Cybercommunities are intentionally car-free. Children are able to move about freely. These communities eliminate the worst defects of today's relentless global sprawl. Car accidents are the leading cause of death among children in America. Unfortunately, today's toxic political environment makes it unlikely that a government disposed to help big oil will care much about what Cars do to kids.
Cybercommunities require no cars
The automobile industry wants us to believe that cars promote sustainability and other good ecological things This premise does not sit well with those who campaign against uncontrolled economic growth and fossil fuel use. Today between a fifth to a third of global warming is attributed to motor vehicles. The jury is still out on whether electric cars would put a dent in those figures. Now automakers are taking a driverless-car route. But the problems associated with the Driverless Car are many and most are unresolved.
It makes little sense to attack the automobile without having a better alternative.
That is where cybercommunities gain traction. We could design a world where all vehicular deaths would be minimal or nonexistent. Car-free cybercommunities are the only logical way to render the car obsolete.
The car business could survive by building cybercommunities
Cybercommunities are an idea whose time has come. Imagine an inverted shape a mile from side to side, high enough to cover up three or four levels. On each level imagine constructions that are the actual spaces where we live, do business, educate ourselves, socialize and play. Imagine living on a stage or in an ocean liner or even in a modern hotel. These suggest the car-free feel of cybercommunities. The sky is the limit in terms of design and concept once the basic idea is accepted.
We can live more happily than we do now. We can overcome racism and polarization. The world could be a festival of diverse designs that defy current imaginings. And it is all based on the on the principles of sustainability. Cybercommunities do not require growth in products to flourish, only renewal. The only growth it supports is the infinite growth of human potential.
A modular future
We could create modular elements that work like lego blocks and are at once uniform and capable of being joined in myriad ways.
We could create a frame for an entire community that would protect it from extreme weather, conduct necessities in and waste out, house recycling capacity and physically support the entire structure.
I am assuming the creation of material products that more than offset the volume of today's cars and home-building businesses. The final product is better all around. Could Detroit rise from the ashes as the prime builder of cybercommunities?