Cities of the future

Cities of the future

We are approaching the year that Marty McMfly went to in Back to the Future. However, I still don’t have my hoverboard, flying car, automatic shoelaces, and I’m not yet able to hydrate a pizza in a few seconds.

However, there have been incredible technological advances since the film was brought out in the 1980s. Could you have possibly imagined the effect the internet would have on the world just 30 years ago?

Below is a link to an article from the BBC on cities of the future. Almost half of the world’s population currently lives in cities, and by 2050 that is projected to increase to 75%, but what kind of city will they be living in? We certainly can’t continue to live in polluted cities with more and more cars, less and less green spaces, and more and more people, can we?

Here is an interesting insight to what the future holds, and below, some vocabulary explained from the article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20770518

Dystopian = the opposite of utopian.

authoritarian = favouring, denoting, or characterised by strict obedience to authority.

hermetically = sealed so as to be airtight

swathe = a strip or belt

retro-fit = to equip a piece of equipment with new parts, safety devices etc. after maufacture

vie with = to contend for superiority or victory

pressing = urgent

flagship = a single item from a related group considered as the most important

traffic black-spots = dangerous place for traffic

render them useless = make them useless

sensored = anything that receives a signal and responds to it

censored = parts of it are banned

heed that advice = follow that advice carefully 

Internet of things = equipping all objects in the world with a miniscule identifying device. More  information on the the “Internet of things” can be found on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things