In a weekly column, alternately written by Lucien Engelen, Mary Fiers, Maarten Steinbuch, Carlo van de Weijer, and Tessie Hartjes, E52 tries to find out what the future will look like. All five contributors – sometimes accompanied by guest bloggers – are working on solving the problems of our time. Everything to make Tomorrow Good. This Sunday, it‘s Carlo van de Weijer’s turn. Here are all the previously published columns.
There appears to be a considerable need for trinkets of which the added value in our daily lives initially seems to be very limited. Discount chains like the Action, the ultimate symptom of globalization, are happy to deliver it. Plastic plants, candles, lamps, and fountains on your balcony. A fountain on your balcony makes you happy. After all, your brain is thinking of the sound of mountain streams when it comes to the clattering water. And according to our organic programming, that means fresh water and therefore a good place to settle. Just like the candles make us happy because “there is a fire in the neighbourhood”, oh so important in the evolution. Just like the plastic green plants deceive us with false information that the environment is fertile.
Our brain has had its latest software update about 50,000 years ago and this often conceals a problem that is often underestimated: despite years of civilization, we still let ourselves be guided by our primary biological reactions. The easiest way to motivate people remains through things that contribute as much as possible to survival and successful reproduction.
This also has an impact on mobility. In a publication of Kennisinstituut voor Mobiliteit (KIM), it appears that customer assessment and perception of the bicycle and car are miles ahead of those of public transport:
For the car, this certainly has something to do with the fact that it meets some of our primitive desires very well. It protects against weather, wind, and enemies, it’s even a weapon if needed, it helps you escape, offers you freedom of action to find your own path, it’s an extension of your cave, that kind of argument. The bicycle can still come along on many of these elements, and is even better in terms of personal freedom of action.
The realization that our primary motivation is rather primarily driven, does not mean that you have to accept the negative effects of this cavern behaviour, and leave at that. This would, in the case of mobility, make the problem of ‘space pollution’ by cars even more serious, especially if driving is expected to become cheaper, safer and cleaner in the future. That is why the car sharing platform Amber Mobility, for example, invests in techniques to make its shared cars feel as much as possible as your own car. and they offer guarantees that mobility is available through an ingenious planning system and a backup solution.
All these developments will help to make mobility available to everyone in a sustainable way, and the car will continue to play an important role in this. Hopefully with as many restrictions as possible on the use of public space.
As long as a fountain on a balcony doesn’t disturb anyone, it is a fantastic invention.
In a weekly column, alternately written by Lucien Engelen, Mary Fiers, Maarten Steinbuch, Carlo van de Weijer, and Tessie Hartjes, E52 tries to find out what the future will look like. All five contributors – sometimes accompanied by guest bloggers – are working on solving the problems of our time. Everything to make Tomorrow Good. This Sunday, it‘s Carlo van de Weijer’s turn. Here are all the previously published columns.
There appears to be a considerable need for trinkets of which the added value in our daily lives initially seems to be very limited. Discount chains like the Action, the ultimate symptom of globalization, are happy to deliver it. Plastic plants, candles, lamps, and fountains on your balcony. A fountain on your balcony makes you happy. After all, your brain is thinking of the sound of mountain streams when it comes to the clattering water. And according to our organic programming, that means fresh water and therefore a good place to settle. Just like the candles make us happy because “there is a fire in the neighbourhood”, oh so important in the evolution. Just like the plastic green plants deceive us with false information that the environment is fertile.
Our brain has had its latest software update about 50,000 years ago and this often conceals a problem that is often underestimated: despite years of civilization, we still let ourselves be guided by our primary biological reactions. The easiest way to motivate people remains through things that contribute as much as possible to survival and successful reproduction.
This also has an impact on mobility. In a publication of Kennisinstituut voor Mobiliteit (KIM), it appears that customer assessment and perception of the bicycle and car are miles ahead of those of public transport:
For the car, this certainly has something to do with the fact that it meets some of our primitive desires very well. It protects against weather, wind, and enemies, it’s even a weapon if needed, it helps you escape, offers you freedom of action to find your own path, it’s an extension of your cave, that kind of argument. The bicycle can still come along on many of these elements, and is even better in terms of personal freedom of action.
The realization that our primary motivation is rather primarily driven, does not mean that you have to accept the negative effects of this cavern behaviour, and leave at that. This would, in the case of mobility, make the problem of ‘space pollution’ by cars even more serious, especially if driving is expected to become cheaper, safer and cleaner in the future. That is why the car sharing platform Amber Mobility, for example, invests in techniques to make its shared cars feel as much as possible as your own car. and they offer guarantees that mobility is available through an ingenious planning system and a backup solution.
All these developments will help to make mobility available to everyone in a sustainable way, and the car will continue to play an important role in this. Hopefully with as many restrictions as possible on the use of public space.
As long as a fountain on a balcony doesn’t disturb anyone, it is a fantastic invention.
