This episode of the Future Forward podcast explores the future of infrastructure. The hosts discuss the importance of infrastructure in cities and how it has evolved over time. They share a story about Ma Bess, an innkeeper who used early electricity to improve her inn, highlighting the different aspects of infrastructure such as transportation, power, and water. They also discuss the challenges and issues with current infrastructure, including the need for repairs and the limitations of centralized systems. The hosts explore the idea of decentralized and sustainable infrastructure, where smaller clusters of infrastructure can provide shared benefits and resilience.

Takeaways

• Infrastructure is essential for cities and has evolved over time to include transportation, power, water, and telecommunications.
• Current infrastructure faces challenges such as the need for repairs and limitations of centralized systems.
• There is a trend towards decentralized and sustainable infrastructure, where smaller clusters of infrastructure can provide shared benefits and resilience.
• The future of infrastructure involves finding a balance between centralized and decentralized approaches to ensure sustainability and community engagement.

Titles

• Challenges and Issues with Current Infrastructure
• Finding a Balance for the Future of Infrastructure

Sound Bites

• "Infrastructure is those things we don't see, hard assets we don't pay attention to that keep things moving."
• "We've used more concrete than anything else combined in terms of the mass of concrete we've used in human history."
• "We don't have enough will or money to rebuild infrastructure at the size it used to be."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Overview

01:17 The Importance of Infrastructure

09:41 Challenges in Infrastructure

13:34 Towards Decentralized and Sustainable Infrastructure