TOWARD PEACE AND PROSPERITY

 

Entering the fourth decade of the Twenty First Century, the planned Global War on Poverty by the US and its allies on the overpopulated third world is having its desired effect. Hopefully, it will be the war to end all wars.  The core of the war is building 1000 new large cities around the world where they are welcomed.  Although every country is not on board, many are.  People are seeing the benefits all over the world.  North American and European Industry is solidly behind the program and making more money than it ever calculated or dreamed that it could.  Domestic and foreign workers have never been better off.   The US has never been stronger or wealthier.  Peace has never been nearer.  The world has never spent less on weapons.  We are now finding that spending on peace is far more profitable than on weapons.  The singleness of purpose of the war is uniting the population and creating wide spread economic well being and social stability.  The shared sacrifice has a clear pot of gold at the end.   The profit motive is finally being used to benefit the world and not just a few wealthy individuals. The war is creating more opportunity for better long-term jobs that pay living wages.  It is creating a long-term labor shortage economy where competition for workers forces business to treat workers more fairly.  Universal healthcare and retirement provisions are fully implemented.  Poverty and illiteracy in the US is rapidly declining, society is fairer, and it values every individual more.  Outside the US there has never been faster, more consistent growth and opportunity for poor people.  Exploitation is being replaced with bootstrap partnering.  Starvation and disease are declining.  There are large challenges to be sure but it is well started.  The benefits, which are too many to enumerate here, reach to every part of the globe.

 

THE KEYS

 

There are many components to making this war work.   In many respects, the journey is more important than the destination. 

 

Thinking big enough. 

Building on Self Interest

Charting and understanding the problem. 

Global wealth to tackle the problem. 

Conceiving a viable, saleable plan.

 

THINKING BIG ENOUGH

 

Global poverty is a BIG problem.  With the growing global population moving toward 10 Billion, it was clear that poverty was growing faster than the solutions.  While many individuals and nations cared and helped, the problem was growing in relative and absolute terms, not shrinking.  The questions were: 

Is there a scale of approach to the problem that could succeed in a finite time? 

Could the problem be turned into an asset? 

 

The proven reality around the world is that starving destitute people can be turned into motivated hard working partners in development of solutions, and as they grow in wealth and capability they can become a major market.  The challenge here is creating a long-term stable trustable environment where workers are rewarded for their investment and not defeated through unjust treatment or political, economic, or climatic instability. 

 

It was also clear that the problem was so big that if you did not attack it massively, progress is fleeting and interrupted or destroyed by instability of many kinds.  A few extra billion dollars a year from wealthy nations was not going to do the job.  The only way to do the job was to scale up to the level of a world war:  To create the single-minded focus that a real war requires, to create the sacrifice to free up labor and materials for use on the problem, to actively involve the whole world.  Unlike a war, this effort would be creating, not destroying assets.  The results of this war would be increasing world wealth, stability, compassion, and justice.

 

 

The scale needed to be so big that:

it would cover many generations.

early sacrifices resulted in clear later rewards within individual lifetimes. 

business would unquestionably grow and profit enormously.

economic cycles were temporarily dampened or eliminated. 

it was appealing and satisfying to the soul of the wealthy world.

those being helped could really feel the effect and be drawn to support it.

it would overcome political factions and boundaries across the world.

it really included everyone and everyone could really feel it!

 

 

SELF INTEREST AND BENEFITS

 

While it is clear that the poor needed help globally and the wealthy have the money, technology and power, the problem was putting this together and framing it interns of self-interest.   The plan addressed the basic self-interest of many parties sufficient to build political support for it worldwide. Without this any persistent political plan is impossible.  It was not easy to sell.

 

First, there was no way to help the whole world without making some local sacrifices.  Everyone was going to have to give up something significant to be able to help others or themselves.  Most everyone understands self-sacrifice, especially when they see clearly the desirable result and everyone participate.  The plan was based around additional taxes, savings, and investment from the whole population, both in time and money.  While this appealed to many people with real hearts, the plan also offered solid current and deferred benefits to appeal to the self-interest of most people.

