The 1964 World's Fair had a similar GM exhibit, but almost none of it happened. Undersea cities. Large space stations. Moon colonies. Moving sidewalks.[2] No.
Shanghai 2010 was the biggest world's fair. [3]
[1] https://archive.org/details/ToNewHor1940 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-5aK0H05jk [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX_Wsh3MUpk
- a country wide network of high speed railroads in a country larger than the US
- many more EVs manufactured and in use
- worlds largest manufacturer and consumer of solar power
- essentially cashless socity. Smartphone usuable for every transaction
China: 9.32 million km^2 of land
US: 9.14 million km^2 of land
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...
I would partially agree but it's more nuanced than that.
The high speed trains in China are impressive projects but could also be used as form of control over people who live outside the cities.
Also going cashless is not necessarily a good thing. There is a loss of anonymity in having every transaction be digitally handled. Also, another form of control.
My apologies for my dystopian view. But not all modern advances are necessarily good.
Explain?
That's more of a factor of population density and distribution than anything else. There's few places in the US where high speed rail makes sense compared to airplanes.
[1] https://www.travelchinaguide.com/images/map/train/high-speed...
Oh yeah, we all know why.
That piques my interest. I was under the impression that in 2010, world fairs were kind of obsolete events, series of advertisement for products that are not especially innovative.
Were there any interesting visions of the future at this fair?
Exhibitions were primarily organised by countries, which tend to be more particular about some specific culture than visionary about the future.
The theme was "Better city, better life" (subtly different than the Chinese version, which was "Cities make life better"). Technologies demonstrated are far from cutting edge, something like internet-connected air conditioners and large touch-screens.
I think either the Danes or the Dutch put some bikes in their exhibition, which you can ride and feel what it's like to ride in their cities, which is rather fun (a precursor to the current VR hype perhaps?).
That stands out as one of the things that did reach a limited amount of use: