Ayko

I am, by all means of the word, a pessimist. When I look to the future, I don’t see anything wonderful. It seems that over the history of human existence, one of the steadiest and most cutting edge industries has always been the development of weapons of war. Humans are hasty beings with volatile temperaments, willing to fight for the beliefs that they perceive as right, whatever the cost. In a few hundred years, we have gone from swords to guns. In the last century we went from guns to atomic bombs. Now we work on Tesla coils, among other things. It’s all very well to research better communications, safer buildings, and cures for terminal diseases, but what good is that going to do anyone once a few nuclear missiles have been launched? It’s a cloud over our heads that grows ever larger as we continue to eat through the Earth’s natural resources at an increasing pace – it can’t sustain our current rate of consumption forever, and whatever happens at the breaking point, I can’t envision as good.

On that note, when I look to a city of the future, I see it in a post-apocalyptic sense; small gangs of weary survivors trying to eke out a living on the radioactive rubble of a once great civilization. Electricity would be rare, if existent, and a steady water supply would be a thing of the past. People would be trying to cultivate and nurture new plant and animal life as best they could, while designing and implementing efficient ways to filter and purify contaminated water sources. It wouldn’t put an end to conflict of course, as now people would be competing on a smaller scale for scarcer resources – so defense and weaponry would still play a large part in every day life for protective purposes.

There is something breathtaking about the imagery of vines and plants growing over the rubble of what were once impressively large and beautiful buildings. It makes me think of the ruins at Machu Pichu; I’ve always wanted to see them. Don’t get me wrong though, I am not a violent and evil person, wishing for the destruction of the world. In fact, I am quite the pacifist. It’s just that I have very little faith in human nature in general – I suppose you could call me jaded.