 

Basically, taxes were increased and made significantly more progressive, and mandatory national service for all was instituted.  Since more money was still needed, war bonds were also sold to the whole population.  These had special attractive long-term tax and investment benefits.  Investment in new buildings and businesses was sought from the investment and business community.  Furthermore, temporary rationing was eventually instituted for critical supplies, materials and industrial capacity.  All this was to pay for a global mobilization.  The wealthy were sold on the long-term profitability of bonds to finance the war.  Major investors were sold on the potentially profitable massive increase in business volume guaranteed by the huge long-term project.  Business was sold on the massive increase in business opportunity and its long run that minimized business cycles, especially risky downturns.  Religious denominations were sold on the opportunity to reduce suffering and present their beliefs to a wider educated audience.  The general population was persuaded that there would be a long period of economic growth that would give them full employment at living wages where no one would be left behind, and that economic cycles would be eliminated for a long period.  Furthermore, they were persuaded that general working conditions and treatment of citizens would be vastly improved because of the need for a vast army of educated and trained workers.  The poor around the country were persuaded that if all else failed in their own communities, that they could migrate to the new cities and finally have the conditions to lift themselves up and thrive.  Everyone was persuaded that the world would be more interesting, enjoyable, safer, just, and merciful.

 

Unions were sold on the sustained conditions needed to improve worker welfare.  When business saw they were facing a sustained shortage of workers for a long period of time, they were easily sold on many uniform government funded benefits.  It was obvious that everyone was going to have to have these benefits in order to keep their employees and it was cheaper and less distracting to management and employees to let the government do it.   This focused competition for workers into narrower, controllable bands.   These benefits included migration to universal health care, portable pensions, guaranteed retirement, guaranteed housing, guaranteed employment, guaranteed childcare, guaranteed college, and greatly increased economic security.  These things are still evolving and there are still kinks in this process but conditions have vastly improved and are continuing to.  Many of these guarantees were connected to the new cities created by the war.  While these guarantees were compassionate they did not necessarily satisfy and there was always an incentive to move beyond the minimum guarantees.   The guarantees generally required the good faith efforts of all able workers.  They were not just giveaways.  In the early stages, to collect on some of these benefits required moving to the new cities but eventually it is expected they will spread to all US cities and most foreign ones.

 

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM

 

The wealthy have a disproportionate advantage over the poor.  It has always been so and will continue.  The question was whether they could be persuaded that they would have more wealth and power by lifting everyone else up and creating a much bigger pie.  The perpetual appeal to their hearts was not enough to ever win this argument.  The general population was sufficiently comfortable that they could not be mobilized to take some more wealth away from the wealthy even though they had the voting power.  Winning this was the key problem, not global poverty itself.  

 

Understanding the seriousness of global poverty was important to persuading the developed world populations to take on this project.  Poverty is not just one problem.  One of the largest problems is local politics which is a difficult labyrinth that is still slowing down implementation of this plan.  Political, religious, ethnic and economic instability is a major problem still blocking progress.  No matter how big the outside unifying force, stability and trust do not evolve in a society over night.  It takes a long time to evolve a strong tradition of law and tolerance where it becomes unthinkable to take over or hold onto a government outside of the democratic process.  It took a long time for the developed world to reach a state where permanent peace among themselves seemed realistic and democracy secure.  There is a limit to how much outside pressure can force this and it cannot be permanently done by being an occupying power.   

 

Despite local complexities, there are also many common needs.  These include the need for sustainable education, water, food, health care, housing, jobs, energy, capital, social and economic stability, and exports.  The biggest problem by far was population growth, which was slated to add perhaps 4 billion people over the last 30 years and overload the earth’s resources.   Unless these people were able to become creators of wealth, they were going to become major weights on the world economy and a super source of world friction which could result in war and terrorism.

 

The US or the developed world could not afford to be an island unto itself.  Peace would be impossible unless the global poor’s needs were sufficiently met. Terrorists know no boundary and cannot ever be contained by armies.  The options were to wall off the developing world off with token help and let them wallow in their problems, or realize they are a vast resource and market to be developed so that they are equal with the rest of the developed world and can help do the heavy lifting.  The idea that the developing world could be left in some kind of rural innocence was put aside by the volume of the population problem. 

 

Another problem was the great disagreement as to how to deal with global poverty and all the problems of the nations.  Social and economic activists did not agree among themselves, let alone agree with the wealthy and those in government as to how to solve these problems.  There were many strongly held ideals.  Working out a unifying compromise was a major accomplishment.  Small dedicated groups, whether poor or wealthy, can slow major progress and had to be carefully addressed.

 

Many books have been written about understanding the problems of poor countries.  This only gives the most fleeting indication of how understanding the problem had to precede the solutions.   

