DigitalFUTURES WORLD : Manifesto

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We face an uncertain future. Not only is there much uncertainty regarding the virus, but many businesses are also encountering economic challenges. Many of the accepted tenets on which life has been based hitherto have been called into question. Urbanistically, the very notion of the dense city that has been promoted in recent years has been undermined. Will anyone want to live in a city like New York, or will everyone want to flee to the countryside? Will an urbanism of social distancing - so long dismissed as urban sprawl - become the norm?

But the virus has also highlighted the benefits of the digital. Online shopping, zoom meetings, and contactless payment have proved invaluable. Will we ever return to the old days of High Street shopping, physical meetings and cash in our pockets? And what will be the new possibilities afforded by these tools?

This initiative brings together these two themes, the Digital and the Future, to create an online platform for a continuous, week long series of talks and workshops, exploring every aspect of the potential impact of the digital on our lives. In so doing this initiative itself becomes an example of the new possibilities afforded by the digital.

It is recognized that many of us are now in a state of extreme distress. Financial hardship is everywhere. This initiative calls upon our leading thinkers, designers and technologists to generously give their time as a gesture of solidarity for a world that has suffered collectively. This is a non-profit event that is available for free to audiences across the world. Any proceeds will go to charities to support medical professionals battling Covid 19.