nerd.film · 2036, a hopeful future

The films

Every film is 30 to 45 seconds, vertical, and made for your phone. One person, one moment, ten years from now.

Season one: A hopeful future

Shot like a memory on 35mm film, with a narrator looking back.

The Most Wanted Job

In 2036, this is the most wanted job in town.
Work
0:35
In 2036, this is the most wanted job in town.
A mail carrier the drones could easily replace, and the 412 people on the waitlist for his job.
1. Work becomes optional
2. Status stops coming from income
3. Being needed becomes rare
4. Jobs where people rely on you become the most wanted
5. Towns keep some jobs human on purposeThe film is set here.
Robots can deliver the letters. Only people can deliver each other.
First Day

2036. First day of college.
College
0:37
2036. First day of college.
A father walks his daughter into her first day of college, still clutching her transcripts. Nobody else is carrying paper.
1. AI tutors make knowledge free
2. A degree stops proving what you know
3. College stops being a competition
4. There is no race left to fall behind in
5. Parents stop being afraid for their childrenThe film is set here.
We used to ask kids what they wanted to be. Now we ask who they want to help.
Covered

2036. Nobody checks out anymore.
Money
0:43
2036. Nobody checks out anymore.
A man who bet on robots in 2026 finds out what a fortune is for when everyone already has enough.
1. Everyone has a high basic income
2. Shops let you walk out, and it’s simply deducted
3. Money stops being about survival
4. A fortune made on automation has nothing meaningful left to buy
5. Capital becomes belief in other people’s dreamsThe film is set here.
In 2026, I bet on the machines. Now I bet on people.
The Prescription

2036. The most common prescription.
Health
0:39
2036. The most common prescription.
A widower with a perfect scan gets an unusual prescription: dinner with three strangers, twice a week.
1. AI catches disease early, and care is free
2. Physical illness is mostly solved
3. Doctors finally have time
4. Loneliness is the main killer left
5. Medicine prescribes communityThe film is set here.
We cured almost every disease. The last one left was loneliness. And the cure… was each other.
Welcome

2036. Her first house.
Housing
0:38
2036. Her first house.
A 25-year-old nurse gets the keys to a house printed in three days, on the lot where the old mall stood.
1. Robots print homes in days
2. Housing is affordable again
3. A home stops being the biggest financial bet
4. Owners stop fearing that new neighbors hurt their value
5. Neighborhoods welcome newcomers instead of fighting themThe film is set here.
When a house stopped being an investment, it went back to being a home.
Alone

2036. She’s eight. She’s going alone.
Getting around
0:38
2036. She’s eight. She’s going alone.
An eight-year-old crosses town alone to visit her grandpa, and for once her mom isn’t afraid.
1. Self-driving cars end crashes
2. Nobody needs to own a car, so parking lots turn into parks
3. Streets belong to people again
4. Parents stop being afraid
5. Children get their freedom backThe film is set here.
My mom was afraid every time I left the house. I’m the first mom in three generations who isn’t.
The Last Shift

2036. The last human shift.
Purpose
0:38
2036. The last human shift.
A Michigan auto plant’s last human shift ends with a brass band, not a layoff.
1. Robots do almost all physical and routine work
2. The productivity dividend is shared
3. Work becomes optional
4. “What do you do?” becomes “What are you curious about?”
5. People decide what’s worth building, caring for and exploringThe film is set here.
For a hundred years, they asked what you do. Now they ask what you’re curious about.

Season two: Dispatches from 2036

Filmed on their phones by the people living it. They speak for themselves. Season two is on YouTube.

First Conversation
In production

17 years in the same house. Today we talk for the first time.
Translation
In production
17 years in the same house. Today we talk for the first time.
Lily is 17 and speaks only English. Her grandmother has lived with her family her whole life and speaks only Vietnamese. Today the translation glasses arrive.
1. Everyday glasses translate in real time
2. Language stops dividing people
3. Immigrant elders are no longer isolated at home
4. Generations of one family finally talk
5. Grandchildren inherit their grandparents’ storiesThe film is set here.
The Matchmaker

My AI found me a teacher. She lives two streets away.
Mentors
0:39
My AI found me a teacher. She lives two streets away.
Junie is 11 and obsessed with bees. Her AI matches her with Ruth, a trucker until 2029, now a beekeeper two streets away.
1. AI knows each child’s passions
2. Adults have free time
3. Every child’s spark is matched to a mentor nearby
4. People displaced by automation become the village’s teachers
5. The transition’s losers become its most needed peopleThe film is set here.
Ruth used to drive trucks seventy hours a week. Now she has time for me.
Tuesday, 2 PM

This is my street at 2 PM on a Tuesday.
Neighbors
0:45
This is my street at 2 PM on a Tuesday.
Ava, 17, walks us down her block outside Austin at 2 PM on a Tuesday. Nobody here knows anyone’s job, but everybody’s known for something.
1. People are home in the daytime
2. Streets, garages and yards open up
3. Everyone is known for what they give, not their job
4. Neighbors become each other’s daily life
5. A generation grows up knowing every name on the streetThe film is set here.
Grandpa says in 2026 he didn’t know a single neighbor’s name. I know all of them.

The anti–Black Mirror

Most films about the future are warnings. These are the other kind: a 2036 worth wanting, close enough to believe. Every piece of technology could exist within ten years, and it stays in the background. The future is the setting, never the subject.

Five steps out: Each film follows one change five consequences deep and is set at the fifth, so you see something you haven’t pictured yet.
One person, one moment: No speeches about tomorrow. A mail carrier, a nurse, a grandmother, on an ordinary day.
Solved problems stay quiet: No bills, no fear, no traffic, and nobody explains why. You notice what’s missing.
Two seconds in, three to land: Each film opens on a surprise and ends on one line that changes what you just watched.

Follow a change five steps out

Pick a film to see the chain of consequences it grew from.

It starts with one change. Five steps later, there’s a film.

Work becomes optional
Status stops coming from income
Being needed becomes rare
Jobs where people rely on you become the most wanted
Towns keep some jobs human on purposeThe film is set here.

How we got to 2036

The series doesn’t skip the hard part. Every episode shares this history.

2026 to 2028

The scare

AI takes office work first, then robotaxis and self-driving trucks spread. Layoffs, fear, protests. Productivity and profits climb fast.
At the same time

The bridges

A four-day week shares the work that’s left. Wage insurance and paid retraining catch people whose jobs vanish. A public fund owns a share of AI and robot output and pays everyone a small monthly dividend.
2029 to 2031

The hard years

Jobs disappear faster than the dividend grows, and some towns are hit hard. None of it is automatic. People fight for it, and communities that organize locally come through best.
Then

The flip

Printed homes, driverless rides, AI medicine and free tutoring make “enough” cheap, and the dividend grows as the robots do. People stop fighting automation and start asking why they’re still doing the dishes.
2036

Morning

Everyone’s basics are covered. Work is optional. Nobody asks what you do anymore. They ask what you’re curious about.

The films

Season one: A hopeful future

The Most Wanted Job

First Day

Covered

The Prescription

Welcome

Alone

The Last Shift

Season two: Dispatches from 2036

First Conversation

The Matchmaker

Tuesday, 2 PM

The anti–Black Mirror

Follow a change five steps out

How we got to 2036

The scare

The bridges

The hard years

The flip

Morning