 

FUNDING AND GLOBAL WEALTH

 

Massive funding from the developed world would be the seed capital and massive participation by their populations would staff the initial effort.  All participants would receive a stake in the new developments.  The development effort had to be designed to pull in uneducated and unskilled workers from all over the world at a fast pace, educate and make them sweat equity partners in the new construction and then homesteaders.  Money for this venture is coming from taxes, invested savings, corporations, and the investment of individuals and businesses moving into the new cities.  There is an excitement to developing something new that attracts young and old, poor and rich.  Because of partial government guarantee, corporations flocked to the new cities. 

 

Major tax incentives were given for investment in War Bonds and investments in the new cities.  Sales taxes, land value taxes, and income taxes were instituted to support local and regional government.  In the Americas, the dollar was made the operating currency.  A number of countries eventually adopted the dollar as their currency including Canada and Mexico.  This placed pressure on monetary authorities to come up with new monetary control methods.  In new cities, the money supply was rapidly expanded as the workforce and business capacity expanded.  Interest rates were pushed to all time lows and other mortgage terms used to control the rate of borrowing.  Sweat equity was a major source of investment and cheap living conditions were created to facilitate fast equity build up.  

 

 

THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN

 

The big vision of building 1000 new cities of 5 million people each all over the world was the key to the plan.  This could accommodate 5 billion people which would not be enough to accommodate world population growth by the time the cities were built, but the growth of existing cities would make up the difference.  While every city starts small, it was important to plan the scale of these cities from the start to handle the global population problem, urban/suburban sprawl, and effect on the environment.  Every city was not going to reach 5 million people but then some were going to be even bigger.  Cities had to fit the country and local population needs.

 

Many big new cities are absolutely necessary because the land cannot safely hold the population increases in dispersed rural villages.  While the land does and will hold many dispersed people, large, dense, efficient cities are the only answer that protects the environment as the population increases in wealth and consumption.  Forcing people to stay on the land for living, food, and work was a dead end.

 

The new cities were also the key to revitalizing the old cities and villages.  Mass production for the new cities and the supporting research and development lowered the cost of redeveloping all cities.  As citizens saw the advantages of the way new cities were built, they pushed for those developments in their own older cities.  Every new city was different.  Architecture grew out of many traditions and cultures.  It was very important to build beautiful cites that worked.  Every city was considered a tourist destination and carefully looked at how it could uniquely attract people from around the globe.

 

 

LAND

 

A major challenge was convincing governments all over the world to make land available for this development.  Many did not want it in their neighborhood for a variety of reasons.  Winning the diplomacy on this front was vital to success.  Ultimately, the raw opportunity to get wealthy from this process convinced most governments, wealthy landowners, and populations.   The US started the process by identify sites all over its country and getting them approved and then starting on them a few at a time.    At the same time the US enlisted its neighbors Canada and Mexico to identify sites, along with a number of other countries in the Americas.   As the project geared up, more and more countries wanted to participate as they saw that it was real and financially beneficial. 

 

SITES

 

Often, the most available land for a new city was the least desirable for farming or recreation.    It meant building cities that were highly self-contained and self-sufficient and linking them to the rest of the world.  The obvious strategy of the past, building near water, was not politically possible.  Much of that land was essentially taken, at least for now, at least in the politically stable countries suitable for the initial cities.  Building near water also had the difficulty of rising tides or floods.  In any case, initial cities were located in arid or dessert plains.  The first site in North America was in a desert near mountains that could provide summer and winter recreation.  The second was in a Mexican desert.  This second city was vital because it was the first sister city and the first city outside the US.  The third city was in Canada and the fourth in Mexico.  It was important for cities in wealthy countries to partner with cities in poor countries. 

 

The site selection team had many variables to consider.  The power of eminent domain was used to take any necessary land.  Values were placed on land based on prewar days.  In most cases the land was federal or state land and only minimal disturbance of existing sparse populations and ownership was encountered.   Some environmentalists were a problem.  They did not want mankind to exist anywhere.  This was quickly overcome, especially when they had to give their input as to the best locations. 

 

The first site was in the US because we needed to demonstrate what we were selling the world.  We needed a first site to test the approach and to train workers in opening up new sites around the world.   In reality the US needed the new cities nearly as much as the rest of the world.  The US had long struggled with urban sprawl and this provided a pressure relief to that problem and accommodated needed and desirable immigration.  But the second site in Mexico needed to be located and developed at the same time.  Mexican partnership in this project was vital for success. 

