⏩ The Future Normal: Fast Forward #20
Car-free cities; flying taxis; NFTs go wild; design priciples from the future
There’s a powerful energy in thinking about the future. It’s not just that the founders and backers of new ventures are placing a bet on the future that hasn’t yet paid off, although that uncertainty is always exciting; more broadly it’s the far-reaching possibilities that ripple out from these new ventures, products and behaviors that make them so compelling.
This week’s links capture this perfectly. The stories below are worth celebrating in and of themselves. But more than that, it’s their transformational potential that should inspire you. Zoom out, and you’ll a Future Normal that’s radically human-focused: across mobility within our cities, entertainment and status, and in the products we use. It’s head-spinning. Let’s dive in…
The Liberation of Paris From Cars Is Working. That Paris’ politicians are pushing a car-free future is hardly surprising - it’s European, dense, affluent.
Developers Offer Mobility Services to Lure Car-Free Renters. More attention-grabbing is that hard-nosed US capitalists are embracing the same vision, in Arizona.
Brazil’s Gol Orders 250 Vertical Aerospace Flying Taxis. Speaking at Founders Forum’s Climate Tech event, Stephen Fitzpatrick painted a compelling vision of a world where eVTOLs offer clean, quiet, safe and cheap aerial mobility.
The Future Normal is cities that are both focused around smaller and more convenient local hubs, and more geographical distributed suburbs serviced by flying cars. It’s the sustainable version of sci-fi’s 2050 all over again…
Dapper Labs Partners with La Liga, Hits $7.6 Billion Valuation
Sorare Raises $680 million for its fantasy sports NFT game
It’s a big week for sports-related NFTs, as two of the leading players raise huge amounts of funding. These eye-popping numbers are based on the notion that in The Future Normal, billions of global sports fans will want to pay money (and LOTS of money!) for limited edition, collectible, digital memorabilia.
And why not? Are virtual status symbols really more surprising or hard to rationally explain than physical ones?
Fast Company’s Innovation By Design Awards 2021
Good design will save the world. Whether it is solving last century’s hangovers with car-free cities and electric air-taxis, or today’s new issues (virtual status symbols & NFTs will never be universally desirable until the blockchains that underpin them become more sustainable).
Here are three winners that should also make you think: what if the design ideas behind these ripple outwards? We need the design principles above - circularity, inclusivity and AI for good - to be applied as widely as possible in The Future Normal.
The Polestar 2: a luxury EV built with water bottles and old fishing nets. It ticks all the boxes you’d expect of a car in 2021. But there are also touches that feel novel today: the blockchain-traced cobalt in the battery and the vegan interior (the carpets are made from recycled fishing nets).
Nike’s Go FlyEase: how universal design leads to better products for everyone. The brand is having to ramp up production of its shoe aimed at those with disabilities because it turns out, lots of people loved the idea of a hands-free shoe.
Crisis Contact Simulator: a chatbot that teaches counselors how to talk to LGBTQ kids in crisis. AI meets chatbots, are we back in 2016?. Only now, instead of virtual assistants for the 1%, the emphasis is radically different: how can we use tech to augment and empower humans to help other humans?