Looking around in
2045: Russia

CONCEPT NOTE

In his interview, while envisioning the future, Derek Warnett shared: "I see a multipolar world where BRICS countries control a vast amount of natural resources and no longer rely on the U.S. Dollar for trade…we see what just happened with Russia becoming number four in terms of PPP, overtaking Germany." Peter Stamp, another forecaster, speaks about the future of agriculture. He envisions: "In agriculture, the number of units has shrunk. There are a few huge farms instead of countless small ones. The tractors, which were once small, are now huge to work on larger fields with more specialization… the tractor will drive itself, equipped with AI and drones to get the most out of the ground."

I tried to combine these ideas in my artwork, imagining a future where Russia, owing to its favorable geo-location, becomes the next big agricultural industrial playground. It’s also interesting to note how, historically, companies like Bayer pivoted from wartime activities to other realms like pharmaceuticals and agribusinesses. My scenario suggests a similar reallocation of Russian wartime infrastructure to power the generation of agri-drones, sentries, and tractors—arguably a better humanitarian benefit.

“A great transformation is underway in the eastern half of Russia. For centuries the vast majority of the land has been impossible to farm; only the southernmost stretches along the Chinese and Mongolian borders, including around Dimitrovo, have been temperate enough to offer workable soil. But as the climate has begun to warm, the land — and the prospect for cultivating it — has begun to improve.

Across Eastern Russia, wild forests, swamps and grasslands are slowly being transformed into orderly grids of soybeans, corn and wheat. It’s a process that is likely to accelerate: Russia hopes to seize on the warming temperatures and longer growing seasons brought by climate change to refashion itself as one of the planet’s largest producers of food.

Around the world, climate change is becoming an epochal crisis, a nightmare of drought, desertification, flooding and unbearable heat, threatening to make vast regions less habitable and drive the greatest migration of refugees in history. But for a few nations, climate change will present an unparalleled opportunity, as the planet’s coldest regions become more temperate.

And no country may be better positioned to capitalize on climate change than Russia.

And whether by accident or cunning strategy or, most likely, some combination of the two, the steps its leaders have steadily taken — planting flags in the Arctic and propping up domestic grain production among them — have increasingly positioned Russia to regain its superpower mantle in a warmer world.”

Source : ProPublica : The Big Thaw : https://shorturl.at/p1IhQ

Drone surveys and crop markings : Siberian Agrofields 2045

Micro-robotic wheat stalks in sister plantation : Siberian Agrofields 2045

Data from the newly planted robotic plants started supplying the massive AI server farms with realtime sensor feedback. Relying on old climatic data and projective patterns, the predictive power coupled with real-time sensors created a hugely profitable almost self-running ecosystem of farming to feed the burgeoning Russian state.

Siberia saw a massive uptick in investment and residence, attracting climate migrants from the richer southern communities along with the prospect of newfound prosperity and jobs.

Agrarian Server farm and Sovereign data centre : Siberian Agrofields 2045

Laser-guided seed planting Spring season : Siberian Agrofields 2045

The aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2045 saw the repurposing of many war-time tech companies taking on roles in the Agro sector.

Laser-guided missile systems were now repurposed to precision plant seed packets. Drone manufacturers now assembled surveillance drones to guard against pestilence and warn against potential ingress of invasive species. Wartime robot manufacturers retrofitted their robots to becoming sentries, the highest tech deployment of robotic scarecrows on the planet.

Robotic Sentry position : Siberian Agrofields 2045

Automated harvesters and pollinator combines : Siberian Agrofields 2045

Fleets of automated AI operated tractors and agro-vehicles became commonplace on the massive farms, becoming the only way to patrol and grow food for the world population at scale and economy.

Much of the mining industry retrofitted their gigantic trucks and diggers for farming work, creating a large spike in productivity and the greening up of large patches of the Siberian tundra.

Autonomous Farming Drones : Siberian Agrofields 2045

About the artist

Ayaz Basrai is co-founder of The Busride Design Studio, a leading architecture and interior design firm in India. Busrai graduated in industrial design, specialising in product design, from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, in 2003. More recently, Busrai heads The Busride Lab in Goa, working with speculative fiction, heritage conservation, and their ongoing India Futures Project, trying to visualise and birth meaningful Indian futures.

Looking around in 2045: Russia

About the artist

Looking around in
2045: Russia