 

An important consideration in site selection was the existing state population.  For low population states, the probability was that the new city was going to become the largest populated city and the new political center.  Even though the Federal Government could force the site through on its own land, it asked voter approval and got it. 

 

Part of site selection work was doing the investigation of the nature of the land and climate as well as detailed surveys of the land.  This work intensified until selection was final.  As design teams started sketching out development concepts and fitting them to the land, deeper site work was done to test for water table, earthquake faults and valuable minerals.    Even this early site work had over sized teams so that people could be trained to do more new sites in the future. 

 

 

SITE PREP AND EARLY USES

 

Once the initial planning was sufficiently completed to begin construction, work began on the portal neighborhood, highways, railroad, and airport.  This would be the permanent village that received all new workers, trained them, and dispatched them to their initial work on buildings and infrastructure.  The first structures were storage facilities, schools, hospitals, emergency facilities, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and living space.  Often the initial buildings were framed and covered but not finished inside.  The insides were then used as temporary space for new workers and storage before being fitted for their final use.  Incoming workers all need training and this was a continuous priority.  It was a process of continuously scaling up the operation to handle more and more workers and put more and more workers to work and thus continuously speed up the construction work.  As workers gained experience, some moved to start additional new cities.

 

A daring effort was made early in the project to develop the hospital, nursing home, assisted living and retirement facilities.   The US was developing more and more elderly many of whom had no real remaining roots, place, family or home.   These were the first facilities targeted for full finishing.  The objective was to create a world class geriatric center that would care for elderly from all over the world.  This was accomplished.  Part of doing this was drawing on inexpensive female immigrants to do the care.  The largely female care staff made a very good pool of single women for the large pool of single male construction workers.  Many successful couples and families grew out of this balanced society and it cut down on prostitution.  Patients came from all over the Northern Hemisphere and lowered care burdens in older cities.  A large number of the elderly moving into these facilities actually helped educate incoming workers learn to speak and read English and Spanish as well as other subjects.  Largely, the new residents loved the project and many had been waiting in line since the official approval of the project.  They were an important source of cash flow for the early project phases and many lived longer because of their increased value, self-worth and care. 

 

An important part of early site development was determining what levels of sacrifice new workers were willing to make.  Construction had many possible paths that it could take.  If workers were willing to make more sacrifices, then less early effort needed to go into housing and more into infrastructure.  Great effort was made to develop a community from the very beginning.  The wishes of the workers were carefully considered in choosing development options.  Local democracy and participation in decision making was very important.  Most workers and even couples choose to live as simple and Spartan a life as was offered so they could gain sweat equity faster for their eventual nice living accommodations.  The culture became one of developing long term assets first not developing early elegance and consumerism.  

 

 

PLANNING

 

Planning the new cities and site identification went together.  Clearly the plan had to fit the site and draw on local knowledge of long-term conditions.  Great freedom came with remote sites, but they also required adding major new highway links to the rest of civilization, as well as rail, air, natural gas, water, and electricity facilities.  Planning had to encompass the design of new cities, the utility/transportation corridors, the logistics of implementation, and the economics.  This became a major project for universities.

 

While the whole city was planned in concept, every detail could not be done from the start.  Principles were established and broad concepts developed, but details were left for later development.  Ultimately, transportation was a key input to the design and needed to be fleshed out significantly before any construction could begin.  All systems were built to handle eventual full capacity or allow fully protected right-of-ways so capacity could be intelligently added without disrupting communities.   Initial planning had a theoretical aspect to it as it was done from old cities and universities, but planners moved themselves more and more to the city site so they could see and feel what they were developing and work with the people doing the work.  It was important that they became part of the new communities.

 

A really big challenge was starting so many cities at once.  It meant that it would be hard to learn many lessons from each other.  There were not that many trained people that could do such a large job.  In the first few years, relatively few cities got started, but they were the heart of the training of planners for the next cities.  At this writing 200 cities have started and we are way behind.  This is much too slow to meet the need and more cities are constantly being planned and started.  Given the 4 Billion people that have joined the earth, the need for the 1000 cities war on poverty is even more evident.  Nevertheless, the war is having its intended effect and the world is wildly more wealthy than it could have dreamed under the business as usual plan that was diverted by the war.

