Road to Nowhere: What technological solutions get wrong about the future of transport – an event with Paris Marx and Simon Wilson
Date: Friday 17/03/2023
Time: 1 2pm
Room: Biology Building (106)
University of Auckland
Room #100
Silicon Valley wants us to believe that technology will revolutionise our cities and the ways we move around. Autonomous vehicles will make us safer, greener, and more efficient. On-demand services like Uber and Lyft will eliminate car ownership. Micromobility devices like electric scooters will be at every corner, and drones will deliver goods and services. Meanwhile visionaries like Elon Musk promise to eliminate congestion with tunnels, and Uber says it will help with flying cars. The future of transport is frictionless, sustainable, and, according to Paris Marx, a threat to our ideas of what a society should be.
In their recently released book Road to Nowhere, Marx exposes the problems with Silicon Valley’s visions of the future and argues that we cannot allow ourselves to be continually distracted by technological fantasies that delay the collective solutions we already know are effective. Technological solutions to social problems and the people who propose them must be challenged if we are to build cities and transportation systems which serve the public good.
At this event, we will hear from Paris Marx about the ideas within Road to Nowhere, followed by commentary from New Zealand Herald columnist and urban commentator Simon Wilson. Moderated discussion will round out the event.
Co-hosted by the Public Policy Institute and the Politics, Economies, and Place Research Group in the School of Environment
