FUTURISTIC CONCEPTS
TO INCLUDE
IN YOUR CITY 2100
Ideas from Previous
Competitions,
plus a few new concepts…
Engineering using “nature’s way”
Ideas pioneered by Janine Benyus
WHAT IS BIOMIMICRY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBUpnG1G4yQ
WHEN NATURE INSPIRES DESIGN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZODvr_GzNc4
Ask Nature Website
http://asknature.org/
Engineering using “nature’s way”
Nature runs on sunlight.
Nature uses only the energy it needs.
Nature fits form to function.
Nature recycles everything.
Nature banks on diversity.
Nature demands local expertise.
Nature curbs excesses from within.
Nature taps the power of limits.
POWER – SOLAR
• Solar roof tiles
• Sun-tracking solar arrays (some with
Fresnel lenses)
• Passive solar heating to heat
water and air (soak up the
warmth)
• Solar concentrators to boil
water and power generators
POWER – OTHERS
• Wind farms (blades have “whale bumps”)
POWER – OTHERS
• Wave power
• Tidal power
• Nuclear (Fission, fusion)
• Photosynthetic
• Geothermal heating
• Piezoelectric
WATER – HOME
• Water from rooftop rain capture
• Capture humidity from air (Aqua Science)
• 100% recycling at the home level (clean all
gray water in tanks back to white)
• Reduce water use via
-- sonic showers
-- UV dish/laundry cleaning
WATER – HOME
• Reduce water use via
-- biomimicry-inspired “shark-skin” fabrics
repel bacteria & minimize laundering
WATER – home continued
• Waterless toilets! –
Compostable toilets use
the resulting product as fertilizer.
• Use a special sink and
recycling tank for black water. Send the
resultingwater to landscaping.
WATER – MUNICIPAL
• Source water… Desalinated ocean water from
coastal zones
• Send stormwater to runoff ponds then through
natural foliage before releasing to lake. Sun
exposure and movement through plants/soil
cleans many contaminants from the water.
• Reduce water use through citywide use of
intelligent landscaping (i.e., desert-friendly
plants)
TRASH
• Reduce packaging materials
• Single-stream recycling
• Use biodegradable products
Average lifetime
-- Paper: 2-5 weeks
-- Orange peels: 6 months
-- Plastic or cardboard milk carton: 5 years
TRASH
• What about biodegradable materials that
biomimic the attachment mechanism of a sea
mussel?
The materials hold
strong for a
while and then fall
apart…….
TRANSPORTATION
• Minimize paved roads… use only for
freight? (it would be safer if personal and
commercial transportation did not use the
same pathways)
• MagLev passenger trains, freight trains
• “Land ferries” which allow personal
transportation vehicles and small cars to
dock and ride, then exit
TRANSPORTATION
• Volkswagen
diesel-electric
hybrid
• If the unicycle
and Segway
had a baby,
it would look
like Honda's
new U3-X
• Evolution Pod
travels
thru land, water,
snow, air
FOOD PRODUCTION
• Rooftop vegitecture
• Food
replicator
• Vertical farming
NANOTECHNOLOGY
The Weather Machine: “Nano-enabled Climate
Control for the Earth.”
Nanosized, tiny transparent balloons fitted with
GPS; radio communications; thrusters to
maintain location and to control altitude; and a
mirror which can be turned to reflect sunlight in
different directions. Thousands of these
“weather-bots” could be used to alter regional
weather.
NANOTECHNOLOGY
How could you use this technology…
Nanosurgery? Early repair of
infrastructure (telecom,
power line and water pipes)?
SELF-HEALING INFRASTRUCTURE
• A concrete material developed at the University of
Michigan can heal itself when it cracks.
• No human intervention is necessary—just water and
carbon dioxide.
• A handful of drizzly days is enough to mend a damaged
bridge made of
the new substance.
Self-healing is possible
because the material is
designed to bend and
crack in narrow hairlines
rather than break and split
in wide gaps, as traditional
concrete behaves.
TELECOMM / INFORMATION
• Babelfish ear-translators
• GPS Personal locators
• Hand-held combo phone/email/browser/map/social
networking device
• Moneyless society via digital banking
• Libraryless / bookless / newspaperless society
• Round-the-clock medical monitoring
• Round-the-clock security
• QR-codes (2D barcodes read by cell phone cams)
MEDICAL
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Round-the-clock medical monitoring
Instantaneous dispatch of ambulances
Perfect-match organ growth/transplantation
EMH (emergency medical hologram) instantly
appears at an emergency
Reduce infection with shark-skin engineered medical
instruments
Noninvasive robotic (and nanorobotic) surgery
True spinal cord/paralysis repair
Perfection of gene therapies for muscular dystrophy,
ALS, etc.
Drugs engineered with no side effects
EDUTAINMENT
• Immersive, 3D movies,
maps and stories
• Intelligent, lifelike, interviewable historical
characters at museums
• Multipoint discussion (with real-time
translation) from home locations among
students all around Earth (and even those
on the Moon and Mars)
• Customizable learning environments based
on interests, abilities and learning styles
How can incorporate these
ideas in your city?
What other new ideas and
emerging technologies can you
find and apply in your city?