Welcome / 5 people who will make you feel good about the future

[Dylan Tweney]

I've had it with sad, depressing, pessimistic stories about our bleak,
polluted, globally warmed, techno-dystopic future. Sure, I'm
responsible for writing and editing some of those stories, but at the
end of the day, I want to read some stories about the ways in which
our future will be strange, wonderful, and better than the past.
Occasionally I'd just like to suspend
my
cynical journalistic side for a minute, and think about what it is
that got me excited about science and technology in the first place.
So I'm creating this email list for sending out occasional links to
stories that fit that mold.

The future is going to be awesome -- not least of which because our
kids will be in it.

On this list, I'll share the occasional reminder about why and how
that is.

To kick things off, here's a story by Wired.com's Brandon Keim about
five people who are thinking about ways of building more sustainable
alternatives to today's pollution-ridden cities. The story comes from
New York's recent World Science Festival, a celebration of big ideas
and big brains that was aimed at popularizing and publicizing hot
science topics.

The five people Brandon mentions were onstage for a presentation on
"Sustainable Cities."

- Peter Head of design firm Arup talked about a "model city" being
built in Dongtan, China.
- Dickson Despommier talked about "vertical farming" -- skyscrapers
full of food-growing gardens.
- Macarthur "genius" grant winner Major Carter talked about her
campaign to green the Bronx and create a green roofing company.
- Mitchell Joachim spoke about his "City Car" project and something
called "Peristaltic Cities." He also showed slides of major cities
setting sail for the North Pole, like something out of "The Golden
Compass," I guess.
- Blaine Brownell, a materials scientist, "gave a Willy Wonka-esque
demostration of sustainable building products: spherical solar cells,
flexible solar cells, zero-energy wallboard, luminescent gravel,
kinetic glass, self-healing plastic, structural textiles, air-
scrubbing paint and self-cleaning glass."

All I can say is: Wow! Wish I was there.

See you in the future,

--dylan.

[Dylan Tweney]

Oops. Here's the link.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/five-people-who.html