Is our future a man-made Nature?

Today, I want to share with you one of the inspiring projects I cherish, 'The Transcendent City', a thesis project by Richard Hardy who graduated from Bartlett School of Architecture in London.

Here is exact quotes from Richard Hardy on 'The Transcendent City':

"The concept of a future sustainable city is developed for a society that is currently not responding effectively to environmental dangers. "Transcendence" in this case referring to a point when artificial intelligence has reached or surpassed that of the human.

The Transcendent City is an autonomous artificial machine that extends across the earth adapting to the natural eco-systems it encounters while deriving its energy from the renewable resources available at each particular site. The systems desire is to maintain homeostasis within itself whilst maintaining homeostasis within the greater system, Gaia. Its processes are engineered on the molecular scale by nano technologies controlled by molecular computers that monitor and analyse the environment.

The film produced for my final year Masters in Architecture questions whether the conception of artificial intelligence has been a necessity in human evolution and if we therefore should embrace emergent technologies to engage with problems of sustainability and the city."

First of all, his imageries are fascinating and beautiful, which makes this short video very pleasant and enjoyable to watch. Despite its beauty that reminds us of Hayao Miyazaki's animation movies (such as Haul's Moving Castle), this short film brings out a serious question of whether artificial intelligence is a necessity for human survival on earth in the future. With development of nanotechnology, biological-technology, robotic technology and so on, this future is feasible in the near future. This video portrays the greatness of man's creation of artificial intelligence which produces renewal energy, while it also shows the danger of the artificial intelligence surpassing that of the human.