0:09

amazing

0:12

um moving right along our next speaker

0:13

is a science fiction writer and futurist

0:16

who has worked with Intel Labs The

0:18

Institute for the future Nesta the

0:20

Atlantic Council and the ASU Center for

0:22

Science and the imagination she’s the

0:24

author of The Machine Dynasty novels and

0:27

her novel company town was Canada Reads

0:29

finalists in 2016. please welcome

0:32

Madeline Ashby

0:42

hello

0:44

hello yes

0:46

what they said

0:54

wasn’t what they said great

0:58

um

0:59

thank you for having me thank you for

1:01

coming out on a night with freezing rain

1:04

on a Friday in the cold I appreciate it

1:07

I appreciate you thank you for being

1:09

here and thanks for having me

1:12

um as they said uh my name is Madeline

1:14

Ashby and um I’ve been asked to talk to

1:17

you about the future of cities which is

1:19

the topic for the this evening and this

1:21

weekend

1:22

um

1:23

I don’t have slides because I don’t

1:25

believe in them

1:26

uh I don’t have I don’t

1:29

okay uh I don’t have pictures because I

1:32

want you to use your imagination

1:36

I uh again thank you

1:39

um

1:40

there aren’t pictures yet of the things

1:42

that I want to discuss with you

1:45

those images don’t exist

1:47

some of them were concept art earlier

1:51

and I could show you book covers

1:53

I could show my book

1:56

but you know that isn’t what I want you

1:58

to think about

2:00

I want you to think about what’s

2:01

possible what hasn’t happened yet what

2:03

hasn’t been drawn yet

2:06

the the image that we could have

2:10

so

2:11

um

2:13

before talking to you about the future

2:14

of Canadian cities I should talk to you

2:16

about Canadian land or rather the land

2:17

that is now referred to as Canada we

2:20

already did this before but I want to do

2:21

it again

2:24

I was born in the United States and we

2:26

never do this

2:27

the thing I’m about to do right now we

2:29

never do that there

2:34

the place where we stand is the

2:36

traditional unseated territory of the

2:37

Algonquin on the schnabic people for 15

2:42

000 years

2:44

this land has been the site of human

2:46

habitation

2:47

and it’s important for me to acknowledge

2:49

that as a science fiction writer because

2:51

my genre My Chosen genre deals in who

2:55

gets to be a human being

2:58

who counts as a human being

3:01

so when we say that this land has been

3:04

inhabited by human beings for fifteen

3:07

thousand years or that includes those

3:10

definitions of humanity that that

3:12

includes our conversation about who gets

3:16

to be a human being and what a human

3:18

impact on a landscape is

3:21

so think about that as we think about

3:24

the future that not only do we have a

3:26

future provided that there is one

3:29

but we have a past

3:31

a huge long pass

3:33

that our species has been here for a

3:36

very long time

3:39

so

3:42

as you know I’ve written about cities

3:45

before in some of the clients that

3:48

you’ve heard mentioned earlier have

3:50

asked me for science fiction prototypes

3:52

about the future of cities who when I

3:55

say science fiction prototype who knows

3:57

what I’m talking about

3:58

oh good no one

4:00

um the so sometimes as part of my job uh

4:03

before I go any further I should explain

4:05

to you what I do for a living

4:08

um sometimes I get asked as a science

4:10

fiction writer and as someone who is a

4:12

graduate of the Strategic foresight and

4:15

Innovation program at ocad University in

4:17

Toronto I get asked to write what are

4:20

called what are commonly referred to as

4:23

science fiction prototypes which is to

4:25

say I make a prototype in prose

4:28

about how somebody might use a thing in

4:31

the future or not use a thing in the

4:33

future so someone approaches me and says

4:35

hey this is a chipset what do you think

4:37

users will do with it 10 years from now

4:39

hey we have this service how do you

