Future is Now

Design and Build a Prototype City

Future Nature City - Overview

By the year 2050 the world population is estimated to grow to 9.7 billion people, and it is predicted that more people will live in large urban centers. With current methods, there will likely not be enough food to feed everyone.
Many people are suggesting that cities in the future should go vertical with buildings. But that would just isolate you more from nature, so you are even more controlled by technology in an artificial world which continues to make us very unhappy in everyday life. I strongly believe that cities should expand horizontally, and form into clusters of communities connected by nature, while integrating the use of technology. The connected and surrounding elements of nature will provide natural cooling to the cities as well, providing more climate control globally.
We propose to build a prototype center as a model for cities of the future to incorporate many of these ideas and concepts.
We will have experts and visionaries such as architects, designers, scientists, agriculturists and technology experts that contribute to the design of the prototype center. Also, we will have children, farmers and many others to test the facility and provide feedback to improve it so it could be implemented widely.
Collaborating together we can do amazing things to save the planet and create a beautiful future.
See more about "Let Children Dictate their Future"

"If we build it, they will come!"
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We need to make cities that we can enjoy time together with family and friends and have access to all the things that we need, including nature. It is important that children have access to technology and nature but also have free time to be creative with all the things around them. At the same time parents should spend less time on everyday routine tasks by incorporating robots and other technology devices, as tools to help improve our quality of life and productivity.
See more about "Families"

We should build houses that are more affordable for everyone, using the latest technologies and materials, following the model of manufacturing cars.
Furniture could be custom designed and made on the premises while the house is being built, using 3D printing technology. Furniture will be designed to be versatile for multiple purposes, collapsing or transforming for different purposes and different spaces.
See more about "Homes and Furniture"

Everyone should be valued in society, from farmers to doctors, as they all have an important role to fulfill. With artificial intelligence the main concern is job loss, however it is expected to create new types of jobs as well, that require higher-level skills for non-repetitive tasks and using our creativity.
We should use various technologies and communications such as virtual and augmented reality to connect people and workplaces. You could work from any location, your home, a beach, park or mountain top. This would reduce commuting time and emissions and give us more time to enjoy life.
See more about "Work"

Agriculture should focus on producing more locally and consuming more from local producers, with small farms surrounding the cities and community clusters. With the latest technology, such as monitoring sensors, drones and robots, even these smaller farms can become very efficient in producing high quality and quantity of food.
See more about "Food and Agriculture"

People are more concerned about their health than ever before and want to maximize their enjoyment of life.
Personal devices will provide continuous monitoring of your body and health conditions and provide information, suggestions and alerts about all aspects of your health conditions.
Clinical analysis and lab testing will be done from a single drop of blood on a small device that can be used anywhere, anytime. Tissues and organs for transplants will be 3D printed. Prosthetics will be more seamlessly integrated to an individual and controlled by their thoughts.
See more about "Medical"

Technology is important in everyday life, but we must be in control and not be controlled by the technology or addicted to our devices. To avoid that from happening, we need to bring back creativity and the ability to think.
We strongly believe that we have enough technology today that can provide almost anything we want to prepare us for the future. Let’s bring it together.
The key thing is to find the right balance of nature and technology within our cities to help improve our quality of life.
See more about "Big Corporations and Control of Technology"

These are some of the key aspects that we considered for nature-cities of the future. It was not meant to be an exhaustive list of all topics affecting cities. But the prototype center can start with some of these concepts and with the help and input of experts and visionaries it could evolve to include other aspects.

"If we build it, they will come!"

Let Our Children Dictate their Future; A Prototype Center

Prototype Center, for Cities of the Future

We propose to provide a center, that has the most advanced technology in various areas combined with city and nature in one facility, as a model for the future.
Children from farms have as much fun and creativity, if not more, than children from cities, but there are differences. If you want a toy on a farm you would build it with your creativity and therefore you would enjoy it much more. In the city, if you want a toy you would buy it. If you want entertainment in the city you go to see a show and, on the farm, you would make your own show. For example, when I was a child, we had ducks on the farm inside the chicken coop. If you went inside the chicken coop the ducks or the rooster would chase you and bite you in the butt, while all your friends were outside watching and laughing hysterically. There was a beehive and we tried to disturb the bees until one started chasing us and the goal was to outrun the bees or get stung. All very simple, but entertaining.
Today children from a farm love to come to the city and they are not afraid because they can adapt to anything. Children from cities only want to go to farms if they have to and only with their electronic devices, and they cannot adapt easily to the farm. We suggest combining both.
The prototype center for cities of the future, was initially envisioned as a center for children, but anyone could benefit from this experience.
People will be free to explore, use their imagination and creativity and learn first-hand.
We will develop specialized programs, for people of various ages from children, youth and adults in collaboration with experts and visionaries of the future. There would be programs designed around various themes, for a day, a week or a month, available year-round. We will also provide some of these programs in conjunction with schools, also summer camps for children and adults.
These programs for children and adults, will help people reconnect with nature and to see and experience the combination of technology with nature, to gain appreciation for the world we live in and respect for each other.
The programs will include three focus areas: studies, hands-on experience with nature and technology, and creativity.
Show them the true enjoyment of life and allow them to choose, for example interacting with animals, eating fresh fruit ripened and picked from the trees and growing their own vegetables.
By experiencing city life, nature and technology combined, you will learn a great deal first-hand from people that were self-taught in conjunction with visionaries of the future and from that, later you can choose a path for your own future.
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Families

