0:02

um good evening everybody

0:11

i

0:12

was watching the digital wall go up

0:15

and it could almost be a summary of what

0:18

i’m going to talk about which is

0:20

essentially

0:21

what i wish for

0:23

and what i am concerned about what i’m

0:26

worried about

0:27

in this whole issue of technology i’ve

0:31

done the introduction

0:33

and

0:34

i’m my hypothesis my optimistic

0:37

hypothesis

0:39

is that there can be such a thing as a

0:41

human centered use of technology

0:45

and in fairness there should be a

0:46

question mark

0:48

after that because i think this is an

0:50

open question

0:53

what’s really interesting to me as a

0:55

starting point is how

0:58

the word technology has changed in

1:01

meaning

1:03

if you look at this dictionary

1:05

definition

1:07

the application of scientific knowledge

1:09

for practical purposes especially in

1:11

industry i’ll leave out the red part

1:13

machinery and equipment developed from

1:15

the application of scientific knowledge

1:18

only in the last perhaps 20 years or so

1:22

have we come to

1:24

an understanding of technology

1:26

so that whenever we use the word we’re

1:28

referring to something related to

1:30

computers

1:31

to the digital world which is

1:34

kind of an interesting twist

1:37

and

1:38

as you’ll see

1:41

i am going to talk as a kind of

1:43

cautionary tale

1:45

about an earlier meaning of technology

1:49

and an earlier version of technology

1:51

which i spent a great deal of my career

1:54

wrestling with

1:56

so

1:57

i think a number of things

2:00

have to be said right at the outset this

2:03

phenomenon seems to be inevitable

2:06

we’re doing it because we can there’s

2:09

something in our nature that will always

2:10

push those limits

2:12

there’s obviously a drive for profit

2:15

there’s a drive for convenience

2:18

but is this an unequivocal good

2:21

and are there and this is a rhetorical

2:23

question

2:24

critical choices that we have to make

2:27

about technology

2:30

and i want to talk first of all about

2:32

what we can learn from past embraces of

2:35

technologies in cities

2:38

uncritical adoption

2:40

leading to collateral damage to

2:42

unforeseen consequences

2:45

aftershocks reassessment

2:48

and then reaction

2:50

and i’m going to use this cautionary

2:52

tale

2:54

to

2:54

alert us

2:56

to the need to anticipate

3:00

this possibility

3:02

and

3:03

test our embrace of technology

3:06

against other values that we have so

3:09

here’s my cautionary tale

3:11

and it has to do

3:13

with the post-war embrace of the

3:15

automobile

3:17

which clearly the internal combustion

3:19

engine at the time was a wonderful

3:21

invention

3:23

which we in hindsight have overused and

3:27

abused

3:29

and i would liken this moment

3:32

to

3:33

1939

3:35

the new york world’s fair

3:38

the futurama pavilion which was put up

3:41

by general motors

3:43

which millions and millions of people

3:46

came to see

3:47

enthralled by the possibility for

3:50

transforming cities based on

3:53

the use of the automobile and general

3:55

motors at that time was not so much

3:56

selling cars

3:58

as they were selling a way of life

4:01

and people went on this moving circular

4:04

platform around a gigantic diorama

4:07

and curiously if you look at that it

4:09

looks

4:11

what that diorama

4:12

portrayed was something that looks

4:14

extraordinarily like

4:16

much of the suburban environment

4:19

surrounding all of our cities in north

4:21

america

4:22

so here was the euphoria

4:24

people thought

4:26

this these images are from white right

4:30

after world war ii

4:32

um the fact that young families could

4:35

get these automobiles there was a mass

4:37

exodus from the city

4:39

that this would be the gateway to a new

4:42

and wonderful form of life

4:45

and uncritically so and what that led to

4:48

very quickly

4:50

is a total restructuring of the city

4:53

which was replicated all over north

4:55

america and across the world

4:58

and it became what i sometimes refer to

5:00

as the suburban industrial complex

5:03

playing off dwight eisenhower’s

5:06

evocation of the military-industrial

5:08

complex and it involved

5:10

a really efficient organization of

5:13

financial institutions developers

5:15

lawyers builders brokers real estate

5:17

agents road contractors

5:19

who all became incredibly adept

5:23

at producing this kind of environment

5:25

and this could be a google

5:28

image

5:29

of pretty much any city in north america

5:32

producing this by the kilometer

5:34

very quickly and so where did that lead

5:38