 

CLIMATE

 

A major objective for all countries was to develop new cities that were independent of the issues of global warming so that if warming changed sea levels or climate patterns, there would be a strong start at rebuilding well in progress.  Indeed, cities were built to decrease global warming.  Each site had important climate variables.  Each city was built for maximum comfort and harmony with the local climate.  Cold climates put removable coverings over every conceivable activity!  Warm climates made wonderful use of outdoor space.  Wet climates were a lot greener while dry climates carefully conserved water.  All cities controlled indoor climates.  Work on northern cities slowed some in winter and some workers shifted to warmer climates to share their skills there and enjoy the climate.  Climate made a great excuse for people to travel among cities and share their knowledge, expertise, and labor.

 

 

GOVERNANCE AND CITIZENSHIP

 

Special ownership and governance was evolved to deal with the new cities.  They became part of a network that was more allied to itself than to their host countries. The 1000 cities project is making people more citizens of the world.  A dual citizenship has been developed that allows workers to travel freely between all new cities.  Property ownership rights are now easily transferred between cities.   This citizen of the world concept is still evolving.  Creating several global umbrella currencies so that monetary control would not create local economic instabilities was very important.   The experience with the Euro was an important starting point.   Countries had to give up some sovereignty to get the benefits but the stability was well worth it.  Small countries have mostly abandoned having their own currency.

 

RESEARCH

 

Research into a multitude of fields was speeded up to focus on creating the 1000 cities.  Major new industrial plants were built world wide as a result of this research.  Robotics has played an increasing role in increasing output and decreasing cost and drudgery.  Major new high-speed transportation systems have been started and are now making a major contribution worldwide.  

 

EDUCATION

 

Worldwide education was given a major impetus.  There was a great need for educated and trained talent to create the new cities and develop everything to go into them.  Major incentives were developed for every city in the world to contribute trained workers to these efforts.   These incentives enabled the contributing cities to develop their own cities and maintain their own wealth.  Computers and communications have played an incredible part in making this education available world wide with high efficiency and effectiveness.   Every new city has multiple new universities and they are all tied together. 

 

 

POPULATION AND WORKER MOBILITY

 

Worker and population portability is very important in this new massive project.  There is a need for skills to come to a city, be multiplied, and then some moved to another city.  Constant growth in capability is stressed to try to keep up with the demand of the population growth.  We are clearly not moving as fast as the demand, but are continuing to accelerate the growth of resources.  There is a constant tension between needing to move people and their desire to settle down.  A great deal of effort is going into making each city its own unique environment that can attract people who like to experience something new and promising.  Each city is divided into its own unique villages or neighborhoods that also have unique character.  This is necessary to keep encouraging workers to move on to new cities as well as new neighborhoods within the cities.  Great creativity is being unleashed!  Affordable housing is not the only value.  Great and beautiful public and private spaces are being built!

 

CITY ADOPTION AND PARTNERSHIP

 

The adopt-a-city program has been a great hit as every city of any size has adopted a new city under construction.  Likewise, every new city has partnered with another new city in another country and climate.  These partnerships have increased the enthusiasm of the population to support this massive project.  People living in their home city have developed all kinds of relationships in new cities so they can go visit and enjoy the new environment.

 

RECREATION

 

Along with the 1000 cities is the need to develop 10,000 new recreation villages.  This is taking a while as these sites are often in environmentally sensitive places.  Nevertheless, there is a great need for recreation space for the 10 billion people on this earth. 

 

 

PUBLIC SAFETY

 

International weapons development and production is shrinking as efforts go more and more into city development instead of national defense.  Nuclear weapons have been recycled into energy plants.  Many cities have successfully outlawed guns because population density just does not allow them as an effective form for self-defense.  Some police departments do not carry guns.  Electronic credit has largely eliminated armed robbery and contributes heavily to public safety.  Bio-security features in credit cards have all but eliminated muggings.  Computers are the primary tool of criminals.   Fraud and con artists are a declining problem as citizens become educated.  Parents and children have been properly supported so gangs have not sprung up.  Organized crime has little presence because previously profitable sin crimes are now legal and carefully monitored and controlled.  People who gamble, use drugs or alcohol, or visit prostitutes are registered and tracked.  When these behaviors become problems, individuals are treated and not generally imprisoned.   Advertising for these products and services is illegal.  Public money goes into treatment and education.  The culture clearly discourages these behaviors.

 

LEGAL FOUNDATION

 

New laws have evolved for the new cities.  A model code of justice has evolved.  Corporation pay difference from top to bottom is capped at 100 to 1.  Corporations are penalized for large size and lack of diversity in ownership.  They are limited in the number of holding company layers so large companies cannot hide their activities.  Labor participation in management and ownership is required. 