4:42

think people will actually use for it or

4:43

my favorite question which is what’s the

4:45

worst that could happen

4:48

I’m like really

4:50

and they say yeah and I’m like can you

4:52

pay double

4:54

um so I have written stories about the

4:57

future of cities for people like the

4:59

Atlantic Council which was a story about

5:01

the future of urban Warfare

5:03

my most recent novel company town was

5:05

set in a city that floats around an oil

5:07

rig 500 kilometers Northeast of St

5:09

John’s Newfoundland and that was the

5:11

story that was the novel of mine that

5:13

went uh through the Canada Reads process

5:14

which was amazing

5:16

um

5:17

which is what I want to talk to you

5:18

about this evening in addition to other

5:20

things

5:21

because I’ve been asked a lot about it I

5:23

should tell you how I designed new

5:25

Arcadia the city we’re in company Town

5:27

takes place company town is the story of

5:29

a bodyguard who works for the United sex

5:31

workers of Canada Union Local 314 and us

5:35

a an energy firm that is privately owned

5:38

by a family sweeps into this city and

5:41

buys the entire town

5:43

and they own the town now and they ask

5:45

her to be a bodyguard for the heir to

5:47

the the air apparent to the company

5:52

initially I thought I wanted to write

5:53

the same story set in space maybe a big

5:56

Taurus Style Space Station but writing

5:58

about a space station means riding way

6:00

far into the future far future fiction

6:02

and I’m less interested in the far

6:04

future than I am the near future

6:08

also there are plenty of other writers

6:10

who had done that same job way better

6:11

than I ever could

6:13

I wanted to do something that only I

6:15

could do and to do something a little

6:17

bit different

6:18

so I thought what’s like space

6:21

what’s a distant and cold and remote and

6:25

requires a lot of time and energy to

6:27

reach and the answer is the North

6:29

Atlantic

6:32

the ocean the ocean is like space

6:35

it’s both the source of all life

6:38

and completely inimical to human life

6:41

just like deep space

6:44

so I started imagining a City floating

6:46

around a big milkshake straw

6:50

poking way down into the Flemish pass

6:53

basin and slurping up the billions of

6:56

barrels of oil that have been estimated

6:58

to be hiding there under the waves

7:02

first I imagine Tower one the first

7:05

Tower to be built there

7:07

literally just a stack of shipping

7:08

containers nestled together for

7:10

Roughnecks to live in as they hauled out

7:12

the oil

7:14

then I realized they would actually need

7:15

services so in my head and on my

7:18

whiteboard and I tried to buy The Lego

7:20

architecture set but have you tried

7:22

importing that to Canada

7:25

don’t don’t bother

7:28

I built a vertical Farm

7:32

in a school

7:33

where some of the action takes place

7:36

and then I built a party Tower because

7:38

wherever there is resource extraction

7:40

there is Hazard pay and whenever there’s

7:42

wherever there is Hazard pay there is a

7:44

party

7:47

and finally I built a living

7:49

self-repairing Tower autonomous and

7:52

responsive to the needs of the residents

7:55

constantly adjusting itself preening to

7:58

the environment and the desires of its

8:00

inhabitants and that’s where the new

8:02

owners of the city live

8:05

they build a single shining Tower just

8:08

for them and rarely venture out

8:12

now as I went about this task I drew on

8:14

my experiences of cities all over the

8:16

world I was born in Los Angeles

8:18

but spent most of my life outside of

8:19

Seattle in a little town near where they

8:21

filmed Twin Peaks

8:23

so it looked a lot the same fog trees

8:26

posters about dead people

8:29

I grew up during the time of the Green

8:30

River Killer so like literally There Was

8:32

You Know

8:34

missing people who we later attributed

8:36

to him

8:38

[Music]