um if you go clockwise in this these

5:40

images this is kind of time travel out

5:42

of the city after the war you have

5:45

upper left

5:46

a pre-automobile part of the city

5:50

as you move to the right the roads get

5:52

wider the radii on at the curbs get

5:55

larger the buildings get pushed back you

5:58

have parking lots appearing in front of

5:59

the buildings and eventually you get out

6:02

into an environment

6:05

where you really are not meant to be as

6:07

a pedestrian it’s kind of akin to being

6:09

standing on on the tarmac

6:11

in an airfield it has that quality

6:14

you’re not welcome

6:15

so

6:17

this produced all my text has

6:20

disappeared so

6:22

i will i will simply

6:26

explain that that that life magazine

6:28

cover appeared in 1961

6:31

and it was already pointing out that

6:33

this phenomenon was testing to failure

6:36

as quickly as it was created

6:38

the roads filled up the highways the

6:40

interstate highways in the u.s filled up

6:43

we polluted the atmosphere

6:46

we developed something that we hadn’t

6:47

anticipated which was a public health

6:49

crisis

6:51

from a sedentary lifestyle

6:54

where essentially we have levels of

6:56

obesity hypertension

6:59

heart disease even in children that we

7:01

had never anticipated and we developed a

7:04

complete dependence on fossil fuels

7:07

so

7:08

this is the world that we created and

7:11

belatedly we realized

7:13

that this kind of environment

7:16

could actually be harmful to your health

7:20

and so this is a wordle that shows the

7:22

heavy toll that this began to take on

7:24

people’s lives

7:26

and this is

7:28

something produced by the medical

7:30

officer of health in toronto

7:32

where you can see that as you move out

7:34

of the city center into the post-war

7:37

parts of the city that were created

7:40

around the automobile

7:41

all of those health problems that i was

7:44

mentioning start to appear

7:47

related proportionally to how much

7:49

people are car dependent and how much

7:51

they’re not walking anymore

7:53

in how much they have actually bought

7:55

into that kind of environment

7:58

so what has happened is a substitution

8:02

now which is really interesting this is

8:04

the reaction part

8:06

of the

8:07

so-called american dream or dare i call

8:09

it the north american dream which was to

8:12

have your own house your own lot your

8:13

own garden

8:15

every adult had a car

8:18

and that became a fleet of cars for

8:21

every adult in the household

8:23

to the point where we now have a

8:25

competing

8:26

and increasingly more potent version

8:29

of the dream

8:31

which is to live in a neighborhood where

8:32

you can walk to buy your groceries where

8:34

you have access to transit where you can

8:36

use a bicycle

8:37

and where you can live in a compact

8:40

environment

8:43

this has been

8:45

the subject of a book that i wrote which

8:48

has been my struggle

8:50

over the past few decades with that

8:52

earlier version of technology and

8:54

walking home i think sends

8:57

says it all

8:58

but the key

9:00

part of a

9:01

massive paradigm shift

9:03

that we have undergone is a reassessment

9:07

of the technology that drove that

9:10

transformation

9:11

of the urban world

9:13

and

9:14

the way in which it

9:17

insidiously reshaped the environment

9:20

that we live in

9:22

the pushback

9:24

started as a grassroots movement

9:27

and

9:28

my sister was an anthropologist often

9:31

pointed out to me

9:33

that

9:34

survival in culture depends on

9:38

people who

9:39

keep practices that are no longer

9:42

popular

9:43

alive so that they can be called upon at

9:45

a future time

9:47

when they’re needed for the survival of

9:49

a civilization and in fact in our case

9:52

the older neighborhoods the pre-war

9:54

neighborhoods

9:55

actually became a living example when

9:58

people started to embrace them

10:00

of all of those virtues of connectivity

10:04

of local shopping

10:06

of

10:07

kids being able to get to school on

10:10

bicycle or walking all of those

10:11

qualities that we had lost

10:14

with that embrace of automobile

10:16

technology

10:18

the urban land institute

10:21

had this show up on their radar screen

10:23

in 2013 this is the most prestigious

10:26

organization of developers

10:29

in north america and probably in the

10:30

world at this time and they sent out a

10:32

brochure to their

10:34

members people who are building real

10:36

estate and said

10:37

your consumers are now looking for

10:39

something else they’re not just looking

10:41

for the view from a tall condo they’re

