Smart Cities of The Future will Run on The Blockchain, With AI and VR Layers - Volvo's Futurologist Aric Dromi
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Listen to the Aric Dromi interview on Future Thinkers podcast.
Our cities are changing. Sometimes it looks like we are already living in the future. Some of the changes are more outwardly visible – you may see a driverless car on the street or a solar panel on a neighbour’s roof. But the biggest changes are happening behind the scenes. Technologies like AI and Blockchain are positioned to transform how our cities function on a meta-level. This is not some science fiction fantasy for the distant future, it’s already happening.
Smart Cities of Today
The Prince of Dubai has announced that Dubai is aiming to be the first government in the world to run on the blockchain by 2020. And Singapore plans to become the world’s first smart nation, using a network of interconnected data-capturing sensors to optimize everything from street lights and garbage collection to traffic flow, and even how the elderly access medical services.
The model for a city of the future will not be the megalopolis. As old behemoth cities struggle to upgrade aging infrastructure, agile small cities will rise to become global players. Others will compete by building cities from the ground up. One Chinese electric car manufacturer is doing just that. Wanxiang has invested $30 Billion into building a brand new smart city which will run on – you guessed it – the blockchain.
“If large cities like London are not careful, they may end up being 3rd world cities in 10 years”
Cities of the future may look more like international businesses than local government structures. Singapore has opened up 8,000 government data sets so that entrepreneurs from around the world can help invent solutions that the country can later test and implement. And Estonia has started offering fully digital business services for entrepreneurs around the world through its e-residency program.
“Technologies such as AI and VR will enable cities to create digital citizenship models, which by default will recreate GDP structures.”
Cities of The Future
Cities of the future may not even look like cities. Meta-layers of connectivity through blockchains, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality could make cities less and less geographically defined. Your body could be physically in one location, while you are at a conference in another location in Virtual Reality, meeting with people who are each in a different location around the world.
These are some of the ideas we talk about in this podcast interview with Aric Dromi. Aric is a digital philosopher, speaker at Tempus Motu, and Futurologist at Volvo Cars. In this conversation, we discuss many fascinating topics from smart cities of the future, to how artificial intelligence and virtual reality will shape our perception of the world around us, to the way blockchain technology and digital nomads are influencing our society.
In This Episode of Future Thinkers Podcast
-What smart cities of the future will look and feel like
-Creating digital representations of ourselves in VR
-Autonomous cars, drones, and new infrastructure
-Why AI will be an extension of ourselves
-What kids needs to learn to be future-proof
-How digital nomads will affect cities of the future
-The potential of small cities like Plovdiv
Listen to the podcast HERE. You can also find all mentions & resources from the episode by following the link.