into. Knowledge of this possibility however, will not impede the work itself.

It is now only six hours until the Olympic flame torch is lit under the hazy skies of Beijing. What for us is an event the century, will for those children born today be the event of a lifetime. It is likely that this nation will not celebrate as loudly and wildly as it will tonight for a long time to come. After all, tonight's celebration represents the birth of the new China -- a global partner, and participant in the motto: "One World, One Dream."