10:43

actually looking for a neighborhood

10:46

and so my first assignment for the city

10:49

of toronto

10:50

was in this area which is east of

10:53

downtown toronto

10:56

it’s not

10:57

kind of surrounding the st lawrence

10:58

market and when i started there

11:00

recruited by mayor david crombee

11:03

back in the late 70s long time ago

11:06

that’s what it looked like it was a

11:07

gigantic parking lot

11:10

all the buildings were being torn down

11:12

to provide cheap parking for the office

11:14

buildings at king and bay in the heart

11:16

of toronto

11:18

and this is what has happened since as

11:20

part of the paradigm shift and reaction

11:23

all of the surface parking has

11:25

disappeared it’s all been replaced

11:28

by mixed income mixed-use

11:32

buildings

11:34

tens of thousands of people living there

11:36

public spaces and so on i was talking to

11:39

a young woman earlier in the crowd whose

11:41

thesis now is about what happens to

11:43

parking lots

11:44

this is actually a great example

11:46

of reverse engineering

11:49

from a

11:50

an excessive embrace of a certain

11:53

technology

11:55

we’re having to learn how to

11:58

rethink how we move in cities obviously

12:01

getting back on our feet getting into

12:03

transit who would have thought that the

12:05

bicycle

12:06

would reappear as a major form of

12:09

transportation

12:10

in the 21st century

12:12

critical political decisions

12:14

stopping the

12:16

spread of the highway network

12:19

william davis then the premier of the

12:22

province

12:23

made this extraordinary decision

12:26

and so the realization

12:29

had obviously become quite

12:31

widespread by that point

12:34

that this was extremely problematic we

12:37

have now a whole new generation of

12:41

engineering of streets

12:43

which yes we still have automobiles but

12:47

where we’ve reversed the pyramid reverse

12:49

the priority so top priority goes to

12:52

pedestrians

12:53

next cyclist next public transit and the

12:56

automobiles have their place so

12:58

the appropriate use of the technology

13:01

not its

13:03

being abolished but actually put in the

13:06

context of a different set of values

13:08

this is a street design manual from new

13:11

york city

13:12

which is actually redesigning all of its

13:16

rights of way

13:17

piece by piece all through the five

13:20

boroughs

13:21

and in light of that reversed set of

13:24

priorities so again reassessing the

13:26

technology

13:28

this is a great organization called

13:30

eight to eighty cities

13:32

which is a canadian non-profit that

13:34

argues that if you make a city work for

13:37

an eight-year-old and an 80-year-old as

13:39

indicator species

13:41

from the standpoint of active

13:43

transportation personal mobility it

13:46

actually works for everyone and here’s a

13:48

surprising finding

13:50

that people aged 60 to 79 and i fall

13:54

nicely in that category account for more

13:57

than a third of the biking boom

14:00

who would have thought this is not just

14:02

young people

14:03

who are doing this so i served as

14:06

interim chief planner in the city of

14:08

boston when the big dig was going on

14:10

this was the central artery built in

14:12

1950

14:14

which drove this enormous wedge through

14:16

the heart of the city which has been

14:18

replaced by the rose kennedy greenway

14:21

which you see here this is all about

14:22

that reverse engineering here’s the

14:25

project that james mentioned which is

14:27

this piece of elevated highway in

14:29

downtown toronto called the gardner

14:31

expressway

14:32

erected at about the same time

14:36

and i got involved with a wonderful

14:39

couple of donors

14:41

will and judy matthews

14:43

in creating

14:45

something which through a public

14:47

competition is now called the got the

14:49

bentway

14:51

we originally called it project

14:52

undergardner and we have repurposed that

14:56

space 10 acres

14:59

almost 2 kilometers under the gardner

15:01

expressway

15:02

as a public space on january 6 we opened

15:06

a skating trail

15:07

which you see here we had 20 000 people

15:10

who came out the first weekend

15:12

in 30 below weather to actually

15:15

experience this and we’ll be running

15:16

year-round

15:18

programs in this space so again

15:20

taking something that was designed for

15:23

one purpose that was an unloved

15:26

hidden space hiding in plain sight in

15:29

the heart of the city

15:31

and turning it into something completely

15:33

different

15:34

in light of a totally new set of

15:37

priorities and this this is what

15:39