8:38

um

8:40

later I went to University like I should

8:42

say also that growing up in this

8:43

environment nothing will in endear you

8:47

to cities more than growing up in the

8:48

suburbs speaking of our earlier talks

8:51

this evening

8:53

um later I went on to University in

8:56

downtown Seattle and moved to the

8:57

outskirts of Toronto and now I live in

8:58

Toronto proper with a mostly functional

9:00

subway system and everything

9:02

but by the time company town was

9:04

published I had spent time not just in

9:05

those cities but I had at least visited

9:07

London Tokyo Kyoto Reykjavik stocking

9:10

Stockholm Manchester Phoenix San Jose

9:12

San Francisco Portland Houston New

9:14

Orleans Orlando Edinburgh San Antonio

9:16

Chicago Vancouver and yes Ottawa

9:20

in fact it wasn’t until after the book

9:22

was published and featured for Canada

9:24

Reads that I finally visited

9:26

Newfoundland

9:27

and Calgary

9:30

I should stress that visiting these

9:31

places did not make me an expert in how

9:34

they worked or what they felt like or

9:35

what living there actually requires of a

9:37

person after all most hotels and

9:40

Convention centers strive to

9:41

universalize their experience into a

9:42

single comfortable anonymity

9:44

they try as hard as they can to bleach

9:46

out all the local color and replace it

9:48

with a brand identity

9:50

also you can get the same chicken Caesar

9:53

salad and the same yogurt berry parfait

9:54

for the same price every place you go no

9:56

matter what the currency you’re using

10:00

but I’ve experienced what makes cities

10:02

functional and friendly and what

10:05

prepares cities for the future

10:07

CDs are a great way to talk about the

10:09

future because cities are aware of the

10:10

past and the future meet naturally

10:14

over time cities grow like Coral

10:17

they accrete they stack up on top of

10:20

each other like a graveyard

10:23

the new architecture Builds on top of

10:25

the old the dead are buried in the

10:27

foundations both concrete and Financial

10:30

but they are also buried in our

10:32

monuments and the ones we choose to

10:33

erect and the ones we choose to ignore

10:35

the ones we never will the Dead live in

10:37

street names in on plaques and in

10:40

libraries the Dead live in our on our

10:42

streets waiting for municipal policy to

10:44

revive them and recall them to life the

10:46

Dead live in the names we can’t

10:48

pronounce

10:49

and the words we cannot say

10:52

and the verdict we can’t deliver

10:56

until now Canadian cities have been

10:58

known have been the known unknowns of

11:01

The Wider world the sort of pleasant

11:02

places that can stand in for other

11:04

Pleasant places like Toronto playing New

11:06

York and Vancouver playing everywhere

11:10

but it’s time for Canadian cities to

11:12

shed that anonymity that strategic

11:14

blandness

11:16

that defensive Lack of Color

11:20

thanks to the current environment we

11:22

live in Canada is becoming more

11:24

attractive to everyone

11:26

students investors startups anyone who

11:29

has spent literally any time at all with

11:31

climate data

11:34

I say this not just as a person who

11:35

wishes to become a full Canadian citizen

11:37

but as a person who when I say I live

11:40

there here’s other people describe

11:41

Canada as both an island of sanity and

11:43

the only place where there will be

11:45

drinkable water in 20 years

11:49

more people are coming

11:52

and the challenge to Canadian cities is

11:54

how to remain resilient open and user

11:57

friendly as waves of migration hit them

12:01

so how do we do that

12:03

how do we build the cities of the future

12:04

without building something Hollow and

12:06

meaningless

12:07

it’s more than just driverless cars

12:10

and surveillance everywhere

12:14

it’s how neighbors relate to neighbors

12:16

it’s how businesses relate to customers

12:19

it’s how we decide what we owe to each

12:21

other

12:22

how do we incorporate the best of what

12:24

we already have and then build something

12:26

better

12:28

so quickly some ideas

12:31

one improve and expand Transit which I

12:34

know sounds obvious but

12:36

the easiest way to knit communities

12:38

together and expand Economic Opportunity

12:41

is to expand Transit it’s not just about

12:43

getting to a job or going to a show

12:47

Transit is the system by which neighbors

12:49

meet neighbors face to face

12:54

it’s how people learn to be in community

12:56

with the whole spectrum of their cities

13:00

sometimes we have to crush together on a

