Mike Cote:
While Rockies fans at CB & Potts watched their heroes battle the
Padres, Thomas Frey of the DaVinci Institute held court in probably the
only room in the Westminster bar where patrons weren’t watching the
wild card tiebreaker game.
That dramatic Monday night happened
to be the scheduled time for the institute’s "Night with a Futurist"
series. Frey presented a talk to about 60 people on the cities of the
future and how their inhabitants will interact with each other as the
working landscape – and the physical landscape — changes.
Frey’s
vision of the future mixed doom and gloom with gee-whiz optimism, and
participation from the audience struck a similar mix. (The mood was
regularly buoyed by eruptions of cheers from the bar as the Rockies
battled their way to victory.)
The founder of the
Louisville-based think-tank started his talk with the doom and gloom,
presenting highlights from "ghost towns" in the year 2100, as presented
by Forbes. The magazine recently predicted that eight major cities
worldwide will disappear because of economic or environmental factors.
Changing
economic conditions, for example, will continue to spur an exodus from
Detroit, which has lost 30 percent of its population since 1950. And
Venice, Italy, may not be able to stop its sink into the sea. San
Francisco has a 75 percent chance of getting hit with a major
earthquake by 2086. (Incidentally, that’s where ColoradoBiz will be
hosting its Top Company winners this week.)
Frey segued from
that dour vision to a glimpse of what cities might look like in the
decades ahead, stressing that great communities attract great minds.
While 50 percent of the U.S. population is now living single, people
will seek strong interaction.
He predicts cities of the future
will be designed around new ways for people to meet. He envisions
libraries evolving into community centers that will feature more
amenities beyond books and data research, such as studios for patrons
to produce podcasts and even exercise rooms to use while they read.
"Humans are social creatures by nature," Frey said. "They like
talking to other people. They like being around other people. People
tend to rate the value of a city by its functionality, and
functionality is closely related to connectedness."
That
connectedness spurs the creation of great ideas as like minds
collaborate on problem solving. On that note, communities and their
media will be "hyperlocal," focusing on the direct needs and interests
of their residents.
Frey sees one of the greatest sources of
inspiration to be the shower, and he showed slides of high-tech showers
that resembled, well, a personal think tank.
"Showers stimulate
your body, which in turn stimulates your mind … and great ideas
happen," read one of the captions from his PowerPoint slideshow. "We
now have an opportunity to create the ‘Divine Inspiration Shower,’ it
said, alluding to the Westin hotel chain’s ‘Heavenly Bed.’
The
images of those ultramodern showers prompted at least a few audience
members to ponder one of the greatest challenges we’ll face in the
future: Will we have enough water to spend any time in those showers?
Now that would be devine.
Postscript:
Frey and the DaVinci Institute are hosting the Colorado Inventor
Showcase on Nov. 15 at the Cable Center in Denver. Check out the
group’s website for details.
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