In this Interintellect Salon, Dominic Duffin will lead an exploration of 'virtual geography', the possibilities of virtual megacities, whether physical geography still matters in virtual space, and if so, how?
Since the dawn of the internet, new virtual geographies have been forming as people gather in digital spaces, some with connections to physical place, but many without.
The world’s megacities are well known for featuring higher levels of productivity and innovation than other places. It may be that the right people can find each other more easily in a big city where the pool of potential clients, hires, partners etc is simply bigger. It may be that especially smart people gravitate to megacities. Maybe there’s just something in the buzz of the city.
With the vast increase in the use of group video calling and remote work during the pandemic bringing virtual geography much deeper into the economic realm, could we see the emergence of something even greater than the world’s biggest megacity? Remote will probably fall back as the pandemic eases, but new habits are also here to stay. Covid accelerated the trend, but the trend was already happening. And as travel restrictions ease, location-independent work could gain a new appeal with digital nomad lifestyles becoming possible again.
Virtual megacities could be far bigger than any physical city. The main constraint in a virtual megacity is probably not distance, but time zones. If a megacity of ten or twenty million has a noticeable increase in productivity and innovation over its smaller peers, how much more might we see in a virtual megacity of, say, one or two billion across a time zone belt? In a virtual megacity, anyone with an internet connection, no matter where they may be, can be plugged into the city. On a video call, you can bring the specific talents and abilities of potentially anyone in the world into the same room together.
In this digital world, which has been evolving ever since the dawn of the internet, new kinds of virtual geographies form. Does where we are physically located matter in a virtual world? Wherever you are in the world you can join the same virtual spaces. But in one sense, physical geography still matters. Time zones matter because lunchtime in San Fransisco, for example, is the middle of the night in India. But does physical geography matter in other ways as well? Is physical locality important in virtual space? People may want to meet IRL sometimes even if connections form and grow in a virtual megacity. Local cultures and established connections to place might still be important to the residents of a virtual megacity.
Good to read pre-salon:
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