13:02

train before we can band together to

13:05

build a playground

13:07

people think women do make up for men or

13:09

women do makeup for for other women no

13:13

it’s so that when you were pressed this

13:15

close to somebody you understand why

13:17

they have Instagram web ready eyeliner

13:22

we live that close together

13:25

we’ve been pressed that close together

13:29

and we should think as though we are

13:31

always that close together

13:35

two

13:37

transaction frictionless

13:39

and I don’t just mean tapping your

13:41

credit card

13:42

I mean transferring between systems

13:44

within cities

13:46

I could lecture you about the suica card

13:48

in in Tokyo right now but I won’t

13:50

because I like you

13:52

Toronto is currently undergoing both a

13:54

Transit expansion and a shift in transit

13:56

transaction moving from tokens to cards

13:58

but we’re looking at but we’re doing it

14:00

well at the speed of a summer Subway

14:02

as currency systems change and

14:04

alternative currencies rise it may be

14:06

time for cities to think of their own

14:08

currencies for Transit city services

14:10

like garbage and Licensing and even as a

14:13

currency for tourist locations like

14:14

stadiums convenience stores hotels and

14:16

elsewhere

14:18

imagine the city of Ottawa card system

14:20

that granted you instant access to all

14:22

your rights and privileges as a resident

14:23

but also allowed you to check in as a

14:25

voter as a driver as a parent

14:30

as a person who got a flu shot

14:33

as a Canadian or a Canadian in waiting

14:38

three

14:39

innovate citizenship for those who

14:41

pledge to solve Canada’s problems and

14:43

hold them accountable

14:45

in Canada we have family class

14:46

immigration student class immigration

14:48

investor class immigration and a point

14:50

system for the people who want to come

14:52

here I’ve become more familiar with this

14:54

whole song and dance as I’ve prepared to

14:56

apply for full citizenship and as I’ve

14:58

listened to a number of my American

14:59

writer friends who are now currently

15:01

inventing new pledge classes on patreon

15:03

to pay off their immigration attorneys

15:05

and fund their efforts to move here

15:08

but what if like the candidate Council

15:10

for the Arts for example we granted ease

15:13

of citizenship to those willing to work

15:14

with Canada’s agencies to solve Canada’s

15:17

problems

15:18

could we save BC Fisheries

15:22

could we clean up Toronto’s air

15:25

could we have could we end boil water

15:27

advisories on First Nations reserves yes

15:29

we could

15:30

if we said hey before you can vote maybe

15:34

you’d like to learn more about how to

15:35

make change

15:37

maybe you’d like to learn what change

15:39

means here in your new community

15:42

maybe you’d like to meet your neighbors

15:47

four

15:49

and this is possibly my favorite despite

15:51

it not being about immigration

15:54

build more student housing

15:57

and increase services for students in

15:59

general I teach undergrads in the

16:01

digital Futures program at ocad

16:04

University and the number one complaint

16:06

my students have is the length of their

16:09

commute

16:10

students are commuting for an hour each

16:12

way sometimes sometimes more I have

16:15

students who commute 90 minutes each way

16:18

and there’s and rather than commuting

16:20

rather than staying in town they’re

16:22

staying with their parents

16:25

they’re stuck at home to save money

16:27

rather than learning how to live in

16:29

different Urban environments with

16:30

different neighbors with different

16:31

friends

16:32

they’re not learning how to be good

16:34

neighbors to new people

16:36

and they’re not learning the agency and

16:37

resourcefulness of adulthood

16:40

it’s very easy to complain about kids

16:42

don’t know how to do this

16:44

blah blah blah that

16:46

have we given them that chance

16:49

is it affordable for them to live in

16:51

cities

16:53

not in Toronto it isn’t not in Vancouver

16:56

it isn’t

16:57

why do we expect them to know so much

17:01

when they can’t even try it out

17:06

after this week in the events in

17:08

Parkland Florida

17:10

we’ve seen the fire that our students

17:12

can bring to any conversation about the

17:14

future

17:17

and I have full faith in my students to

17:19

bring about the change that we need

17:23

the young people coming up that we have

17:25

this generation are some of the

17:27

brightest savviest most uncompromising

17:30

and dedicated group of overachievers I

