All it needed was the right vision. The key mistake was to put the cart before the horse. When the MFP was a science-driven project it stood a chance of being successful. Once it degenerated into a social experiment, and yet another real estate development, it was bound to fail. The correct strategy would have been to establish the science first, let the scientists arrive and get the research going, then build up the high-technology research and manufacturing around this, and finally let the businesses seize the opportunities.
Communities have to grow organically.
In the bottom-up scenario, there would be no instant clever city. However, with a high enough concentration of clever people doing clever things, something like the MFP planners' dream may one day have emerged naturally. Ultimately it is people who make cities, not buildings. The inverted thinking of the planners is perfectly exemplified by the choice of site. Professional and business people in Adelaide normally choose to live near the city centre or in the eastern suburbs.