happened on social media a virtual

15:41

uh explosion when people found

15:43

themselves able to use this space in an

15:47

entirely different way so i would argue

15:49

that that this is part of a whole

15:51

movement that has occurred of seeing the

15:55

city completely differently of instead

15:57

of

15:59

the pattern that we had fallen into

16:02

of

16:04

having a mental map of the city which

16:06

was described by numbered highways or by

16:10

major

16:11

vehicular arterials

16:13

we’re starting to understand the city

16:15

and this of course is toronto

16:18

navigating it

16:20

by greenways by ravines

16:23

by public spaces by a whole network of

16:26

active transportation

16:29

which is kind of reflecting this flip in

16:32

values that we’re experiencing

16:34

so now let me apply that cautionary tale

16:38

to where we are now

16:40

we are just at the beginning

16:43

i think early days or perhaps

16:45

significantly already into

16:48

another paradigm shift

16:50

which is coming about through the

16:52

embrace of this new version

16:55

of technology

16:56

it is touching every aspect of our lives

17:01

as was pointed out it is absolutely

17:03

pervasive

17:05

and can we draw some parallels

17:08

with our experience

17:10

with the automobile in terms of making

17:12

choices about how to use this technology

17:16

clearly it opens many remarkable

17:19

possibilities

17:21

for cities

17:22

but also raises many very valid concerns

17:25

including concerns around privacy

17:28

control ownership use of data

17:30

potential for social isolation

17:33

narrow banding

17:35

loss of common ground with implications

17:38

for the heterogeneous society that we

17:40

are particularly in canada

17:43

diminished

17:45

human non-virtual encounters

17:48

which is a great preoccupation for me

17:51

loss of social skills people who are

17:54

uncomfortable actually talking to each

17:56

other

17:57

would prefer to text and talk which i

17:59

find

18:01

absolutely incomprehensible

18:04

but the question is can we selectively

18:08

and consciously

18:09

harness

18:10

harness the best that technology can

18:13

offer in a mindful way

18:16

without sacrificing the qualities of

18:18

cities that we value

18:20

now eliminating human

18:22

contact is nothing new this is the

18:24

automat from new york city in the 1940s

18:28

this was a big deal instead of going

18:30

into a restaurant and dealing with a

18:31

waiter you walked up to this wall and

18:33

all these

18:34

meals appeared from behind the wall

18:37

there were actually

18:38

cooks behind there this wasn’t being

18:40

done by robots this was all being done

18:42

by hand but this was a great novelty

18:44

that you could

18:45

avoid human beings this way and this is

18:48

the contemporary version

18:51

of the automat called itsa

18:53

where again you’re pulling your food out

18:55

of a wall and you’re not interacting

18:58

with another human being

18:59

and then this phenomena which is

19:02

becoming very

19:04

quickly

19:05

arriving upon us

19:07

of getting to shopping being entirely

19:11

alone essentially replacing

19:14

all human contact so the real question

19:16

for me

19:18

and i use retail or shopping as an

19:21

example

19:22

is

19:23

shopping only about consuming and

19:27

getting the goods and services that we

19:29

need in the most efficient

19:31

cheapest way

19:33

or is there something about the

19:35

experience of being on a shopping street

19:38

being in a market

19:40

as a social experience

19:43

the sights the sounds the smells the

19:46

contact the chance encounters

19:49

the ability to act to and interact with

19:52

other human beings

19:54

that actually brings an entirely

19:56

different set of values do we really

19:58

want

19:59

amazon to wipe out all of our main

20:02

streets

20:03

which is their avowed purpose

20:05

i think that’s a reasonable question to

20:07

ask

20:09

so this this is just a

20:11

cartoon from the new yorker that i quite

20:13

liked

20:16

but here we are now no more cashiers

20:20

is this fun this is the new amazon store

20:23

you can walk in and out without

20:25

exchanging a word with anybody

20:28

never encountering a human being who

20:30

would know anything about any of the

20:32

products that are there the produce

20:35

the fish the meat the cheeses all the

20:37

things that we like to talk about when

20:39

we actually go to a market

20:41

clearly there’s a place for this

20:44

but do we want is that the world that we

20:46

that we want to live in

20:48

to what extent are we

20:50

willing or

20:51

[Music]

