Linking Past, Present, and, Future
The Dream Quest of Authentic Urbanism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Scott Crisman Sworts
The core proposition of New Urbanism is one of the ultimate expressions of nostalgia, and embodies the reality of an imagined past that is damaging the neighborhoods of today. When we allow nostalgia to become the primary focus of urban design, we substitute it for the potential to create the authentic. This is because nostalgia is the idea that "the past is better than the present and definitely better than the future; our best days are behind us; and if we want to have a glorious future, we have to recreate that great past." In the nostalgia contrivance, there is no way that the future can be bright unless it is a reboot of the “Golden Age.” Except that “Golden Age” never really existed. When applied to urban planning it becomes nostalgic environmental determinism, with the core idea being that if you revert to the forms of the the past, you will be able to solve a host of modern problems. This misguided strategy ignores the realities of modern aspirations and ever-changing patterns of life. This paper will explore the possibilities for an urban development that is responsive to current societal needs while embedding the necessary flexibility to allow those neighborhoods and cities to respond to future development.
Science Fiction Warns About Humankind : Is Speculative Fiction a Key to Our Future?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rafael Díaz Gaztelu
Science fiction has always been a warning for the future. The fiction of yesterday tends to become the science of today but where do we draw the line? Is the scientific and technological advance influenced by the science fiction we read in books or is it completely reciprocal? Science fiction has not been very optimistic about the future of humankind, and maybe the message conveyed is a warning for ourselves. Overpopulation, health, waste management, and transhumanism are no strangers in science fiction and they are also present everyday in the news. Should we listen to Sci-Fi authors and to their interpretations of the future of the Earth?
