Dubai is becoming increasingly visible these days. Since my wife and I considered moving there for a while, and had a marvellous holiday checking out what was going on, I’ve been following what is occuring there with interest. More than any other city in the world, Dubai represents some new in the development of cities and civilizations.
The 21st century city is more likely to resemble an aerotropolis than a metropolis. The metropolis grew from the industrial manufacturing age, with the focus being heavy industry and its associated infrastructure. Now that whole cities like Dubai are being built around information, media, tourism and finance, they are more likely to be conceived as a global hub that centers around intelligence based industry, and the transportation capability of a major international airport. Dubai is developing into such a city. Its built on a baking stretch of featureless sand 100km wide, with the only physical feature aparment from miles of glorious golden sand beaches, being jagged inhospitable mountains in the distance.
Everyone comes and goes through the international airport, with a huge port for goods and services located some distance from the city. Dubai is a city-state built from the perfect storm of globalization, rapidly accumulated oil weath and the control enabled by the city state model (the benevolent dictatorship). Selling the excitement of a new business, finance, media and tourism center using cheap third world labour but marketing it to the rich world luxury tastes.
Why Dubai is an important model for us to study, and use to predict the developments of civilizations in other parts of the world is that its development is so staggering fast. And it represents some concepts that will contribute to the development of a new type of thought based civilization. Without knowing it, this new type of civilization will have the rapidly developing concepts in the field of neuroplasticity as its core meme.
Neuroplasticity is the ability to deliberately rewire the human brain though conscious intention and mental training. This means it has profound implications on our very idea about what our limitations as individuals and societies are.
In Dubai, we see a city state that created itself from little more than audacious vision, concentrated attention, and effective utilization of generous amounts of financial capital. Dubai represents a incredibly pure example of the idea that whatever humanity can dream, it can create.
To be continued….