Society is pushing us to make more money, work harder, buy bigger houses and more expensive cars and other material things.
Considering family life, you must ask how much time do we actually spend with our families and children throughout our life?
It seems that people get married to join as a couple, have children and spend time together.
Once your child is born you might spend the first 6 - 12 months at home with the baby and that might be shared with your spouse. After 6 months you put the child in daycare as both of you must work.
Most of our time is spent with co-workers instead of with our families.
And what really is the quality of life at home?
When they reach 3 or 4 years old, comes the pressure of what activities to get them involved in. Also make sure they get a tablet or smart phone to be connected to the world, for the remainder of the time.
So, the role of the parent becomes a driver and we let the system and their electronic devices educate and bond to our children.
Many times, we share how proud we are of our children to co-workers and other parents, but often there is very little connection to our own children.
As our children grow, we guide them to be what we want them to be and what we present to them, instead of what they want and are good at. Or we find a role model and try to push them to be like them. We should give them a chance to develop their gifts, talents, creativity and the ability to think, from a young age. I believe all our children are gifted.
Once they finish secondary school, they must make a choice for their future. Many of them have no idea what they want to be, and they don’t because they were so busy with their devices (computers and smart phones) that they believed had all the answers and that they depended on so much. But this device cannot tell them what their talents are or what their future holds.
There is very little information for them to make the right choice. We are missing a very important factor, which is that the first 7-8 years of their life is when they form their values. That’s when we should encourage them to find out about their talents, but we don’t allow that to happen. Let’s change that.
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Homes and Furniture

Regarding homes, we should build houses following the technology and processes used to produce cars, to make homes more affordable for everyone.
We should consider climate changes and the environment into how we construct buildings. And change the materials used in construction wherever possible to be more organic and recyclable.
With nature combined with cities there will be more natural cooling. Also, there could be a pipeline from nearby lakes, rivers or ocean to bring cooling water to the city. Also dig a hole deeper than sea-level so water can flow naturally by gravity and then pump it into reservoirs for cooling and irrigation purposes.
A home should be a place where everyone is included and be designed to encourage more interactions.
With the price of real estate increasing in cities and spaces becoming smaller the design of furniture must also adapt.

Modern Furnture that Transforms and Collapses

Furniture could be custom designed and made on the premises while the house is being built, using 3D printing technology.
We also propose to build furniture for existing homes, offices etc, so that it is collapsible or transforms for different purposes and different spaces. This would be very good for shipping and storage and effective use of space. It would provide versatile furniture for multiple purposes, for example a dining room converts into a living room, and the furniture pieces collapse to form other pieces.
Also, we will make furniture that brings people together for more social interaction and includes children for more involvement with adults.
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Work

