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The Venus Project Has Your Future Planned for You

If you’re a fan of the Bioshock game, where a subaquatic Utopian society goes terribly wrong, you’ll be weirdly drawn to the futurist gang behind real-life think tank The Venus Project. They’ve got a whole plan for optimizing society, using planned communities and cultural engineering. And the best part is that they’ve got a seriously … Continued

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Want to Live in a Real-Life Waterworld City?

The so-called Freedom Ship, a floating city of thousands, is an idea that has been tossed around for a while. Now the Freedom Ship company has a new set of designs for the floating urban space, which looks sort of like a giant mall parking lot, and sort of like a really giant Love Boat. … Continued

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Plants Rapidly Evolve New Reproductive Systems in Cities

A common French weed known as Crepis sancta underwent a form of superaccelerated evolution to cope with the difficulties of spreading their seeds in cities. Scientists studying C. sancta discovered that over a period of just twelve years, the plants went from mostly producing “dispersing” seeds that spread on the wind, to producing “nondispersing” seeds … Continued

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The Shape of Urban Traffic to Come

Most cities built before 1900 weren’t designed with cars in mind, and traffic jams are often one of the results. As we move towards a future that is looking increasingly urban, we’re likely to see more traffic scenes like this one, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. We’re also likely to see more traffic jams created … Continued

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Ultrahigh Density Cities in SF and the Future

Mad futurist Adam Greenfield has an amazing essay up on his blog about “ultrahigh density” cities — cities whose populations are so squashed together that you have a singularity-style situation. He talks about real-life cities, as well as ones from science fiction. If you’re interested in the future of places like New York or Mumbai … Continued

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Chicago to Become Bicycler’s Paradise by 2015

The city of Chicago has released a very detailed plan to make the city one of the most bicycle-friendly in the U.S. In their “Bike 2015 Plan,” Chicago city planners propose elevated bike lanes, special maps designed to aid bikers, and a 500-mile bikeway network throughout the city. Their goal is to make 5 percent … Continued

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New York City Aerial Walkways That Could Have Been

In 1908, artist William Leigh was commissioned by Cosmopolitan magazine to create several paintings of a future New York City. Leigh, who was mostly known for his drawings of Western landscapes and Indians, proved surprisingly adept at urban futurism, producing gorgeous drawings of a New York with elevated walkways and roads that issue from arched … Continued