17:32

have ever met and I went through an

17:34

honors program at a Jesuit university

17:39

we need to give those students a chance

17:42

and that chance starts with letting them

17:43

live affordably debt free with access to

17:46

health care and culture and new

17:47

experiences

17:49

we cannot expect change in our cities if

17:52

we price young people out of them

17:56

because imagine if we encourage them to

17:58

stay

17:59

and live together

18:01

in a community

18:03

what ideas would they have at three in

18:06

the morning over pizza because they

18:08

don’t have to go an hour outside of town

18:12

what businesses would they create

18:14

what books would they write

18:17

what problems would they solve

18:22

what would they change

18:24

because it might be everything

18:28

but they need the space

18:31

this is a question about space

18:33

who has access to space who can take up

18:36

space

18:38

who is worthy of taking up space

18:43

that’s the question of cities and it

18:44

always has been

18:48

and speaking of which in my final two

18:50

minutes

18:53

my last request

18:55

build smart sustainable housing for

18:57

families with children

18:59

and mandate Zoning for low-cost day care

19:01

and Elder Claire or Elder Care in new

19:04

condo starts

19:06

all of our greenest buildings across

19:08

Canada should not be rabbit hutch Condos

19:10

for single people who eventually have to

19:12

move once they have a family

19:15

if cities want to grow organically

19:18

like Coral

19:21

they need to sustain humans at all

19:22

levels of development

19:24

both the infants and the elderly we have

19:27

the space

19:28

your new condo can be over 500 square

19:31

feet

19:34

such as possible such as possible

19:37

it can have more than one bedroom

19:42

a bedroom a bedroom not just a bead

19:46

curtain

19:47

you can live you too can live with

19:49

dignity

19:53

isn’t that like the thing about the

19:55

suburbs right I mean the castle doctrine

19:58

I have walls and they separate me from

20:00

other people and that makes me a real

20:02

person because I’m separated from other

20:04

people right and what we’ve talked about

20:05

all evening is the suburbification of

20:08

the internet

20:10

the suburbification of our services

20:13

I may not own a car but I get to act

20:15

like I own a car because someone else

20:16

drives it for me

20:18

not only do I not have to pay for car

20:20

payments but I have a driver I have a

20:22

driver look at me

20:25

is that what we really want

20:28

the suburbification of all of our

20:30

services

20:32

the suburbs

20:34

the things that ended the American

20:36

marriage

20:39

look at the rates

20:41

look it up

20:44

we moved out to the sprawl and what died

20:51

not just small animals crossing streets

20:59

lost my place

21:05

but we can do more

21:07

and so as we close because I have 20

21:09

seconds and then the bomb goes off

21:12

[Music]

21:12

um

21:13

what I would ask you

21:16

in your activities tomorrow and in your

21:18

conversations this evening and over this

21:21

year and as 2018 proceeds and as

21:25

you move as you grow into Canada and

21:28

Canada grows into you and as you decide

21:30

how you want to live in your Urban

21:31

spaces

21:33

I would ask you to stop thinking about

21:34

the Smart City

21:37

start thinking about the wise city

21:41

start thinking about the clever City

21:44

start thinking about the gentle

21:47

City

21:48

the just City to go back to Plato

21:52

to go

21:54

to think about the compassionate City

21:56

to think about the soft City or the hard

21:58

City

22:00

think about all the other attributes

22:04

we love smart people at least I hope we

22:07

love smart people

22:10

but we also love other things we also

22:13

love other attributes

22:16

what are the attributes we want to have

22:18

in our neighbors

22:20

because those are the attributes we

22:22

should cultivate in our cities

22:25

we Foster

22:27

those things in spaces and in people all

22:31

at once

22:33

we have to create opportunity

22:36

for not just intelligence

22:38

and not just good service or convenience

22:42

but gentleness

22:43

compassion

22:46

you know

22:48

the ability to thrive

22:51

a place where we want to live over

22:53

Generations

22:56

so

22:58

this weekend think about alternatives to

23:01

smart

23:03

or what smart could mean what we want

23:06

more than smart

23:07

and that is what I would leave you with

23:10

is what else is there beyond smart

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