Health retail centres are the cornerstone of Russia’s new medical system. Here we see the city flagship, Babylon Mall, jam packed with consumer health products created through 'life design'. In the foreground is Varvara, an old lady living with cancer. This is a normal situation: thanks to her personalised treatment plan, medicines and medical foods, the condition barely impacts her life. Varvara has a health tracking tattoo on her arm. She doesn’t have to pay it any attention, since it glows when pre-emptive or therapeutic actions are advisable. Her personalised shopping list is also compiled by the tracker, and in Gastronom at the mall she buys the special medical vegetables suggested, authorising purchases with a genome scanner at check out. A vast data centre makes all this possible. The mall is an important social space. Varvara’s prosthetic leg is state of the art - she loves to visit Babylon to show it off.
24th June 2065. Ekaterinburg. Day in the life of Viktoria, 73. Today I woke to a gentle pink glow from my tattoo. When I first got it, the glow freaked me out. You felt 100% – the symptoms hadn’t hit yet – so it was weird to get med-food recommendations. But soon it was my best friend, even when it glowed dark red (for serious threats). I got used to never feeling ill, never having flu.
It’s fantastic for being on form at work; in fact, if you want a serious job these days you have to get a health tattoo. The official company ones can be neat, but the private ones are much sexier. Depends what insurance you can afford. For those who can...! I sat up in bed and opened my personal interface in the air with my thumb and forefinger, quickly checked my airmails, then opened my HART health passport (connected to the tattoo, that’s HART as well).
‘Recommendations for a long day! Stress levels detected – three med-berries, one HART potato. De-stress make-up – prescribed.’ Well, I wasn’t feeling stressed... but HART knows best! HART lets you get stressed – that’s healthy – but it always interrupts, makes sure it doesn’t go on too long. Checking my health passport isn’t as addictive as it used to be. It’s a passive thing now – I just relax, unless my tattoo glows. I decided to go to the Babylon Mall for the med-food and make-up after work.
I could visit during the working day, because I opted to sync my HART to the work database (I suspect the State share it all with your employer). But there’s the Enhanced Games at Babylon tonight, and it’s going to be stunning. I bought my prosthetic leg at last year’s Games, and it already looks out of date! Trends are coming back to organic this year, judging by the modified jellyfish Sophia has for healing cuts. She gets access to all the latest AB through her job at Babylon Pharming Labs
Andrei works in the data-centre and he looks so drab. Bio-informatics was impressive twenty years ago, Andrei! Now they shove it down your throat in school. Still, state jobs pay the best. I must avoid Andrei tonight. He’s been earning extra money harvesting warts for the donor agency and keeps asking me out to that swish living food restaurant. It’s beautifully done, but it makes me uneasy. I’d much rather stay healthy without spending a fortune and cook up some HART potatoes at home.
