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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Elena Cresci

Thousand year stare: the meme that imagines it's 3017

Janelle Monae
Janelle Monae: living in 3017. Photograph: Sam Deitch/BFA/Rex/Shutterstock

What with Trump and climate change, the prospect of the human race lasting another thousand years seems uncertain. Nonetheless, the internet is looking forward to 3017.

The 3017 meme, which has been circulating for a while, acclaims someone – or something – ahead of their time. The Daily Dot says it started out as praise for musicians so forward-thinking, they belong in the future – like the rapper Wintertime and Janelle Monae. Now, perhaps because we live in a turbulent era, it’s morphed into a meme about how the best is yet to come – in 1,000 years.

Last month @MyFavsTrash tweeted a photo of a box of cereal with a hole cut out in the top and milk being poured in:

This opened the door to many riffs on the kind of “life hacks” you keep seeing all over the internet. In 3017 for instance, if you want cheese on toast, you can make it in a toaster:

Don’t want your rivals to take advantage of a splitscreen video game to spy on what you’re doing? This kid has you covered:

Others are even more inspired:

The meme hit a climax last week when a student in California was handed a business card in a club with all the information you could possibly need to contact him:

The business card from 3017.
The business card from 3017. Photograph: Twitter

The man behind the card is DeMonté Lane, who makes music under the name Fantastical Carpé. He told BuzzFeed he’d passed out the card dozens of times before it went viral.

“Sometimes you don’t have a lot of time for small talk but you have just enough time to say: ‘Hey, I’m Carpé. I’m really diggin’ you, but I’m late for work,” he said.

“What was your name? Here is my card. Hit me if you’re interested.’”

Welcome to the future – a place where you need never struggle eating noodles again.

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