20:54

deciding

20:56

without being conscious about it to

20:58

retreat into

20:59

virtual cyber worlds eliminating human

21:03

contact this is something that drives me

21:05

crazy in the airports there is an

21:07

american company

21:09

that is actually installing these

21:12

screens

21:13

excuse me

21:15

everywhere in the waiting areas in

21:17

airports so rather than sitting and

21:19

talking to people you wherever you sit

21:22

down

21:23

you’re immediately face to face

21:25

with a screen which is bombarding you

21:27

with information obviously trying to

21:29

sell you things

21:30

i like this quote from michelle obama

21:32

recently when she came to visit toronto

21:35

social media can do two things it can

21:37

bring us together or can keep us

21:38

isolated a life looking into your phone

21:41

is not a life she said you have to break

21:44

out of your silo

21:47

there was a really interesting piece in

21:49

the globe and mail

21:51

last week

21:52

this was a conversation between jim

21:54

vasily and a psychiatrist named david

21:58

dodge deutsch rather

22:00

i would really urge you to read it

22:02

particularly the comments of david

22:04

deutsch the psychiatrist

22:06

but he was really arguing that phone

22:09

addiction and fomo fear of missing out

22:13

can actually stunt growth

22:15

particularly in this next generation of

22:18

children

22:19

that it does things to our brains

22:22

that make it

22:24

increasingly difficult for us to

22:27

actually have and enjoy social

22:29

interaction the fear of talking

22:32

to other human beings of making eye

22:34

contact

22:35

uh all of those social skills

22:37

that are put at risk and it’s a very

22:40

chilling

22:41

conversation

22:42

so the question is do we want this is a

22:45

starbucks starbucks of course are

22:48

designed

22:49

for no human interaction

22:51

everybody is sitting there with their

22:53

laptop or their phone

22:55

do we want to be alone together

22:59

or do we want to actually be together

23:01

together this is a little cafe in my

23:03

neighborhood that i really like you’ll

23:05

see the screens there it’s not the

23:06

technology

23:07

isn’t present

23:09

but i want you to look at where people

23:12

are sitting there’s a counter

23:14

where you sit and have your coffee and

23:16

your pastry or your sandwich it’s 30

23:19

centimeters wide

23:20

it’s a long plank

23:22

so when you sit there as those people

23:25

are doing

23:26

you are actually invited to have a

23:28

conversation with your neighbors

23:31

and it works

23:32

and you don’t feel like you’re pressured

23:34

to do so but it is an environment that

23:37

is designed for people to interact now

23:40

what are the implications for a

23:41

heterogeneous society i’ve mentioned

23:43

that this i love this pair of

23:45

photographs on the top at the old gurman

23:47

wards distillery in toronto

23:50

you had the guys and they were guys

23:54

in the early part of the 20th century

23:55

who worked there who all lined

23:56

themselves up against the wall

23:59

and more recently the people who work in

24:00

the distillery district decided to

24:02

replicate that photo and of course you

24:04

see

24:06

the gender differences you see people

24:08

from all over the world all ages

24:11

society has changed completely

24:13

what if we never get to actually know

24:16

each other face to face

24:18

what are the implications of that what

24:20

if we’re only encountering each other

24:22

online or through the windshields of

24:24

automobiles

24:26

as our society becomes more and more

24:28

heterogeneous

24:29

these are the kinds of things that can

24:31

happen this was in brampton

24:33

where a group of people from western

24:35

canada came in and started putting this

24:37

poster up

24:39

trying to develop fear and phobia about

24:42

the

24:43

south asian population

24:45

and they took a photograph which was not

24:47

canada at all it was a riot that

24:48

happened in india and what i loved was

24:52

the high school students in brampton

24:54

replicated the poster

24:56

and

24:58

portrayed themselves and said yes this

25:00

is really the world that we want because

25:03

they were being told by this other