According to a recent study by IBM, robots will replace 120 million jobs over the next 3 years. In another study, McKinsey and Co. forecast 300 million jobs to be cut by 2030.
With artificial intelligence the main concern is job loss, however it is expected to create new types of jobs as well. The key will be on integrating man and machine. There will be more jobs that require higher-level skills for non-repetitive tasks and using our creativity.
We should use technology with personal experience and incorporate robots and other technology to help us, but not to control our lives.
About 50 to 60 years ago, people did many things because they had no choice. Today there seems to be more choices, but in reality, nothing has changed, because technology is dictating what we do.
We are all afraid that robots will take over our jobs, but instead robots can be used as tools to help in everyday life.
Robots are more sophisticated computers and as they come into our lives, we must teach children how to interact with them to use them for their benefit them, but not to control their life.
Robots can do the tough jobs or everyday routine tasks, and people can use robots to complete tasks much quicker and more precisely. This will allow more time for people to be creative and do the things they really enjoy.
It is very important to develop in our children the ability to think, and with that they can develop their creativity.
We live in a world today that almost everything you think of has already been invented somewhere in the world. We are very good at inventing things but very bad at implementing them on a global scale or adapting those inventions to everyday life.
There is a lot of pressure from a corporate point of view, since they are all aiming for profits in the trillions of dollars, but in the process, they are destroying society and our quality of life. In the process these companies also control governments, which is a tough barrier to break through.
But I totally believe that together we can make a difference. Corporations will still make their trillions by integrating robots and people with various talents and therefore increase productivity. For that people need to enjoy life and be in the right environment. I believe that work should be something that you enjoy and uses your creativity.
Your work should not be dictated by time but by how much you produce or accomplish, and you should be compensated accordingly.
Being creative people, we always feel the need to work through our creativity rather than being forced to work.
I don’t believe people are inherently lazy, but some people, because of their upbringing or society have a hard time to fit in, because they took the wrong path and society didn’t give them a chance or choices. You can only fight so much, and it becomes a struggle to survive. We can change this in our children for a better future.
Because we stopped our children from being creative and forced more memorization in schools, our children have become totally dependent on technology for anything they do. And they don’t ever seem to be totally happy.
Regarding where we work, currently a large majority of people in cities are commuting to work, which sometimes can take an hour or more each way. Some people take public transportation, but most people drive their own cars.
To reduce the flow and congestion of traffic as well as emissions to the environment, technology can help people connect to anyone in any location, with virtual or augmented reality. For example, connecting to your boss’ office or meeting room with your colleagues with a realistic 3D presence such as a hologram. It would show everyone present physically and virtually, even though you might be in an entirely different location, such as your home, at the beach, park or mountains.
You can join colleagues for a coffee, virtually, in whatever environment you wish. If you want to have a coffee in the Sahara Desert, you can. If you want to work in a chalet in the Alps, you can.
All of this is possible in an augmented reality world. Also, it would reduce commuting travel time by 80% or more.
Companies can still have their head office, located anywhere and people can come once a week or month but reduce the travel time for workers every day.
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Food and Agriculture

As mentioned earlier, with the growing population it will be difficult to produce enough food to feed everyone.
I spent the first 17 years of my life on a farm in Portugal and the next 40 years in a big city in Canada. I graduated in Engineering and worked in automation software.
When I was a child, if you wanted any fruits you would go to the trees and pick them when they are ripe to be eaten right away, and if you wanted vegetables you would pick them from the garden or get them from a local producer. You would go to a butcher nearby for meat from locally raised animals, and fish came right from the ocean. People developed their sense of taste from the true flavors of food grown naturally.
In our orange grove with goats, to find the best oranges you look for the trees with no fruit underneath them and follow the instinct of animals to find the best tasting fruits.
Wines is a growing sector and there are more people enjoying wines, but how can you appreciate a good wine with the flavors of figs and berries etc. when you have never experienced the true flavors of these fruits when they are freshly ripened?
There must be an increase in the ability of plants to adapt to demanding environments. The goal is to produce better quality and quantity of food without harming the environment with herbicides or pesticides, to feed the population.
There is a lot of technology already available that needs to be implemented across all farms. This includes robotics, artificial intelligence and driverless vehicles like tractors and harvesting combines. Also, smart devices, drones and sensors will monitor conditions for the crops, such as soil composition, moisture and light. They will also detect the presence of weeds, pests or diseases on plants and eliminating them very precisely before they can spread. There will be a lot of data collected about a great many plants, to help optimize the growing of various crops.
Water could be extracted from the ocean, desalinated and used for agriculture where possible.
With incentives and this technology, it will help to bring more people back to the farms.
Currently, most people in cities are not exposed to real foods anymore or have not developed the taste for the true flavors of nature.
We need to change the mentality of consumers and go back to old farming but with modern technology and minimizing the waste of food. There is a battle between old fashioned farming and the culture of large grocery shopping centers that we are all drawn into.
Large grocery stores sell only the beautiful looking food, but the produce is picked when they are green and artificially ripened with chemicals and gas, destroying the nutritional values and true flavors.
Sometimes we eat food that we think is healthy for us but could actually be very bad.
We don’t enjoy food anymore, because we are concerned that everything is harmful. People want to know where food comes from, how it was grown and what it contains.
Agriculture should focus on producing more locally and consuming more from local producers, with small farms surrounding the cities. With technology even these smaller farms can be effective in producing high quality and quantity of food.
Similarly, with animals for protein, technology will be used to optimize the animal raising and production of meat or alternative natural proteins such as beans and legumes.
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Medical

