ana016: The Future of Cities
Channel: Anarchitecture Podcast
Date: 30/03/2018

In a rare in-person episode, Tim and Joe speculate about how technological trends will shape the future of cities.

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View full show notes at http://anarchitecturepodcast.com/ana016.

Intro
FINALLY WE CAN TALK SERIOUSLY ABOUT FLYING CARS

Discussion
Joe’s report from the future: Living in Australia is like living 15 years ago in the US
Actually, Amazon Australia Launched 3 weeks after we recorded this episode. WE MAKE THE FUTURE HAPPEN
Australia’s NBN: National Boondoggle Network
By the time it’s installed, it’s obsolete
Crowding out private investment
A perfect example of why governments shouldn’t build infrastructure
Status quo thinking
Grandiose infrastructure projects vs. necessary maintenance
The Strong Towns approach
Smart Cities
Sensors and centralized management
Algorithms and AI
Informing future development
Roads and complexity – Can AI optimize traffic?
Smart grids – balancing demand
Hayekian knowledge problem
How useful is all of this information?
What’s the real benefit?
Incremental development vs. political grandstanding
Joe’s market solution for traffic light priority
To optimize road systems, privatize them
Automated Vehicles
A giant leap, or incremental adoption?
Communication, reaction time, and automatic re-routing
Vast improvements in vehicle safety
Induced demand
Expanding the suburban catchment area: an exponential relationship
Urbanization, Suburbanization and Exurbanization
Telecommuting
Robots building robots to build other things
Benefits of face to face meetings
Milton Keynes – No relation to defunct economists
Patrik Schumacher’s EXTREME view: a 15 minute commute is too far
Economies of agglomeration
“Cities are the brains that direct the rural muscle”
Ed Glaeser – Triumph of the City
Skyscrapers and Universities
“We could be the new Pittsburgh!”
Another Adelaide boondoggle – the new medical precinct
Adelaide’s coming rental market crash
Foreign buyers will lose their shirts
A paucity of safe investment opportunities – because CENTRAL BANKS
Job opportunities draw people to cities
Slums and favelas – a symptom of opportunity
Resourcefulness of slum dwellers to compensate for lack of capital
Property rights for slums
The Long Now Foundation
Demographics – Human population as an “S” curve
Feeding the Cities
Vertical Farms – might make sense if they’re horizontal
A long way from crowding out the land
Permaculture – pigs are high tech
Monoculture – the result of subsidies
Logistics
Automated Delivery
Online grocery shopping – more energy efficient
Night time deliveries
Fedex’s parking ticket manager
Automated Vehicles, Congestion, and Parking
Drop you off, go park itself
Changing multimodal transit
Dynamic routes – adapting to needs in real time
Doubling peak hour congestion?
Eliminating on street parking?
Induced demand strikes again
FLYING CARS – THE REAL SOLUTION
Peter Thiel – “We wanted flying cars, and we got 140 characters”
Jetsons? Rin tin tin? Flubber? Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!
Automated vehicles are a necessary prerequisite to flying cars
Flipping the city upside down
Streets become streets again – more public spaces
Don’t park – Hover!
Helicopter taxis in Sao Paulo
Energy density is essential
Micro nukes flying around the city driven by self-aware AI’s – what could possibly go
wrong?
Other Advances in Energy
Thorium reactors
Virtual power plants – aggregating decentralized power sources
“Behind the meter” schemes
Solar farm shares rather than roof-mounted
Photovoltaic roof shingles
Solar roads – a non-starter
Batteries
Your car can power your house
Quick charging stations
WE NEED THE ENERGON
Construction Industry Technology
Modular construction
Bricklaying robots
Tim loves watching masons work
3D printed buildings
Drone cranes – what could possibly go wrong?
Japanese demolition – No more working at heights
VR Drone site visits
Holographic design
Augmented Reality
Virtual Reality
Will we still build real places?
Authenticity matters
Cities provide authentic experiences
VR allows people to live where they want
Virtual 20th High School Reunion is better than the real thing
Are haptic hugs creepy?
The Future of Politics
A path to privatization?
The trend towards decentralization favors free markets and deregulation
Technology – tool for liberation or control?
Liberty Minecraft – The Virtual Built Environment of a Stateless Society
Two trends: individualization and voluntary socialization
Two more trends: Technology disrupting jobs and technology creating ultra-abundance
Low skilled workers becoming more entrepreneurial
Passive income opportunities
Reason to be optimistic