 

 

LABOR PARTNERSHIP AND OWNERSHIP

 

Building the 1000 cities and the related projects was structured so that everyone doing the work became a partner and owner.  It was a partnership and ownership that could not be easily sold, traded, gambled, given or taken away.  It established a permanent place in society.   By accepting the most Spartan and crowded living conditions, a worker could earn this stake faster and it could not be gambled away.  It created a lifetime birthright.  This was especially true of workers working on the sites of the new cities, but provision was made in every contract for workers to earn this birthright.  Mandatory national service similarly helped earn this ownership.  While some of this birthright could be purchased, some had to be earned by direct labor on the project, and some of that directly on site.  Likewise, some of the guaranteed worker benefits could only be had in full in the new cities with a goal of reaching all cities eventually. 

 

Working on the new cities resulted in a temporary limited loss of freedom just as serving in the military.  This was especially true for those working on site.  Since these were bootstrap operations, many new workers would arrive without money, education, or skills.  They would have diverse backgrounds and cultures.  The immediate need was to house and feed them safely and comfortably, even if crowded and with the sexes separated.  When a new site starts or when new workers arrive they live in tents and trailers until they can move into big sheds or occupy partly finished buildings.  Once housed they needed to be moved onto an education track to make them useful, informed, and participating citizens.  This initial time is very intense and controlled but never harsh.  Workers are put to work as soon as possible but education is a continuous priority and is conducted first thing in the day as much as possible with refresher sessions just before bed.  There is not a lot of time for leisure for new and young workers.  Workers at all levels go into being educated, starting from where they are.  The language standard is for workers to learn at least two languages well.  In North America, English is the standard project language and Spanish is the preferred secondary language.  English is always taught so it can tie all cities together.  The standard project language varies from continent to continent.   As workers start to become productive in actually building the city, they start to have choices about living arrangements as those arrangements become built.  Even workers that are very well skilled and educated go through the initial dense primitive housing situation.  It is part of a rite of passage.  Those that stay in dense Spartan housing conditions even longer by choice build their ownership in the cities faster.

 

 

WATER

 

The world water problem is being solved on multiple fronts.  Cities are being made to be self-sufficient and recycle all water coming into them.  There is often little or no wastewater.  All waste is removed from water and recycled to the environment or in most cases held for productive use.  Major water storage systems in conjunction with the recycling, provide years worth of supplies in cities.  New water comes from a variety of sources.  A major improvement in desalinization of water and the mass production and distribution of this technology has greatly reduced the cost of water worldwide and greatly increased its supply.  There are two keys here, one is increasing the efficiency of the desalinization process and the other is lowering the cost of the energy needed to do it, which is the largest single cost.   Major improvements have been made in water purification and recycling.   In agriculture the development of new plants that are more tolerant of difficult water or arid environments is helping as is more scientific applications of water through use of satellites, computers and spot irrigation.   

 

ENERGY

 

 Energy is a major problem.  It is vital to lower the cost of energy to everyone as it is a major factor keeping people poor.  There is a constant tradeoff between the risks, safety and environment influence of energy production and use, and the devastating and impoverishing problem of not having cheap clean safe energy at all.  Conservation is the first line of development but it only goes so far.  We are using diverse sources of energy.  There is however, no substitute for the energy density offered by nuclear power.  Fusion is slowly coming on line but continues to be a problem.  Fission has been scaled up and is located in secure strategic locations around the world.  Some of the new cities are built around the new reactors and are looking forward to installing fusion when these become available.  These co-generation systems are quite cheap and efficient.  The new pebble bed fission reactors have quieted the unreasonable fear that has surrounded nuclear power for so many years.  Nuclear waste is no longer a problem.  Waste is either a valuable raw material (most of the time) or it is returned to the radioactive mines where it originated.  The population now has a balanced respect for the relative risk, safety and value of many different power sources.  But Fission has a limited life because of the limited amount of nuclear ore.  It is vital to make the transition to fusion which uses abundant hydrogen. 

 

Solar voltaic electric production has finally gone into high volume production and is competitive with other power generation technology for low power dispersed needs but it cannot provide the energy required by dense cities.  Wind power has come into its own in many parts of the world.  Ocean wave generation of energy is starting to be an important source near the coasts, but new cities are often located inland in less desirable areas not near ocean power sources.  Mobil power is moving to hydrogen in many parts of the world.  As hydrogen can easily and cheaply be created by nuclear power, it is freeing the world from dependence on natural gas, oil and coal.   Hydrogen is usually transported in intermediate carriers because pure hydrogen is very hard to handle.   Fuel cell technology is providing diverse efficient clean power generation in many places but the gas must come from somewhere, often nuclear.   A whole infrastructure is evolving where gas is an intermediate storage and transportation medium for energy produced from diverse sources. 

