A Possible Future

Following three years of world-wide system upgrades, made possible by substantial investment in cloud computing technology, an unprecedented trillion tera-bytes of redundant storage capacity becomes available to the global computing community, allowing for massive computational capacity and order-of-magnitude increases in speed.

A multi-national telecommunications conglomerate creates a nearly continuous ring of geostationary satellites, creating a massive open wireless global communications network. The low-maintenance, highly reliable network allows cell phone and wireless internet coverage over 95% of the planet.

The combination of a twenty-fold increase in world-wide demand for lumber, massive deforestation, and lack of landfill space spurs a global ban on paper products. Global print media makes a sweeping transition to all-electronic publishing and a paperless business world becomes obligatory.

Real estate markets in Europe, Asia, and America become the target of world-wide scrutiny as prices spiral out of control and available housing reaches an all-time low. Major metropolitan centers such as New York, London, and Hong Kong implement sweeping legislation prohibiting commercial real estate development and lowering allowable occupancy density, displacing thousands of office workers. Millions of square feet of commercial real estate are converted to residential property. A billion office workers suddenly become telecommuters.

Utilizing the global communications network and inexpensive lightweight computing devices, workers throughout the world perform their jobs from their homes, from cafes, from park benches.

The infusion of new residential space causes a global collapse of the real estate market as it once was. A new, smaller scale industry arises. Real estate is no longer treated as a commodity, but rather as a service, much like hotel space.

World wide fuel consumption drops dramatically as the workforce no longer commutes each day, an improvement in air quality is noticed immediately in all major metropolitan areas.

Seizing upon the reduction in vehicle traffic on major surface routes, city planners and architects orchestrate a massive conversion of existing roadways in to a network of non-motorized public corridors. Bridging the gap between urban and suburban areas, and the theoretical gap between personal and public life, the spaces are not merely pedestrian pathways but metastructures of entertainment, commerce, and habitation. The structures initially follow existing roadways but quickly become fractal improvisations spreading like crystalline veins.

What emerges is an intricate, individual-scaled transportation system dematerializing the horizon. The fabric of human interaction is woven over the very decaying symbol of human segregation, the useless road, obscenely wide, where thousands once passed daily, encased in glass and steel. New flesh forms over the bones of the relic, the outdated and unwanted reminder of impossibly frantic times. Diverse and unexpected pathways within a labyrinthine plane form a public membrane. Its physical structure is transcended by its socio-psychological structure, a field of diverse spaces and events delicately suspended, impossibly stationary amid the torrent of urban tide.

Distill your desire and lay bare your lust, speak to me of dreams and don’t spare detail. Tell me the truths of your obsession, I’ll parry your advances each in turn, and we’ll dance on the edge of the abyss.