Now we have pipes for bits high-capacity digital networks to deliver information whenever and wherever we want it. These allow us to do many things without going anywhere. So the old gathering places no longer attract us. Organizations fragment and dis-perse. Urban centers cannot hold.
Public life seems to be slipping away.
Take something as simple but telling as a day at the races. Before telecommunications, this involved traveling to the racecourse, mixing with punters in the stands, placing your bets with bookies on the rails, watching the horses with your own eyes, and settling your wagers face to face. You just need a tele-phone jack or a wireless connection to log in, and the system settles your accounts automatically. It is extraordinarily efficient, but it also eliminates occasions that going to the track had provided for making contacts, socializ-ing, building trust, and doing deals. Once again, we need to innovate to reinvent public places, towns, and cities for the twenty-first century.