The new issue of "Futurist" came in a couple days ago. If you're not a member of the World Future Society (see link to the right) and you're interested at all in how the world will go in the coming years, you need to read this magazine. Sir Arthur C. Clarke is on their advisory panel. These people mean business. It's also refreshing because the only advertisments in it are for functions of the Society itself or from member organizations. Each issue is packed solid with information. For a sci-fi writer, it's a gold mine about all aspects of society in the near and medium term future.

Anyway, they had an article about where careers and employment are headed in the future and the factors influencing same, and one section talked about urban enviroment and ecology careers. That got me thinking on a completely different tangent (not uncommon where this mag is concerned). I got to wondering what kind of job would that be, would one be doing urban planning and what exactly would a person do in this job. That led to "What kind of factors would make people want to live somewhere, and what kind of places does one design to encourage communities to form, especially in the city? What are we lacking in the city that smaller, rural, closer-knit communities have?"

(This, by the by, is the kind of thinking you do when you create believable future worlds for a living. You want it to be real, you've got to think from the ground up, so to speak.)

Why do people not get together so much anymore? Much of this is the personalization of what were formerly group activities -- movies, for instance, used to be something you had to go to the movie theater to see. Now, you pop one in to the DVD player at home. Music? We used to go to concerts or go listen to the guy busking on the corner for change, now we put in a CD in the stereo or computer or we stick our iPod 'phones in our ears. On a personal note, much of my socialization has taken place across a AD&D game table with a half-dozen of my closest (or brand new) friends. Now we play EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, etc., on our own computers. Or people watch TV. The way I see it, the technologies that have brought this isolated entertainment are only part of the story. Another part is that where do you go to do stuff? Where are the public spaces you could go to do stuff without having to obtain an expensive permit and without fear you'd be questioned or run off by the police? Say you're a musician, you want to earn money for a couple of meals and get some practice time in, so you'd think to go sit on the corner with your guitar or what have you, set out your hat... and fifteen minutes later get arrested for causing a public nuisance or disturbing the peace. You want to play D&D with your friends but none of you has a place or a table big enough, or else parents or neighbors who would complain, and you can't go to a restaurant because they'd run you out and anyway you don't have enough money for a meal... the library complains you make too much noise and they won't let you stay for the hours needed for a good game... where do you go? I'm sure you get the picture here.

And speaking of eating, what if you want to take your laptop somewhere and do some work, maybe meet up with other telecommuting coworkers, have a sandwich or a cappucino or some such while you're at it?

Also what about doing something about the ... well... urbanness of urban life? Everywhere you look, buildings, concrete, metal, pollution. Don't you get tired of it?

So anyway, here's what I came up with. This may sound hopelessly utopian, but that's futurism for you.

Say you design a community around community. Say you designed a building or set of buildings (in cyberpunk they call it an arcology) that are all built around common social spaces. These spaces might take up the entire first floor of the arcology, with the apartments or condos on the upper floors, however many you want. You'd have some retail places maybe -- a 24 hour coffee shop or restaurant, a newsstand or book store, a bakery or small grocery store. But primarily you'd have space for people to meet and socialize. You could have some be enclosed rooms such as conference rooms or smaller rooms. The main space would be totally open, though, with tables and chairs. The rooms might be by reservation only, but they would be free of charge. The main open space, however, would be free and open at any time. Maybe local artists could reserve space on the walls for artwork on a monthly basis. Musicians could pick a spot and play as long as they like. People could get together to talk, play games. There would be free WiFi so people could bring their computers. Maybe a small theater that could be reserved if people want to get together for a film festival or TV night or something.

But wait, there's more!

All of this is well and good, but what about the "urbanness" thing? Here's the fun thing. In addition to all this, you also have the first floor and the basement as a hydroponics greenhouse. This greenhouse grows vegetables and herbs. The ventilation system of the building runs through this greenhouse so as to partially recycle the air, but it also provides food for the building's residents. These greenhouses are open to the residents and they can come work there with the plants or just to be surrounded by green things. Maybe each resident has their own trays for growing their own stuff, or else they can get a portion of their rent taken off if they volunteer for the common areas of the garden. Extra produce can be sold through the grocery store on the main floor or used by the restaurant or coffee shop. Hydroponics gardens can produce incredible amounts of food. You could also quite possibly recycle a percentage of the building's water supply through these greenhouses. If you use the "light pipe" technologies that involve collecting outdoor sunlight through fiber optic strands to be used for indoor lighting you could cut or eliminate the need for grow lights for the plants, which saves energy.

Just think. If you had somewhere to go that didn't require you to spend money to be there, didn't mind you sitting for an hour or two or three, had tables and chairs, had power and WiFi for your computer, and wasn't out in the rain or cold, wouldn't you want to use it? Not even for work, but just to hang out? Take a book. Take your homework. Sit and knit. Gab with friends. Reserve a room and start a book club or a garage band or a string quartet. Reserve a movie room for a Saturday and put on a Big Scary Alien film festival. Play chess. Have a working lunch and brainstorm your next project with some other work-at-home types. Stop in the greenhouse on the way home from work and pick up some fresh veggies to make a big salad for dinner.

I don't know about you, but I'd cut off a leg to live in a place like this.

It could be done right now. We have all the technologies for this. Nothing I've put into this idea here is uncommon, except maybe the idea of the greenhouse. But even that isn't uncommon, just a novel use of an existing technology. It's just a question of whether somebody would want to build it. Getting people to live in it, I suspect, would not be a problem.

It's funny. This kind of thing could be the answer to urban isolation and it would immediately be shot down as "not possible" and "utopian" and what have you. *sigh*


Waddling widgets wandering wistfully westward.