CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Future Cities vs Space for Living

(6 posts)

  1. LaidBack
    Member

    ‘Earth-scrapers’, meetings by hologram and 3D-printed food will be commonplace in 100 years, says report

    Edinburgh was lucky that Patrick Geddes looked at cities from a human perspective!

    Link above to piece about Samsung's 'SmartThings Future Living Report.
    - A vision of city living which lacks any green, communal space.
    - Who needs trees when you can view them in Samsung 3D?
    People will be going on training courses to let them visually interpret 'the real world'.

    Of course there will be no need for bicycles in these mega structures. Modal shift will mean changing from ground based cars to flying drones.
    I wonder how many people find these visions depressing?

    To me it looks like repeating an SF version of a city from the 1950s.
    Is this really the best they can do? Maybe I'm missing something.

    Apple of course should be able to suggest an alternative, but I have my doubts.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  2. Stephan Matthiesen
    Member

    "SUPER skyscrapers, underwater cities and 3D-printed homes will be a reality in 100 years’ time, according to a report.
    (...)
    The academics say ‘bubble cities’ will be created underwater and personal drones will become a staple mode of transport. In the workplace, holograms will enable virtual meetings to take place."

    As kid I had an old book from the 1950s where most of this was promised for the year 2000, thanks to cheap nuclear energy. Yes, underwater and underground cities, self-driving flying cars (the word "drone" hadn't been invented) and 3-d televised meetings (the word "virtual meeting" hadn't been invented).

    At age 7 I was totally convinced that I wouldn't need a driving license because present-day cars would be long gone when I'm 18.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  3. cc
    Member

    And with maglev lifts there will be no need for walking, either

    Posted 9 years ago #

  4. wingpig
    Member

    What's the point in 3D-printing food? Just pump sufficient quantities of each type of mushstock into the same tub and eat/drink it without wasting time arranging it fancily.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  5. Stephan Matthiesen
    Member

    In the picture I can see 5 drones in a city that must house several million people.

    In my old 1950s book there were also pictures of wide motorways with one single floating car, inside a happy family in cardigans playing a board game. No, they didn't think everybody would be glued to a smartphone screen, that the motorway would be full of lorries and vans, and the teenage kids would be off to a hackathon or cosplay instead of driving to the country with the parents.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  6. AKen
    Member

    Predicting the future has a famously low success rate. Fifty years ago, who would have thought humans could carry around in their hands a device that could access the sum of all human knowledge - and then use it to share pictures of what they just had for their tea?

    Posted 9 years ago #

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