Sci-fi goes academic
The state of the world’s infrastructure in the year 2100 is a mystery today. But that is where the forecasting—and fun—begins for 40 engineering experts who contributed science-fiction stories, essays, and poems to a compilation called Urban Infrastructure: Reflections for 2100. The book was edited by Sybil Derrible, a UIC associate professor of civil, materials, and environmental engineering, and Mikhail Chester of Arizona State University.
Derrible notes that sci-fi is commonly used to project oncoming centuries, but rarely by people in his field. “I don’t know any other books that give an outlet to infrastructure experts—not writers—to imagine the future,” he said. This page captures four examples.
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Brief History of 21st Century
By Francisco Pereira
Written as a series of Wikipedia articles, Pereira’s contribution takes a broad view of infrastructure, encompassing politics, corporate life, and even the infrastructure that some say will manifest in our brains (in case the info helps, Pereira envisions onboard microchips happening in 2033). From the perspective of this Wikipedia author, our current era, 2001 to 2031, is deemed “The great civilization decline.” Chew on that.
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The Capsule Tunnel
By Amollo Ambole
The scene is Nairobi, Kenya. There are no roads but instead an invisible transportation system governed by electromagnetic fields and self-driving carriers that fold up like parachutes. With intricate storytelling, Ambole brings a thoughtful set of solutions to the sustainability issues caused by rapidly growing populations and individualistic societies—and a new world that’s sure to entertain.
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My Computer is in Love
By Clio Andris
While the majority of the book’s pieces involve infrastructure, this story takes a different tack. Andris’ musings center around her narrator’s observations of a computer “acting” out of the ordinary, offering a lighthearted read about what might happen if machines had feelings.
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A Timeline of Future Transport in Sydney as Revealed in Tablet Form
By David M. Levinson
This wry timeline projects 180 years of bridges, highways, and rail in Australia. With wit that will resonate with users of public works (which chronically “do not immediately collapse” but “miss revenue forecasts”), the entries envision everything from the end of human sports to the rise of a 16-million-person megacity that merges Sydney and Melbourne. If the story about 5G in this magazine interested you, this essay will get you to the debut of 43G.