People are living longer but are we living well? People want to maximize their life, youth, and good health.
People can have personal devices that monitor vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and many other elements including food intake, nutrition, allergies …
All this information could be uploaded to a centralized system that collects health information or a smart phone app could be used. Your data can be analyzed in conjunction with an accumulation of your data on a weekly basis, looking for any changes, and suggest alterations in your diet, sleeping patterns etc.
The system will also send you information relevant to your health condition, check for and send alerts about any irregularities or abnormalities, or send you a notice that you should seek medical attention, from either your doctor or at the hospital for more serious situations.
You could see your doctor virtually for further diagnosis and only if necessary, visit the hospital. This would reduce doctor and hospital visits by 80% and would save millions of lives and improve the quality of life.
Clinical analyses will be very different in the future, with a single drop of blood allowing multiple tests to be done within minutes on a very small device which can be performed anywhere, anytime.
Probes and sensors of all sorts will be able to detect various conditions and symptoms and provide early detection of heart conditions and various diseases.
The key to all of this is prevention or early detection of any medical conditions and treat them right away.
Technology will be used to print tissue and organs for transplants into patients, perfectly compatible with that person’s body.
Prosthetics will become more advanced with sensors embedded to assess the condition of the patient and to anticipate their intended moves to optimize how the prosthetic performs. Also, they will be seamlessly integrated with the patient’s body, with nerve sensors and controlled by the patient’s thoughts and movements. Ultimately it may be possible one day to even grow a new limb.
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Big Corporations and Control of Technology

Technology is important in everyday life and will be even more important in the future. But we must be in control and not be controlled by the technology and addicted to our devices.
Are we enjoying anything we do anymore? Or are we just being controlled by big corporations? I believe we have been for many years already.
Most people, especially the young generations, are addicted to their smart phones and other electronic devices. Since their upbringing was mostly in front of computers, at home, school and everywhere, they are glued to their devices, playing video games, or accessing the internet and social media etc.
Anywhere in the world large corporations are forcing small local shops to close and we are creating much larger multi-billion-dollar corporations.
Before it was countries that controlled people. Today the world controls people. As you sit in front of the computer and ask any advice, the response could come from anywhere in the world and you don’t question it.
How many children turn to their parents for advice? Very few. And why? Because society tells them otherwise and social media tells kids that their parents don’t have all the answers.
As parents, we accept it because we are too busy with everyday life.
Instead of being so controlled by big corporations, why don’t we start making things to improve our quality of life and make a better world, for example, 3D printing to create toys designed by children and many more of our everyday items?
When I was a child, if you wanted a toy, you would build it yourself, and let your imagination and creativity guide you.
We pulled away all the creativity from children and for them to use their imagination requires sending them to institutions of technology where we hope they become brilliant from books, reading, memorizing and understanding them. The students pay high fees to come up with the same ideas, because we removed the creativity from children at a young age.
They should reduce spending money on research and start implementing more things. Data double every 2 years, but is it necessary?
We need to change our attitudes and not lose what makes us human, to be in control of the technology and not let it control us. We must take a stand and fight for our freedom and enjoyment.
Today we all live in fear of the future, presented by large corporations, the media and the world but where is our productivity and creativity. The question is, are the multi-billion-dollar corporations driven by fear?
One of the concerns as well, is that our society is driven by money and everything we do is to make money. We lost trust in each other and there is no loyalty anymore. We still need to make money, because for everything we do there is a cost, but it is important that we enjoy what we do first and the money comes second.
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Goals

Our goal is to bring together the dreams and goals of many architects, engineers, designers, scientists, artists etc. and present it to our children.
Together with these visionaries of the future, we can develop specialized programs centered on themes, for various aspects of cities of the future combined with nature and technology.
This could also be presented to governments, foundations, research institutions, corporations and others to experience and to implement cities of the future.
Our goal is to start in 2020, to create the first nature-city as a prototype of cities of the future. Then experience, learn and evolve it further over the next 5 years (2025). We hope it will become a model for building cities of the future in various locations.
When I was growing up, only a few of my generation went to high school and beyond, and most people stayed on to run the farms. Today it is reversed, there are only a few that stay on the farms and most people are getting an education. But where are the jobs for all these people? Governments are now encouraging and providing incentives for people to get out of the cities and move to the rural areas. This would be fine if there were more facilities and technology like we propose in our center or part of our vision.
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In conclusion, we are not experts in this field, but we truly believe that we need to create a prototype as a model for some of these concepts to truly test them. And we invite you to join us to put all our ideas together and implement them into the future of our children.

"If we build it, they will come!"
Please Join Our Team - See how you can help.

Also see some of our other New Ideas