This is a nanotechnology proposition. The idea is that you come up with a super material that is strong and very cheap and very light. People buy them like biscuits. They take it to their plot of land. And they set it up. They tighten the screws, and hola, they have a house.
But you would have to build in a way so that a thief can not just untighten it just as easily from the outside.
The material will have to be weather friendly. It should not create a green house.
This could be done in a way where you don’t even have to clear the land. No need to dig. The pillars get placed like trees. Floors are a little bit in the air.
No need to clear up the forest. Just build in the forest.
No need to build boxes either. We build small boxes for small houses and big boxes for big houses because we don’t know any better. Houses can be any shape.
Houses can be any size. You should be able to build a hanging city in a forest. You leave the ground to the animals, and humans live in their houses above.
Each such city comes with a vertical farm for all its food needs. You manufacture meat for the lions in the forest. So they need not kill.
Goes without saying the city has wireless gigabit broadband. People from the city could work anywhere in the world. It is a rich, world class city.
Voting is all digital. Everyone is accounted for. It is a vibrant democracy where the town square is virtual. As well as real.
This could be a research city.
Limited, expensive, earth-unfriendly energy is why we don’t have flying vehicles. If we had flying vehicles, we would not build roads. Roads are a blight. They are earth-unfriendly. What if energy were 10,000 more abundant and 10,000 more inexpensive? Would we have flying buses then?
You walk, you bike, and you fly. You fly 100 meters in the air for short distances.
Paramendra Kumar Bhagat 