" So the real question is: how do we organize our daily
lives under these radically different conditions?
This absolutely vital question is not receiving the attention
that it deserves.
Because of the accumulated impacts of technology development,
we have entered an age of plenty -
without really recognizing it. But for some unfathomable
reasons we
insist on approaching the challenges before us as if
we were paupers."
Maybe the big picture of the answer is already showing.
Since the cities have won the
race towards global competitiveness and are increasingly
continuing it, the villages can
become the refuge for the integration of a life beyond
the ratrace of competition and
job economy.
There is increasing leverage through technology to face
this impossible task. With tools and
knowledge, resource productivity in rural areas is rising.
The surpus of agriculture, a heavy
financial burden on European taxpayers, can be turned
into a complete local living
machine of support and subsistence, if urban population
would choose to return to rural areas
and the farming population would diversify their scope
of services.
These living machines, techno-ecosystems that take full
advantage of the wealth of
resources without using them up in an industrial way,
can only be created if the
city rediscovers its counterpart, the village. This holds
critical requirements for
technology and application developments, but enourmous
opportunities for those
who understand them.