 

ELECTRONICS, COMPUTERS, AND COMMUNICATIONS

 

The electronics industry has continued to bless mankind.  Computers have improved 1000 fold in price performance and capability.  It has made computers of great capacity cheap tools everywhere.  Personal mobile broadband video is universal and anyone anywhere can get educated and communicate with anyone anywhere on the globe cheaply.  This is vital for educating the hoards of people that are needed for city building and inhabiting.  They can often be partially educated by computers in rural areas before ever getting to a new city site.  Robotics and automation are astounding.  High volume factories keep goods cheap and of high quality.  Robots now build robots.  Volume production is bringing production costs way down.  Global competition is keeping prices down.  Formerly custom jobs like construction trades are becoming highly automated.  In ten more years robots may be largely able to build much of a city by themselves, though nothing beats the flexibility and initiative of a trained worker with computer support.   Right now, in a narrow range of applications, a designer can design a machine and tell another machine to completely spit it out finished at the other end fully packaged for market.  Robots are not eliminating jobs so much as moving people to different kinds of work, often more fulfilling.  Trained workers are still scarce.  Nothing beats a person for direct personal care of another human being, whether it is in education, retail or nursing.  People-to-people contact is highly valued the more automated society becomes.  Automation is raising the standard of living for the whole world now that the war on poverty is in full swing. 

 

TRANSPORTATION

 

Transportation systems are rapidly changing and major new systems are evolving.  New cities are evolving with integrated transportation systems that avoid many of the problems of older cities.  They are still fed by air, rail, and highway but in changed form.  Telecommuting has increased.  Cities use high speed local and long distance mass transit systems to move volumes of people over distances to dense destinations, and then personal automated vehicles to handle local travel or diverse destinations.  Transportation has never been cheaper, safer or more flexible.

 

Automated personal vehicles are in common usage and provide great service. Rush hour traffic slowdown is largely gone.  All vehicles in new cities are fully automated and do not require drivers.  Fully automated automobiles are rapidly spreading around the world.  They travel much faster and closer together.   People can leave mass transit for personal transit with public driverless cars that recirculate throughout cities.  This changes how vehicles are owned, used, stored and maintained.  Most of the vehicles are much smaller.  New cities are far more accessible and livable for the elderly and handicapped and this has been a magnet for this population.  Children can go anywhere securely without help.  All vehicles can be fully monitored by video and are highly secure and safe.  Accidents are infrequent and insurance rates very low and largely government financed.  Personal cars have greatly increased personal safety.  Car repair and cleaning is now mostly automated.  Cars and trucks either use hydrogen from sodium borohydroxide, run on electricity from the street, or on batteries.  Gas and oil burning vehicles are scarce.  They are not often allowed in the new cities and are mostly construction vehicles.  More and more cars get their energy from the city streets.  Bernoulli principle based computer guided pickups skim the top of the streets to provide close efficient electrical or magnetic coupling without scrapping the streets or hitting obstacles.  Streets are automatically maintained with high precision by machines and give a much smoother ride even before computerized ride adjustments further create smooth rides.  This also makes for better energy coupling to vehicles.  Automated vehicles are now the main source of delivery and pickup of all goods including trash.

 

Trucks are now fully automated and deliver goods all over the world without drivers or let their drivers sleep or do other work.  It has become a good place to get an education.  They can be automatically loaded and unloaded but nothing beats a human to respond to random events on the open road.  

 

Very high-speed trains are starting to link the new and old cities of the world and thus decrease air travel and leave it for the really long hauls.  These high speed trains travel at 600 miles an hour in vacuum tubes under ground and are the safest form of transportation ever developed.  They are not bothered at all by weather and run frequently and always on time.  

 

 Slow heavy freight trains still move enormous amounts of heavy freight.  They are automatically assembled and loaded, and drop and pick up loads from ships without human intervention.  Delivery is faster, more reliable, more secure, and safer than ever before.   They are facing stiff competition from high speed trains.

 

Old cities are slowly being backfit for the new transportation systems and becoming more livable.  This is expensive compared to building them in as you build the city.   The new cities are making all the support technology much cheaper through volume production.

