Page 1544 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 18 May 1993
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The research shows that there is:
(a) A high degree of anxiety on the part of first time users -
that is, of computers. This is only five years ago. Look at the order of change in technology even from five years ago, let alone the 50 years I was talking about. Where is all this reflected in these papers? It is not. It starts off well. (Extension of time granted) In the covering paper, which is headed "Key Global and Local Trends and Issues: An Overview", under Global Influences it correctly identifies the very first global influence as technological change. It says:
Possibly the most pervasive and least predictable impacts on our lives to the Year 2020 will be in the area of technological change.
They got that right. It continues:
Changes in information and communications, and industrial, medical and transport technology will affect almost every aspect of our everyday lives, and advances in these areas may continue at a rapid rate.
But when you get to the rest of the papers, what do you find? The first paper is entitled "Urban Form". The only reference to technology, and I will read it, is in a dot point, with about 10 others, which says:
. advanced infrastructure technologies have been introduced.
This is talking about 30 years from today. What advanced infrastructure technologies? There is not a mention of them anywhere else in that paper. In the paper "Infrastructure Development", there is only this one brief reference:
As Canberra's economy is service based, improvements in data processing and telecommunications have had profound effects on growth in this sector. Further opportunities for growth exist, and initiatives such as a Multi Function Polis may have a role to play in Canberra's economic future ...
I could go through every one of the papers, but that is the sort of reference you find. I submit that what is really needed, right up at the front of these papers, is one that deals with changes in technology and the impact they are going to have, before you even begin to address the other issues. The question has to be posed: Where is the imagining of things that we may never experience ourselves? If we cannot do that, this is a waste of time.
I wanted to make a couple of other points quickly. The first is in terms of transport. Surely the form of transport is going to have a major impact on the way we live in Canberra 30 years from now; but, in the paper "Urban Form", this is the reference to transport:
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