JUST AROUND THE CORNER Words by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Ida Auken Illustrations by Amy Fay Layout by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
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Welcome to my city - or should I say, “our city”.
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I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes, but I do have access to everything when I want it.
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It might seem odd to you...
...but it makes perfect sense for us in this city.
Almost everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives.
The cost of those services fell so sharply that suddenly it did not make sense for us to own much.
Then clean, renewable energy followed and we all could benefit from it. That helped make transportation cheaper, too. With technology kicking in, before we knew it we were able to order driverless vehicles. Owning a car became irrelevant. First, communication became digitised and free to everyone.
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Maybe one day we could even order a flying car...
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We started transporting ourselves in a much more organized and coordinated way when public transport became easier, quicker and more convenient than the car.
It has been ten years since the introduction of universal basic income. Has that been a bigger shift for you than the move to ultra-speed connectivity?
...not to mention the air pollution from combustion engines. ETA 0.03m
What were we thinking?
Yes. For me, ultraspeed was a gradual improvement, whereas UBI shook the foundations of how we live and work.
Now I can hardly believe that we accepted congestion and traffic jams...
But see...
...we didn’t need to digitise everything
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A small portion of our income goes towards our home. We all now have a guaranteed long-term, low-cost rental, inspired by the German model of the past decades.
Well...guess where the learning network was today? How was your day? We were in Dad’s building today! There were only 11 of us in the network today
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Only one missing today?
I thought you were using the museum all this week?
No: we finished our project on biomimicry
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And you?
You had the network, as well as that new company starting in the building?
It’s been a really busy day!
Are you still going out later?
Yes. 7:30 with Shana
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04/11/2017 09:30:40
Once in awhile, I will choose to cook for myself.
Since transport became so cheap, we stopped having all those things stuffed into our home.
It is easy -
INGRE DIE NTS
PA N R E G U L AR
ALLE RGY KIDS
WHEEL DEAL
TO P P E R
SINGLE
PA N S U P E R
FAMILY UPGRADE OF F E R
OV E N S
PA N S U P R E M E
I N S E C T TO P P I N G
NE W
- the necessary kitchen equipment is delivered at my door within minutes.
HOUSEHOLD STATS
This also made the breakthrough of the circular economy easier. If you don’t own your computer, you never get stuck with an outdated one.
U T I L I T Y U SAG E
GADGET USE
SINK
UPGRADE TV 48H OFFERS
29%
120L 18%
WA L L PAD
FRIDGE
360
40
88%
19%
LAMP 320 25%
U T I L I T Y U SAG E
Why keep a pasta-maker and a crepe cooker crammed into our cupboards? We can just order them when we need them.
And if machines and gadgets can be taken apart easily, they can be repaired...
...or parts can be used to make new products.
... and environmental problems seem far away, since we only use clean energy and clean production methods. All of the ingredients have to be grown somewhere..
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..I live in the city now with my family, but I grew up on the family farm, just outside the city. My brother, Emile, manages it now.
Farming these days is as much about farming carbon as it is about farming food. Emile’s soil is healthy, meaning he can get so much more out of every hectare.
Has your pay dispute been settled?
Well...we debated for a while and it took a while for the agreement to be made... but we’re happy with the protection we received
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Shopping? I can’t really remember what that is.
Later...
For most of us, it has been turned into choosing things to use. Sometimes I find this fun...
Go for it, Nula!
Hey, Nula!
This dress would look great on you!
...and sometimes I just want the algorithm to do it for me.
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Click ‘order’ to buy now!
It knows my taste better than I do by now.
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When AI and robots took over so much of our work...
...we suddenly had time to eat well, sleep well and spend time with other people.
Hey Jonas, you’ve got to try these steaks!
The concept of rush hour makes no sense anymore, since most of the work that we do can be done at any time. I don’t really know if I would call it work anymore. The next day...
Estás lista para aprender?
It is more like time for thinking, creating, caring and development.
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For a while, everything was turned into entertainment and people did not want to bother themselves with difficult issues.
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It was only at the last minute that we found out how to use all these new technologies for better purposes.
The key to how things are now?
Seeing things differently.
Some people call it a 21st Century Enlightenment.
We’ve solved the problem of waste, and the economy feels more like something we can all take part in.
I think, on balance, the city is a happier place.
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thinkdif.co The online festival of ideas that asks: what if we could redesign everything?
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