25:05

poster to fear it

25:07

i think in order for that to happen we

25:09

need the human interaction

25:12

so this this is where i am kind of

25:14

coming to this is from uh i don’t expect

25:16

you to read this this is from a recent

25:18

article i wrote in spacing

25:20

i would encourage you

25:22

to have a look at it but what i

25:24

basically argue and this is the reason i

25:26

have involved myself

25:28

with sidewalk

25:30

is that we have to not ignore

25:34

this

25:34

wave of technology

25:36

we have to proactively engage with it

25:40

we have to raise these issues we have to

25:42

bring

25:43

value-laden questions into the

25:46

conversation

25:47

talk about appropriate use of the

25:49

technology where we want

25:52

sophisticated technology where we want

25:55

low-tech or no-tech

25:57

in our cities and make conscious choices

26:00

so the question at the i’ll just read

26:03

the last sentence the questions for me

26:04

often come down to how a human-centered

26:07

urbanism

26:08

could be aided by technology not be

26:10

subverted by it

26:11

can we assess potential solutions

26:13

against human values and decide when to

26:16

say no not exactly

26:19

bend inflect and choose

26:22

so here is a younger colleague of mine

26:25

expressing

26:27

what she sees as the bargain

26:30

her name is zara ibrahim she’s very

26:33

involved as a community activist in many

26:35

things in toronto so this is what she

26:38

said to me the change in our

26:39

expectations that’s being shaped through

26:41

our digital lives

26:43

i.e i’m giving you my data give me a

26:45

better experience

26:47

is about to hit our urban lives as the

26:50

urban data movement hits us

26:52

citizens will expect a relatively

26:55

biometric city organic responsive

26:58

nuanced in understanding what they need

27:01

that’s can we turn the inevitability

27:04

into a virtue in other words and i’m

27:07

going to end by just

27:09

saying as i have been working with the

27:12

sidewalk project in toronto i’m just

27:14

going to give you a few examples of

27:17

areas where i think the technology used

27:19

properly

27:21

can actually bring great value

27:24

and judiciously so one is this notion of

27:26

radical mixed use

27:28

as we move away from segregating where

27:31

we live from where we work we shop

27:33

recreation culture in our cities

27:37

separating income by geography and so on

27:40

there are ways in which we can use

27:43

technology in terms of developing

27:46

flexible fungible building types

27:49

that actually are far more adaptable in

27:52

accommodating those kinds of seamless

27:55

mixes and interactions

27:57

mobility options

28:00

the famous last mile

28:03

a lot of our cities are very sparsely

28:05

populated too sparsely for conventional

28:08

public transit

28:09

can we use for example the inevitability

28:12

of automated vehicles

28:14

not privately owned but as part of

28:17

transportation services

28:19

to pick up

28:21

areas which conventional transportation

28:24

is not able to address

28:27

dealing with waste and waste management

28:30

clearly there are all kinds of ways in

28:33

which the sorting of waste the

28:35

transmission of waste through our cities

28:37

can be approved by new technologies

28:40

weather mitigation features making the

28:43

shoulder seasons

28:44

in our cities more adaptable now this is

28:47

going to be a combination of low-tech

28:50

no-tech and high-tech in order to

28:52

accomplish that

28:54

there’s a whole area of wood composite

28:58

modular buildings which is being

29:00

explored by sidewalk

29:02

innovations in regulation and financing

29:06

and this has a lot to do with affordable

29:07

housing so these are just a few of the

29:10

many many areas

29:12

where i think with a hard look

29:14

and

29:15

with a

29:16

an eyes-wide open view of the technology

29:20

we can benefit

29:21

but i go back to my essential point

29:24

what we have to be careful of is an

29:26

uncritical kind of euphoric embrace

29:30

of the technology letting it tell us

29:33

what kinds of lives we would like to

29:35

live

29:36

thank you very much

29:50

you

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