 

FOOD

 

Food is still a major problem.  Everyone is getting fed cheaply, but not all very well.  It is really the great unseen revolution because most of it takes place out of the sight of most of the population who lives in cities.  There is still not enough water to use for crops, even when efficiently used.  Desalinization is helping but we are way behind the need and the land is getting too salty and depleted everywhere.  While crop yields are way up, genetic diversity is being lost and super bugs threaten crops.  New plant types are resistant to soil contamination and even enrich the soil but new plants are slow to evolve, test and introduce.  Small farming is too inefficient and is slowly disappearing except in the new cities where the tops of many buildings are used for growing fresh food or plants.  There are many more people living on farms but the heavy work is now done by big corporations and automated vehicles.  The need for cheap back-breaking mind-numbing farm labor is fortunately steadily disappearing.  Nature is a very inefficient and unreliable place to get food from.  Experts are working hard at synthesizing food from raw materials without having to get them from the fields or the ocean.  We are getting closer, but people are fussy about what they will accept even when nutrition is superior and the food cheap.  The wealthy naturally prefer unsynthesized foods, but this is expected to change.  We still have a lot to understand about nutrition.  Computers with sensors have done a great deal to improve the cooking process and get food cooked just right!  However, cooking in general is far from automated, and dish washing is still not at all beyond the simple dishwasher.  The good news is that groceries are automatically delivered to your doorstep at any time of day or night!

 

WASTE HANDLING

 

Waste handling has gone through a revolution.  In new cities glass and metal have been mostly removed from the waste stream to simplify handling.  This simplifies recycling of paper, plastic, rubber, cloth, garbage and yard waste, all of which is combustible.  Some systems recycle this waste and others burn it as fuel.  Trash of all kinds is picked up by automated vehicles and recycled, usually on demand instead of on a schedule.  This cuts down on rodent problems.   Sewer systems still provide a major path out of cities for liquids of all kinds, but systems dispersed throughout cities now siphon off large amounts of water and purify it and return it to the supply side.  Densified waste is sent down the system for bulk handling at the edges of the city where it is turned into fertilizer.   No water is wasted. The systems vary from city to city depending on the needs of the city and surrounding area.      

 

HEALTH CARE

 

Medical technology and health care are taking interesting twists.  On one hand, the health industry is gaining a much deeper appreciation of the importance of spirituality and treating the whole person including diet and exercise.  They have found that biochemistry is highly dependent on mental processes both internal and external to each individual.  Spiritual healers continue to improve their abilities and mystify physicians that cannot explain what is going on.  However, researchers can now observe and accept that it is going on and experiment with it. 

 

On the other hand, biotechnology has vastly improved.  Diagnosis is much better and faster.  The genetic treatment of disease has evolved radically.  The growth of replacement organs is now a major growth industry.  Some of these technologies have moved out of our country become of our religious reaction to the issues.  These technologies have moved to countries with different values and is making these countries a lot of money and distributing wealth better.   Diseases continue to evolve and treatments cannot always keep up.   Technology still cannot communicate very effectively with the brain though hearing and seeing are now fully hooked up so none need be totally blind or deaf.  Nano machines are now used to clean the blood vessels and reduce heart disease and the potential for strokes.  Transplantable organs are still scarce because of the huge demand but volume production is being expanded.  Pigs are a major source of organs but total artificial synthesis is now moving into production.  The big news is in extending life.  Treatments to extend longevity are now starting to be effective.  There is no one treatment, but overall aging is slowly being retarded.  Regular progress is being made.  This has major ramifications for retirement and population control.  It is increasing the need for these new cities.  

 

Mental illness and abuse is getting better treatment in the new cities.   A general reduction in stress is solving part of the problem but there is still much to learn about how to handle different mental problems.  It is no longer being ignored.

 

 

SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION

 

Spirituality and religion are valued more than ever as people get past subsistence and start asking why?  The increasing success of spiritual healers from many traditions has additionally sparked mankind’s curiosity in spiritual issues.  Religious strife is still a problem, but more and more traditions are learning to respect each other and work together.   Religious violence is diminishing as people’s lives are improved.  Traditions are sharing facilities more and more and the new cities facilitate this. 

 

SUMMARY

 

It is important that a vision have a mechanism and not just an ideal, and this one does.

 

Gary Wilson

48 Danforth Street

Jamaica Plain, MA 02130-1841

gwilson@juno.com

617-524-7986

 

1000 cities, 1000 villages, 1000 neighborhoods